Victor Christgau

{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Victor Christgau |image = Victor Christgau (Minnesota Congressman).png |caption = U.S. Social Security Administration photo, {{circa|1961}} | birth_name = Victor Laurence August Christgau | birth_date = {{birth date|1894|9|20}} | birth_place = Dexter Township, Mower County, Minnesota, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1991|10|10|1894|9|20}} | death_place = Washington, D. C., U.S. | state1 = Minnesota | district1 = 1st | term_start1 = March 4, 1929 | term_end1 = March 3, 1933 | predecessor1 = Allen J. Furlow | successor1 = ''Multi-member district'' | office2 = Member of the Minnesota Senate | term2 = 1927-1929 | alma_mater = University of Minnesota | party = Republican }}

'''Victor Laurence August Christgau''' (September 20, 1894 – October 10, 1991) was a politician and government official from Minnesota.

==Early life== Christgau was born in Dexter Township, Mower County, near Austin, Minnesota. His mother and paternal grandparents were German immigrants.<ref> {{citation |url= https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWBX-RN1 |title= United States Census, 1920 |website= FamilySearch |access-date=March 15, 2018 }}</ref> He graduated from the school of agriculture of the University of Minnesota at St. Paul in 1917 and from its college of agriculture in 1923. He engaged in agricultural pursuits. During the First World War he served overseas in the United States Army as a sergeant in the Thirty-third Regiment of Engineers.

==Career== He was a member of the Minnesota Senate from 1927 until his resignation in 1929. He was elected as a Republican to the 71st and 72nd US Congresses, (March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1933) and was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1932.

He resumed agricultural pursuits and was appointed executive assistant to the director of production, Division of Agricultural Adjustment Administration, in June 1933. He was director of the Production Division and assistant administrator from January 1934 through February 1935. He was appointed state administrator of the Minnesota Works Progress Administration in June 1935 and served until June 1938.

From 1939 through 1954 Christgau was state director of the Minnesota division of employment and security at St. Paul. He then served as president of the Interstate Conference Employment Security Agencies from 1947 to 1948; Director, Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance, Social Security Administration, from 1954 to 1963, and executive director of Social Security Administration from January, 1963 to March, 1967.

He was a resident of Washington, D.C. until his death there on October 10, 1991.

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == *[http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.asp?ID=11650 Minnesota Legislators Past and Present] {{CongBio|C000378}}

*[http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00175.xml Victor Christgau: An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society]

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | before=Allen J. Furlow | state=Minnesota | district=1 | years = March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1933 | after = District eliminated}} |- {{s-hon}} {{s-bef|before=Hamilton Fish III}} {{s-ttl|title=Most senior living U.S. representative<br />(Sitting or former)|years=January 18, 1991 – October 10, 1991}} {{s-aft|after=Jennings Randolph<br />Robert T. Secrest}} {{s-end}} {{MNRepresentatives}} {{USCongRep-start|congresses= 71st–72nd United States Congresses |state=Minnesota}} {{USCongRep/MN/71}} {{USCongRep/MN/72}} {{USCongRep-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christgau, Victor}} Category:1894 births Category:1991 deaths Category:Republican Party Minnesota state senators Category:Lutherans from Minnesota Category:American people of German descent Category:University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences alumni Category:People from Mower County, Minnesota Category:Farmers from Minnesota Category:Military personnel from Minnesota Category:United States Army personnel of World War I Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Minnesota Category:20th-century Lutherans Category:20th-century United States representatives Category:20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature