socialist, editor, politician, labor leader, b. Berlin, Germany. He was trained as an architect, but soon came under the influence of Lassalleian socialism, and in 1871 was one of the leaders in a socialist uprising. Threatened with arrest in 1877, he migrated to the U.S., settling first in Chicago where he edited the Arbeiter Zeitung with August Spies. In 1883 he moved to Milwaukee where he edited the Milwaukee Arbeiter Zeitung (1886-1888). In 1886 he also became the leader of the militant Central Labor Union and led the fight for an eight-hour work day. Commonly labeled an anarchist, Grottkau was a central figure in the widespread Milwaukee strikes of 1886, and after the violence of May 4, 1886, was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison. The sentence was contested, and ultimately Grottkau served only six weeks. In 1888, while in prison, Grottkau ran for mayor of Milwaukee on a socialist splinter ticket, thereby preventing the Union Labor candidate, Herman Kroeger, from winning the mayoralty. With the strength of the Central Labor Union sapped by the failure of the 1886 strikes, Grottkau moved to San Francisco (1889). One of the most influential figures in early Milwaukee socialism and labor organization, Grottkau was a fiery speaker and writer in the German language. After leaving the state he was twice recalled to Milwaukee, in 1895 and again in 1898, to lead the Social Democratic campaign among the German-language laborers. B. Still, Milwaukee (Madison, 1948); M. Wachman, Hist. of Social-Democratic Party of Milwaukee (Urbana, 1945); J. A. Watrous, Memoirs of Milwaukee Co. (2 vols., Madison, 1909); Milwaukee Journal, June 2, 4, 1898.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
