Victor L. Berger
Victor Berger | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Harris & Ewing c. 1910s | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 5th district | |
| In office March 4, 1923 – March 3, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | William H. Stafford |
| Succeeded by | William H. Stafford |
| In office March 4, 1919 – November 10, 1919 Unseated | |
| Preceded by | William H. Stafford |
| Succeeded by | William H. Stafford (1921) |
| In office March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1913 | |
| Preceded by | William H. Stafford |
| Succeeded by | William H. Stafford |
| National Chairman of the Socialist Party of America | |
| In office October 20, 1926 – August 7, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Eugene V. Debs |
| Succeeded by | Morris Hillquit |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Victor Luitpold Berger February 28, 1860 Nieder-Rehbach, Austria (now Romania) |
| Died | August 7, 1929 (aged 69) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Political party | Socialist |
| Other political affiliations | Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin |
| Spouse | Meta Berger |
Victor Luitpold Berger (February 28, 1860 – August 7, 1929) was an Austrian–American socialist politician and journalist who was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party of America and its successor, the Socialist Party of America. Born in the Austrian Empire (present-day Romania), Berger immigrated to the United States as a young man and became an important and influential socialist journalist in Wisconsin. He helped establish the so-called Sewer Socialist movement, and also sparked the American Socialist Party's nativist turn. In 1910, he was elected as the first Socialist to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 1919, Berger was convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 for publicizing his anti-interventionist views and as a result was denied the seat to which he had been twice elected in the House of Representatives. The verdict was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in 1921 in Berger v. United States, and Berger was elected to three successive terms in the 1920s.