Berger,Victor L. b. February 28, I860; Nieder-Rehbach, Transylvania d.August 7, 1929; Milwaukee,Wisconsin
The recognized leader of the Milwaukee Socialist movement from 1895 to 1928, Berger was the first member of his party elected to the U.S. Congress (1910). He emigrated to Milwaukee from Austro- Hungarian Transylvania after attending universities in the Habsburg Empire.
Berger established himself as a leading figure in the Wisconsin city’s German community as a German-language teacher, an officer in the Milwaukee Turners, and a participant in Socialist discussion groups.
Victor Louis Berger, Socialist, representative of Wisconsin. (Library of Congress)
After joining the fledgling party, Berger edited several Socialist newspapers. In 1898 he cofounded the Social Democratic Party of the United States, Branch 1, and was soon recognized as the unchallenged leader of the Socialist movement in the most German city in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Often accused of “bossism” at the local level, Berger was active in national party politics and served as a delegate to the Second International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam in 1909. He maintained contact with leading German Socialists and spoke to party assemblies in Berlin and Vienna. Once elected to Congress, Berger changed his political focus from running the local party apparatus to operating more vigorously at the national level. However, he lost his run for reelection in 1912. Berger returned to Milwaukee after his defeat, but he rose again as a national figure leading the antiwar faction of his party between 1914 and 1917 and ultimately facing prosecution under the Alien and Sedition Act because of his editorials opposing U.S. involvement in World War I, calling for draft resistance, and favoring peace. Shortly after standing trial in a Chicago federal court for treason, Berger ran for the U.S.
Senate in Wisconsin’s special election in the spring of 1918, and captured 111,000 votes in a losing cause against Progressive Party candidate Irvine Lenroot. That November, Berger scored a solid victory to win back his Milwaukee congressional seat. However, his colleagues in the House of Representatives refused to seat him by a 307 to 1 vote. Congress forced him to stand for special election, but Berger confounded his opposition in the House and won again at home in 1919. But he was again denied his House seat, gaining only seven more votes from his colleagues. Berger finally lost the regular 1920 election, yet he returned to Washington after winning in 1922 and served two more terms thanks to the easing of the “red scare” and more moderate views from his colleagues in the House. A major force in Milwaukee political affairs for thirty-five years and an active figure in the national party, Berger retired from politics in 1928.Gareth A. Shellman
See also Espionage and Sedition Act;
Milwaukee; Milwaukee Socialists; World War I and German Americans
References and Further Reading
Gavett, Thomas W The Development of the Labor Movement in Milwaukee. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965.
Miller, Sally M. Victor L. Berger and the Promise of Constructive Socialism. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1973.