Sigmund Zeisler was a German-Jewish U.S. attorney born in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 and known for his defense of radicals in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 in the 1880s. His wife was the famed concert pianist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler

Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler

Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler was an Austrian-born U.S. pianist.- Biography :Zeisler was born Fannie Blumenfeld on July 16, 1863, in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia. She emigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 4 in 1867. The family settled in Chicago, Illinois where they later changed...

.

Childhood, marriage and legal education

Sigmund Zeisler was born in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia

Austrian Silesia

Austrian Silesia , officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia was an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Empire, from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

 in 1860. He began his education at the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

 and emigrated to Chicago in 1883.

Zeisler graduated from Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 Law School

Law school

A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...

 in 1884. In 1885 he married Fannie Bloomfield. The Zeislers had three sons: Leonard, Paul and Ernest.

After Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler's death in 1927, Zeisler married Amelia Spellman in 1930. He died in 1931.

Professional career

In 1886-1887, Zeisler was co-counsel for the defendants in the Anarchist cases, popularly known as the Haymarket cases. Zeisler was a progressive and was a member of the American Anti-Imperialist League

American Anti-Imperialist League

The American Anti-Imperialist League was an organization established in the United States on June 15, 1898 to battle the American annexation of the Philippines as an insular area...

, the Municipal Voters' League, and the Civil Service Reform Association.

Zeisler was a writer and lectured on legal topics. Zeisler was a member of the Chicago Literary Club, The Little Room, Book and Play and the Cliff Dwellers

Cliff dwellers

Cliff Dwellers may refer to:*Cliff Dwellers, a painting by George Bellows.*North American tribes who practice cliff-dwelling.*Cliff Dwellers are an Indian tribe who lived about 2,000 years ago in California...

.

Cases

• The Haymarket trials
• HEATH & MILLIGAN MFG CO. v. WORST 207 U.S. 338 (1907) regarding lead-based paint.

Publications

• Zeisler, Sigmund "The Legal and Moral Aspects of Abortion," remarks at the 1910 meeting of the Chicago Gynecological Society, printed in the Journal of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Vol. 10, p. 539.
• Zeisler, Sigmund Reminiscences Of The Anarchist Case Chicago Literary Club 1927 1st Wraps, very good, 40pp, 1/570. PB

External links

• Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler and Sigmund Zeisler Papers Newberry Library Chicago
• Jewish Encyclopedia article
• Illinois vs. August Spies et al. trial transcript no. 1 Affidavit of Sigmund Zeisler (Cctober 1, 1886)
• Zeisler, Ernest Bloomfeld The Haymarket Affair The Nation book review (1956)
• Photo of Zeisler Chicago Historical Assn.

Text of Jewish Encyclopedia article

American jurist; born at Bielitz, then Austria, April 11, 1860; educated at the University of Vienna and at the Northwestern University, Chicago. He was admitted to the Chicago bar, and was associate counsel for the defense in the anarchist cases of 1886 and 1887. In 1893 he was elected chief assistant corporation counsel for Chicago, but resigned his position in 1894 on account of ill health. After traveling for several months in Europe, he returned to Chicago, where he has since been engaged in private practise. Zeisler is a prominent Democrat, and took an active part in the presidential campaigns of 1896 and 1900. He has contributed to reviews and law journals.