jul 30, 1894 - Victor Berger launches Socialist Movement

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No individual did half as much to shape the character of Milwaukee Socialism as Victor L. Berger. As a theorist, tactician, publisher, and office-holder, Berger was the movement's Moses, the man who led it from the thickets of theory and into City Hall. Born in Austria-Hungary in 1860, Berger settled in Milwaukee at the age of 21. He worked as a tutor, drama critic and as a German teacher in the public schools. Berger became a fixture in the German community's liberal circles, serving as an officer of the Turner society and in 1892 he started the Vorwarts newspaper. The paper was a leading oracle of Socialism for the next forty years.

Berger believed in the "cooperative Commonwealth" where workers would enjoy what he called the "collective ownership and democratic management of the social means of production and distribution."

Berger was elected to the US Congress in 1910. Berger did not win re-election in 1912, or again in 1914 and 1916, but remained active in Wisconsin and Socialist Party politics.

Berger's views on World War I were complicated by the socialist view and the difficulties around his German heritage. However, he did support his party's stance against the war. When the United States entered the war and passed the Espionage Act in 1917, Berger's continued opposition made him a target. He and four other Socialists were indicted for insubordination and disloyalty under the Espionage Act in February 1918; the trail followed on December 9 of that year, and on February 20, 1919, Berger was sentenced to 20 years' hard labor in Leavenworth Prison by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The conviction was appealed and ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court on a technicality.

In spite of his being under indictment at the time, the people of Milwaukee elected Berger to the House of Representatives in 1918. When Berger arrived in Washington to claim his seat, Congress formed a special committee to determine whether a convicted felon and war opponent should be seated as a member of Congress; on November 10, 1919, they concluded that he should not, and declared the seat vacant. Wisconsin promptly held a special election to fill the vacant seat, and on December 19 elected Berger a second time; the House again refused to seat him, and the seat remained vacant until 1921 when Republican William H. Stafford claimed the seat after defeating Berger in the 1920 general election. Berger defeated Stafford in 1922 and was reelected in 1924 and 1926. After his defeat by Stafford in 1928, he returned to Milwaukee and resumed his career as a newspaper editor until his death caused by a streetcar accident. He was buried at Forest Home Cemetery.

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