Fred Biermann

Frederick Elliott Biermann (March 20, 1884 – July 1, 1968) was an American politician who was a three-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 4th congressional district. Elected as part of the 1932 Roosevelt landslide, he was defeated when running for a fourth term by an opponent from his own small community of Decorah, Iowa.

Personal background Born in Rochester, Minnesota in 1884, Biermann moved to Decorah four years later, following his mother's death, to live with an aunt. After graduating from Decorah High School in 1901, he attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis for three years before transferring to Columbia University in New York City, where he graduated in 1905. He returned to Decorah and taught at Valder's Business College. When he sold the Journal in 1931, he explained that burns he had received nine years earlier in an X-ray accident had crippled him.

Political service During the 1920s, Biermann was actively involved in the Democratic Party, serving on the Central Committee of the Iowa Democratic Party for eight years, As part of the Roosevelt landslide, Biermann won by over 20,000 votes.

Biermann won the next two elections, but by increasingly narrow margins. His adversary in 1936 was Henry O. Talle, a professor of economics at Luther College in Decorah. While Biermann defeated Talle that year, two years later (as part of a Republican sweep of all but two U.S. House seats) Talle defeated Biermann by over 4,000 votes.

Biermann's Congressional service, which began March 4, 1933, ended on January 3, 1939. As a congressman, Biermann served as delegate to the Interparliamentary Union Conference at Paris in 1937.

After Congress Biermann was appointed United States Marshal for northern Iowa in October 1940, in which capacity he served until 1953.

He was also a delegate to Democratic National Conventions in 1940 and 1956.

He died in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on July 1, 1968. He was interred in Phelps Cemetery, in Decorah.