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

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Early life

Christgau was born in Dexter Township,

Mower County Mower County () is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,029. The county seat is Austin. Mower County comprises the Austin Micropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Rochester-Austin ...

, near

Austin, Minnesota Austin is a city in and the county seat of Mower County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 26,174 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town was originally settled along the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River and has ...

. His mother and paternal grandparents were

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

immigrants. He graduated from the school of agriculture of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

in 1917 and from its college of agriculture in 1923. He engaged in agricultural pursuits. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he served overseas in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

as a sergeant in the Thirty-third Regiment of Engineers.

Career

He was a member of the

Minnesota Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Minnesota Legislature, Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any State legislature (Unite ...

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 The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

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 The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that administers Social Security (United ...

, 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. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

until his death there on October 10, 1991.

References

External links

Minnesota Legislators Past and Present

Victor Christgau: An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
, - 1894 births 1991 deaths Republican Party Minnesota state senators American Lutherans American people of German descent University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences alumni People from Mower County, Minnesota Farmers from Minnesota Military personnel from Minnesota United States Army personnel of World War I Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota 20th-century Lutherans 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature {{Minnesota-MNSenate-stub