Representative Harry Sauthoff

Harry Edward Sauthoff (June 3, 1879 – June 16, 1966) was an American teacher, coach, lawyer, and politician from Madison, Wisconsin, who served four terms as a Progressive Party Representative from Wisconsin in the United States Congress between 1935 and 1945. He represented Wisconsin’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1939 and again from 1941 to 1945, participating in the legislative process during a significant period in American history and representing the interests of his constituents during the New Deal era and World War II.

Sauthoff was born on June 3, 1879, in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of August and Hermine Sauthoff, both German immigrants from the province of Hanover. Raised in the state capital, he was educated in Wisconsin’s public schools before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He graduated from the university in 1902. He then pursued a career in education and athletics, reflecting a broad early interest in public life and youth development.

Following his undergraduate studies, Sauthoff taught and coached at Lake Geneva High School in Wisconsin from 1902 to 1905. He then joined Northern Illinois State Normal School (now Northern Illinois University) from 1905 to 1906, where he served as a member of the faculty and as an athletic coach. In 1905 he was the head football coach at Northern Illinois, compiling a record of 3–1–1, and he also served as head basketball coach for the 1905–06 season. After several years in education, he returned to Madison to study law and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1909, thereafter entering the legal profession.

Sauthoff’s public career began in local and state office in Wisconsin. A lawyer by training, he was elected district attorney of Dane County, Wisconsin, serving from 1915 to 1919. In 1921 he served as secretary to Governor John J. Blaine, a leading progressive Republican, which further aligned Sauthoff with the progressive movement in state politics. That same year he was a delegate to the International Conference on the St. Lawrence Deep Waterway and to the Mississippi Valley Conference on Mississippi River Improvement, reflecting his early engagement with issues of transportation, commerce, and regional development. He went on to serve in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1925 to 1929 as part of the progressive faction of the Republican Party, helping to advance reform-oriented legislation at the state level.

Building on his state legislative experience, Sauthoff entered national politics during the realignment of Wisconsin progressivism in the 1930s. In 1934 he was elected as a member of the Wisconsin Progressive Party to the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin’s 2nd congressional district. He served in the 74th and 75th Congresses from January 3, 1935, to January 3, 1939. As a Progressive Party member in the House, Sauthoff contributed to the legislative process during the New Deal period, participating in debates and votes on major economic and social legislation while representing the interests of his Madison-area constituents. He was defeated for reelection in 1938 but remained a prominent figure in the state’s progressive movement.

Sauthoff returned to Congress after winning election again in 1940 as a Progressive, serving in the 77th and 78th Congresses from January 3, 1941, to January 3, 1945. His second period of congressional service coincided with the United States’ entry into World War II, and he continued to participate in the democratic process during a time of global conflict and domestic mobilization. During these years he remained affiliated with the Wisconsin Progressive Party, which was by then a short-lived but still influential third party in the state. In 1944 he sought higher office as the Progressive Party’s last nominee for the United States Senate from Wisconsin. Running as a third-party candidate, he finished a distant third, receiving 5.8 percent of the vote, and his defeat marked the waning of the Progressive Party’s statewide influence. His House service concluded on January 3, 1945, at the end of his fourth term.

After leaving Congress, Sauthoff resumed the practice of law in Madison. He continued in legal practice until his retirement in 1955, remaining a respected figure in Wisconsin’s legal and political communities and a representative of the state’s early twentieth-century progressive tradition. He lived quietly in Madison during his later years.

Harry Sauthoff died on June 16, 1966, in Madison, Wisconsin. He was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, closing a long career that had encompassed service as an educator, coach, attorney, district attorney, state senator, and four-term member of the United States House of Representatives.