Gerhard Adolph Bading

American politician

Gerhard Adolph Bading (August 31, 1870 – April 11, 1946) was an American physician, politician, and diplomat. Bading is best remembered as the 31st mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serving from 1912 to 1916. Bading also served as U. S. Envoy and an Ambassador Extraordinary to Ecuador from 1922 until his retirement in 1930.

Bading was born August 31, 1870, in Milwaukee, the son of German born Lutheran pastor John Bading and Brooklyn born Dorothea (Ehlers) Bading. His father was for 27 years the president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America. Bading attended public schools in Milwaukee through his high school graduation before attending Northwestern College of Watertown, Wisconsin, a small school run by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and known today as Martin Luther College. Bading was reelected in 1914, but lost a third reelection bid in the spring of 1916 to Daniel Hoan, Milwaukee's second Socialist mayor.

Bading was a supporter of American participation in World War I and enlisted in the U. S. Army to support the war effort. Bading was posted to the Philippine Islands as a military instructor for officer training in sanitation. The grouping deemed so historically significant that special permission President Isidro Ayora and his cabinet were necessary before the collection was allowed to leave the country. Bading's highly regarded collection of 162 pieces was left to the Milwaukee public museum after his death. In his last years, Bading's eyesight failed but he retained a keen interest in world events, with his Chicago born wife, the former Carol Royal Clemmer, keeping him abreast of the news by reading to him. As a fluent speaker of German, Bading believed that his linguistic skills might be valuable to the American military effort following the outbreak of World War II in 1941. He formally offered his services to the army to assist the war effort, but his help was refused for reasons of age.

Bading died on April 11, 1946, at the age of 75. He is buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.