{{Short description|American socialist organizer}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = | image = BERGER, VICTOR, MRS. LCCN2016863269 Crop.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Berger in 1911 | office = Member of the<br />Milwaukee Board of School Directors | term_start = April 1909 | term_end = April 1939 | predecessor = | successor = William H. Tesch | birth_name = Meta Schlichting | birth_date = {{Birth date|1873|02|23}} | birth_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|06|16|1873|02|23}} | death_place = Thiensville, Wisconsin, U.S. | resting_place = Forest Home Cemetery | other_names = | years_active = | party = Socialist Labor {{small|(before 1897)}}<br />Social Democracy {{small|(1897–1898)}}<br />Social Democratic {{small|(1898–1901)}}<br />Socialist {{small|(1901–1940)}} | other_party = Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin {{small|(1897–1940)}} | spouse = {{marriage|Victor L. Berger|1897|1929|end=died}} | occupation = Political activist }}
'''Meta Berger''' ({{nee}} '''Schlichting'''; February 23, 1873 – June 16, 1944) was an American socialist organizer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and advocate for improved public schooling systems. She was also the wife of the prominent Socialist Party of America politician Victor L. Berger.<ref>{{cite book|author=Swanson, Kimberly|chapter=A Milwaukee Woman's Life on the Left: The Autobiography of Meta Berger|editor=McBride, Genevieve G.|title=Women's Wisconsin: From Native Matriarchies to the New Millennium|place=Madison |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|year=2005}}</ref>
==Biography== ===Early years=== Meta Schlichting was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to parents from Germany on February 23, 1873.<ref>[https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/meta-schlichting-berger/ "Meta Schlichting was born in Milwaukee in 1873 to parents who came to the city from Germany during their childhood. Schlichting's father, Bernard, who served on Milwaukee's school board, hired Victor Berger to teach German."]</ref> She was educated at the Wisconsin State Normal School (now the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee). She taught primary school for three years before resigning in 1897 to marry Victor Berger.
===Political career=== thumb|left|upright=0.8|Berger {{circa}} 1938 In 1909, Berger was elected to the Milwaukee school board. As a school board member, she supported progressive measures such as the construction of playgrounds, "penny lunches" and medical exams for children. She also advocated on behalf of teachers, working for tenure, a fixed-salary schedule and a pension system. Re-elected in 1915, Berger won three more times, serving a total of 30 years.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mrs. Berger Soon To Leave Milwaukee's School Board |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/239736310/?terms=%22Meta%20Berger%22&match=1 |access-date=23 September 2025 |work=The Sheboygan Press |date=19 January 1939 |location=Sheboygan}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Evjue |first1=William T. |title=Good Afternoon Everybody |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/518627614/?terms=%22Meta%20Berger%22&match=1 |access-date=23 September 2025 |work=The Capital Times |date=5 April 1939 |location=Madison}}</ref>
In 1917, Berger joined the Milwaukee Emergency Peace Committee, a group that tried to prevent U.S. Navy recruiters from targeting schoolchildren.<ref>{{cite book|author=Reese, William J.|title=Power and the Promise of School Reform: Grassroots Movements during the Progressive Era|url=https://archive.org/details/powerpromiseofsc0000rees|url-access=registration|place=Boston | publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-8077-4227-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/powerpromiseofsc0000rees/page/220 220]}}</ref>
Her work for the school board led to her appointments to the Wisconsin State Board of Education, the Wisconsin Board of Regents of Normal Schools, and University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.
The Bergers spent much of the 1920s traveling in Asia and Germany. After her husband's death in 1929, Berger remained on the school board until 1939, and was considered a potential candidate for vice-president in the Socialist Party in 1932. However, Berger left the Socialist Party in May 1940 in response to pressure from the national office over her continued involvement in communist front organizations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/meta-schlichting-berger/|title=Meta Schlichting Berger {{!}} Encyclopedia of Milwaukee|website=emke.uwm.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2018-02-05}}</ref>
===Death and legacy=== thumb|right|200px|Graves of Meta and Victor Berger at Forest Home Cemetery
Berger died at her Thiensville farm on June 16, 1944, aged 71. She is interred in Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.foresthomecemetery.com/what-makes-fhc-unique/people/|title= Historical People|publisher= Forest Home Cemetery|accessdate= May 16, 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160403200220/http://www.foresthomecemetery.com/what-makes-fhc-unique/people/|archive-date= April 3, 2016|url-status= dead}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Berger, Meta S. and Kimberly Swanson. ''A Milwaukee Woman's Life on the Left: The Autobiography of Meta Berger.'' Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 2001. * Berger, Victor L. and Meta S. Berger. ''The Family Letters of Victor and Meta Berger, 1894-1929.'' Michael E. Stevens with Ellen D. Goldlust-Gingrich, eds. Madison: Center for Documentary History, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1995. *{{cite book|last1=Berger|first1=Meta|title=I Saw Russia: Socialism in the Making|date=1936|publisher=American Friends of the Soviet Union|location=New York City|url=https://archive.org/details/ISawRussiaSocialismInTheMaking|accessdate=30 March 2017}}
==External links== * {{commons category-inline}} * [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Content.aspx?dsNav=Ro:10,N:4294963828-4294963805&dsNavOnly=N:1104&dsRecordDetails=R:CS500 Meta Berger | Wisconsin Historical Society]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Meta}} Category:1873 births Category:1944 deaths Category:American people of German descent Category:American anti–World War I activists Category:Politicians from Milwaukee Category:School board members in Wisconsin Category:Socialist Party of America politicians from Wisconsin Category:Women in Wisconsin politics Category:People from Thiensville, Wisconsin Category:Burials at Forest Home Cemetery