Adolf Roemer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adolf Roemer as a teacher at the Institut Helvetia Lucerne around 1915

Adolf Johann Roemer (also Römer ; born on May 24, 1890 in Uznach ; died on February 9, 1960 in St. Gallen ) was a Swiss politician and from 1936 to 1960 a member of the government of the canton of St. Gallen .

Life

Adolf Roemer was born on May 24, 1890 in Uznach in the Linth region. His father Johann Adolf Roemer was a butcher and, together with his wife Maria Theresia, geb. Gübeli, the inn and butcher shop “Zum Hirschen”. After finishing secondary school in Uznach, Adolf Roemer attended secondary school in Engelberg and Schwyz. The tight upbringing in the boarding school was of great importance, especially when the sixteen-year-old lost his mother in 1906. After completing the teacher training school, Adolf Roemer became a realteacher at the Institut Helvetia Lucerne. As the principal teacher in the secondary and commercial departments, he taught geography, mathematics, and natural history. The school director gave him a very positive report when he began studying geography at the University of Zurich in 1915 .

Adolf Roemer did active service during the First World War . Stationed in St. Moritz during the occupation of the border in 1915 , he met the young Engadin Anna Jenny (1894–1977) from Bever . The couple married on May 1, 1919 in Weggis, Lucerne. They had two children: Irma (1920–2010) and Rudolf (1923–2009).

With a dissertation on draining the Linth area in the canton of St. Gallen, Roemer received his doctorate on October 30, 1918 under Hans J. Wehrli . He then took up a position as a secretary at the St. Gall cantonal education department.

politics

Roemer's work in the education department led him into politics. He joined the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) and was elected to the government council of the canton of St. Gallen for the first time in 1936. From 1936 to 1960 he headed the Education and Military Department. In addition to the construction of numerous school buildings and gyms, he initiated the total revision of the Education Act in 1952 and the adoption of the law on commercial college in 1954. In the years of office 1939/40, 1945/46, 1950/51 and 1957/58 he was head of the government council as Landammann .

The Education Directors Conference appointed Adolf Roemer as a member of the Commission for the Education Archives and the Commission for the Written Question in the first year of his government activity. He showed great initiative and, after taking over the presidency of the “Archive” commission in 1945, increasingly wrote his own articles. From 1947 Adolf Roemer took over the management of the central office for documentation and information in the commission for the teaching archive and from 1959 he was the editor of the Swiss magazine Archive for Swiss Education . (The magazine published background articles, reports on the education system in Switzerland, statistics as well as newly issued federal and cantonal laws, decrees and regulations.) As a long-time editor, he gained an overview of efforts to promote the school system at all levels and in all cantons. As the author of articles, he always endeavored to involve employees from all levels and all parts of the country and to allow the three main national languages ​​to speak.

This then enabled him to undertake a landmark revision of St. Gall's legislation on education. It introduced new school legislation in 1938, 1944, 1945, 1947 and 1952. The introduction of tax equalization contributions for the benefit of needy school communities was of the greatest importance. This removed the greatest obstacle to the development of the St. Gallic elementary school. In 1945 he introduced the first advanced training law with the obligation for boys and girls who received no further education after primary school. In 1947 he campaigned for higher teacher wages. His greatest achievement was the new progressive and understandable education law of March 5, 1952. Through this law schools of all levels should not only impart good, modern knowledge, but "at the same time educate men and women with a solid civic attitude, a socially open mind and of readiness for the ideal and beautiful ”. In his last years he campaigned for the construction of school buildings. Over a hundred primary and secondary schools and around sixty gyms have been built in the office in the last few years.

His main concern as a government councilor was to promote the canton's cultural, political, economic and social life. In addition to his official activities, he campaigned for the promotion of the city theater, the Swiss Music Association, the cantonal St. Gallen Gymnastics Association and the Swiss Citizens' Society. Between 1950 and 1955 he was a board member of the Swiss Castle Association.

Last honor

After he had been making plans for retirement for a few days and announced his resignation at the end of the current term of office on June 30, Adolf Roemer suffered a stroke in his office . After three days in the hospital, he died on Tuesday, February 9, 1960 at the age of seventy. A state funeral was ordered on February 12th. It was led by the St. Gallen inspection game, followed by the Swiss flag, the company of honor, numerous student, association and club delegations, the members of the St. Gallen government, the Grand Council , the cantonal court, the cantonal police officers, as well as former federal councilors and councilors , National councilors, representatives of the army and various cantonal governments, delegations from the neighboring Principality of Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg, as well as foreign representations and hundreds of mourners.

In his funeral speech, Councilor of State Johann Schmuki said of Adolf Roemer: “He had an overflowing kindness, a deep social sympathy for fellow human beings, which was much more than mere affability; in addition there was his personal modesty, his great love of home, his human and sympathetic attitude to all things in life. "

literature

personal data
SURNAME Roemer, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roemer, Adolf Johann (full name); Römer, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Uznach
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1960
Place of death St. Gallen