lawyer, politician, soldier, poet, b. Landau, Bavaria. He attended the Speier gymnasium and the universities of Munich and Heidelberg, where he studied constitutional law. After the failure of the 1848 revolution in Germany, Krez fled to France, and in 1851 migrated to the U.S. In 1854 he moved to Sheboygan where he practiced law, served as city attorney (1856-1859), and was district attorney (1859-1862). He also edited the Sheboygan Zeitung (1860-1861). During the Civil War, Krez served as colonel of the 27th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (1862-1865), and was mustered out with the brevet rank of brigadier general. After leaving the army, he returned to his law practice in Sheboygan, and was again district attorney (1870-1876). In 1872 he became dissatisfied with the Republican party, and joined the Democrats. He was a regent of the Univ. of Wisconsin (1875-1878), and in 1885 was appointed collector of customs for Milwaukee by President Grover Cleveland. He served in this capacity until 1889, and was state assemblyman (1891-1892). From 1892 to 1894 he was city attorney of Milwaukee. Krez was the author of several German-language poems; some of these are collected in his Aus Wiskonsin published in New York in 1875. E. B. Usher, Wis. (8 vols., Chicago, 1914); R. G. Thwaites, ed., Univ. of Wis. (Madison, 1900); J. R. Berryman, ed., Bench and Bar of Wis. (2 vols., Chicago, 1898); WPA MS.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]