 frank paul zeidler (september 20, 1912 &ndash; july 7, 2006) was an american socialist politician and mayor of milwaukee, wisconsin, serving three terms from april 20, 1948 to april 18, 1960. he was the most recent socialist mayor of any major american city. == early life and career == zeidler was born in milwaukee on september 20, 1912. he studied at both the university of chicago and marquette university, but was never able to graduate due to ill health. he became a socialist, because of socialism's emphasis on peace and improving the conditions for workers. in a more thorough interview, zeidler said he chose the ideology of socialism in 1933 "because of several things in its philosophy. one was the brotherhood of people all over the world. another was its struggle for peace. another was the equal distribution of economic goods. another was the idea of cooperation. a fifth was the idea of democratic planning in order to achieve your goals. those were pretty good ideas". he distanced himself from the beliefs of communism, especially communism linked in any way to the soviet union. later however, he credited his adoption of socialism to reading left-wing literature, with the majority being written by eugene v. debs and norman thomas during the great depression. zeidler became an active member of the young people's socialist league (ypsl), the youth branch of the socialist party of america, he later became the leader of the milwaukee branch of the red falcons during the 1930s.{{cite news|url=http://www.mu.edu/cgi-bin/cuap/db.cgi?uid=default&id=4970&vie
1912_births 2006_deaths American_Christian_pacifists American_Christian_socialists American_Lutherans American_people_of_German_descent Marquette_University_alumni Mayors_of_Milwaukee,_Wisconsin People_from_Milwaukee,_Wisconsin School_board_members_in_Wisconsin Socialist_Party_USA_presidential_nominees Socialist_Party_of_America_politicians United_States_presidential_candidates,_1976 University_of_Chicago_alumni University_of_WisconsinaMilwaukee_alumni Wisconsin_socialists Writers_from_Wisconsin