Edwin William Knappe (January 14, 1884 – February 5, 1971) was an American machinist from Milwaukee who became a lawyer, and who served one term as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
[3] Having spent three years in the Evening Law School of Marquette University, he passed his bar examination in 1913.
He practiced law as a member of the firm of Kleist, Harriman & Knappe, and served as Milwaukee election commissioner from 1915 to 1918.
[12] In 1941, Knappe succeeded Frank Zeidler as secretary of the Wisconsin and Milwaukee County Socialist party branches.
[13][14] In 1942 he was the Socialist nominee for Wisconsin's 5th congressional district (Victor Berger's old seat), coming in 4th in a race which saw incumbent Republican Lewis D. Thill unseated by Democrat Howard J.
He asserted that privately owned public utilities had created a $5 million slush fund to defeat Socialists such as Raskin and himself.