Carl Zeidler
![]() | This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2009) |
Carl Zeidler | |
---|---|
![]() Pinback button from Carl Zeidler's 1940 mayoral campaign. | |
Mayor of Milwaukee | |
In office April 15, 1940 – April 8, 1942 | |
Preceded by | Dan Hoan |
Succeeded by | John Bohn |
Personal details | |
Born | Carl Frederick Zeidler January 4, 1908 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Died | December 11, 1942 SS La Salle, off South Africa | (aged 34)
Cause of death | Killed in action |
Political party | Democratic |
Profession | Assistant city attorney, politician |
Carl Frederick Zeidler (January 4, 1908 – December 11, 1942) was an American politician and the mayor of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1940 to 1942, winning election by unseating six-term Socialist mayor Dan Hoan. After just two years in office Zeidler resigned his position as mayor to enlist in the United States Navy Reserve to fight in World War II. His merchant marine ship and all hands were lost off the coast of South Africa in December 1942.
Biography[]
Early years[]
Zeidler was born January 4, 1908 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to parents of German ancestry. He graduated from Marquette University in 1929 and received a J.D. in 1931.
Political career[]
Serving as an assistant city attorney for Milwaukee (1936–1940), Zeidler stunned the city when he upset six-term Socialist mayor Daniel Hoan to become mayor of Milwaukee in 1940. Hoan had served as mayor for the past 24 years.
His rise to power was orchestrated by young writers Robert Bloch (later the author of Psycho) and , who created elaborate campaign shows. In Bloch's autobiography, , he gives an inside account of the campaign, and the innovations he and Gauer came up with ... for instance, the original "releasing-balloons-from-the-ceiling" schtick. He comments bitterly on how, after Zeidler's election, they were ignored and not even paid their promised salaries, while credit was taken by local establishment figures like Milton Rice Polland instead.
Bloch ends the account with a philosophical point:
If Carl Zeidler had not asked Jim Doolittle to manage his campaign, Doolittle would never have contacted me about it. And the only reason Doolittle knew me to begin with was because he read my yarn ("The Cloak") in Unknown. Rattling this chain of circumstances, one may stretch it a bit further. If I had not written a little vampire story called "The Cloak", Carl Zeidler might never have become mayor of Milwaukee.[1]
Death and legacy[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Carl_Zeidler.jpg/300px-Carl_Zeidler.jpg)
Zeidler's election was attracting attention on the national political scene[2] as World War II broke out. After a year in office, Zeidler came to believe he could best help the war effort by enlisting; he resigned his position as mayor and accepted a Naval Reserve commission on April 8, 1942. He asked for the most dangerous job on ship and became officer in charge of a gun battery on board the merchant ship .
The ship and all hands were reported missing off the coast of South Africa on December 11, 1942, sunk by a German U-boat U-159 torpedo attack.[3] Zeidler was officially presumed dead November 7, 1944. A gravestone cenotaph marks his plot at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.
Carl's brother, socialist Frank P. Zeidler later became mayor of Milwaukee and served in that position from 1948 to 1960. Carl's personal and mayoral papers are archived at Milwaukee Public Library alongside those of his brother Frank.[4]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Bloch, Robert. Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography New York: Tor Books, 1993.
- ^ "The Singing Mayor from Marquette Law School – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog". Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ^ "Highlights at the Wisconsin Historical Society". 2007-01-11. Archived from the original on 2007-01-11. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ^ "Carl A. and Frank P. Zeidler Papers, 1918-1981" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
- 1908 births
- 1940s missing person cases
- 1942 deaths
- 20th-century American politicians
- American people of German descent
- Marquette University alumni
- Marquette University Law School alumni
- Mayors of Milwaukee
- Military personnel from Milwaukee
- Missing in action of World War II
- Missing person cases in Africa
- People who died at sea
- United States Navy officers
- United States Navy personnel killed in World War II
- United States Navy reservists