L.E. Katterfeld

Ludwig Erwin Alfred "Dutch" Katterfeld (1881–1974), most commonly known as L. E. Katterfeld, was an American socialist politician, a founding member of the Communist Labor Party of America, a Comintern functionary, and a magazine editor.

L.E. Katterfeld (he seems to have generally used his initials in daily life) was born July 15, 1881 in Strasbourg, Alsace Lorraine, then part of the German Empire. He was the eldest of 4 children born to Dr. Alfred Katterfeld, a professor at the University of Strasbourg and Adele Karpinski Katterfeld. L.E.'s mother died when he was 5, shortly after the birth of his twin sisters, and his father remarried but died shortly thereafter. L.E. was sent away alone to live in the United States with a "godfather" in Nebraska at the end of 1892, arriving in New York on January 17, 1893 aboard the steamer Friesland.

Young L.E. worked as a farmhand in harsh rural conditions for several years, running away to Kansas at age 16. He finished at the top of his 8th grade class in Cloud County in 1898, also winning the Kansas state oratorial championship. He went on to finish high school and attended Washburn College in Topeka from 1902 to 1908, while working in a livery stable. While at Washburn College, L.E. met his future wife, Berta Pearl Horn. After graduation, he persuaded Berta to follow him to Chicago, where the pair were married on October 10, 1910.

Katterfeld was attracted to radical politics from an early age, joining the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in 1905 as a college student. He was elected as a delegate to the 1908 National Convention of the SPA from Kansas. In June 1911 he was named the head of a short-lived Socialist Party "Lyceum Bureau," which coordinated speaking tours by socialist organizers and propagandists, a program which was terminated in 1913.

...
Wikipedia