George Erwin Klenzendorff (January 23, 1883 – June 2, 1959) was a German-American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

from

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

who served one term as a

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

member of the

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...

Background

Klenzendorff was born in Rosenberg, West Prussia in the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

on January 23, 1883. He attended schools in different parts of the empire up to 1893, when he and his parents emigrated to the United States, coming directly to Milwaukee. After graduating from the

Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is the largest school district in Wisconsin. As of the 2015–16 school year, MPS served 75,568 students in 154 schools and had 9,636 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff positions. The Milwaukee Public Schools system i ...

, he attended a local business college for one year, and studied

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

three years under what his official biography described as "the direction of Milwaukee's foremost artists." In 1903 he began an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

in the office of a local architect and continued to follow the architectural profession.

Legislative service

In 1910, Klenzendorff was elected to the 13th

Milwaukee County Milwaukee County is located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, and the 45th most populous coun ...

assembly district (the 13th

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of the City of Milwaukee) to succeed Republican

Charles E. Estabrook Charles Edward Estabrook (October 31, 1847December 3, 1918) was an Americans, American teacher, educator, lawyer, Eugenics in the United States, eugenicist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from the U.S. state of Wisco ...

, who did not run for re-election. Klenzendorff received 1,123 votes to 906 for

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Leander J. Pierson and 805 for Republican Louis H. Jeske. He was assigned to the

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and

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; and to the joint committee on

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

. In 1912, Klenzendorff did not run for re-election, and the seat was reclaimed by Estabrook (now running as a

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

anti-Socialist candidate on the Democratic

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, even though there was also a Republican nominee).

After the legislature

Klenzendorff returned to private architectural practice, except for a brief period in 1937–1938 working for the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

. He died in 1959 in Milwaukee.''Wisconsin, U.S., Death Records, 1872–2004''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klenzendorff, George 1883 births 1959 deaths Architects from Milwaukee American architects Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States Members of the Wisconsin State Assembly People from West Prussia Socialist Party of America politicians from Wisconsin