Carl Frederick Zeidler was the oldest child of Michael W. and Clara A.E. (Nitschke).
Zeidler was born in Milwaukee on 4 January 1908. His two brothers were Clemens and
Frank, and his sister was Dorothy. A 1925 graduate of West Division High School in
Milwaukee, he earned a Ph.B. at Marquette University in 1929 and a J.D. from
Marquette University in 1931. He also graduated from the Wisconsin College of Music
in 1928. Zeidler was active in many organizations. He belonged to the Elks, Eagles,
Moose, Knights of Pythias, Army and Navy Union, Junior Chamber of Commerce, American
Legion, Steuben Society, Symphonic Male Chorus, Arion Musical Club, Masons, Turners,
Y's Men's Club, and others. He also founded and led the Sunday Morning Breakfast
Club.
Zeidler was named as assistant city attorney by City Attorney Walter J. Mattison in
1936. He worked on cases involving park consolidation, pinball, handbills and riots
at German-American Bund meetings, and was counsel for the Fire and Police Commission
and the police and fire pension boards. He resigned from the city attorney's office
on 2 January 1940 in order to campaign for mayor.
Zeidler campaigned strenuously with the slogan "hats off to the past, coats off to
the future." He attended 879 political meetings between January-April 1940, while
over 600 other meetings were held in his behalf. Daniel Hoan, the Socialist
incumbent, relied on his twenty-four-year tenure as mayor and did little
campaigning. Zeidler defeated Mayor Hoan by 12,000 votes. Summing up his triumph,
Zeidler said: "I used nothing else than modern merchandising methods: See 'em, tell
'em, sell 'em." During Carl's brief term as mayor, his chief assistants were Paul
Bergen and Wallace Maciejewski. His administration lowered the property tax rate,
reduced expenditures for personnel, consolidated some city departments, and hosted
the national conventions of the American Legion and the Eagles. Much attention was
given to mobilization attendant upon American involvement in the Second World War,
first as a neutral supplier of Great Britain and then as a belligerent.
Zeidler's service as mayor was shortened by the American entrance into the Second
World War. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in April 1942. Commissioned a
lieutenant, he commanded the gun crew on the armed merchant ship LaSalle, beginning in July 1942. His first cruise on the
LaSalle was highlighted by a gunnery attack on a
surfaced U-boat, which Zeidler claimed he had sunk. (The Navy discounted the claim.)
On his second voyage in November 1942, the LaSalle
disappeared with all hands while carrying cargo to Cape Town, South Africa. Zeidler
was listed as "missing in action" until November 1944, when the Navy Department
officially declared him "dead." After the war, an unofficial German source claimed
that the LaSalle had been torpedoed and sunk by U-159
on 7 November 1942.
Zeidler was a popular mayor who aroused great enthusiasm in his admirers. Ambitious,
he worked carefully to enhance his reputation throughout the country while avoiding
any overt alliances with other politicians which would tend to circumscribe his
options. His death ended what might have been a successful national political
career.
