Armin Kellersberger

Grave of Armin Kellersberger in the old cemetery

Armin Josef Julius Kellersberger (born December 18, 1838 in Baden ; † July 28, 1905 there , entitled to live in Baden) was a Swiss politician ( FDP ). From 1881 until his death he represented the canton of Aargau in the Council of States , from 1880 to 1893 he was mayor of Baden.

biography

The son of Josef Kellersberger, member of the council and municipal council of Baden, graduated from the district school in Baden and from 1855 to 1859 the canton school in Aarau . He then studied law at the Universities of Heidelberg , Munich and Zurich . In 1859 he became a member of the Corps Helvetia Heidelberg. In 1864 he was admitted to the bar and initially worked in his father's law office. In 1868 he went into business for himself and opened his own law firm in Laufenburg . There he was a local councilor and deputy district administrator from 1872 to 1874. In 1877 he returned to Baden and worked as a town clerk for three years . In the military he rose to the rank of major and as such was the commandant of a battalion.

In 1874 Kellersberger was elected to the Grand Council , to which he belonged continuously until 1905 (1880/81 and 1891/92 as President). In 1880 he was elected mayor of Baden; he held this office until 1893. His predecessor had enforced the participation of the community in the Swiss National Railway, but the railway company went bankrupt soon after the completion of the Zofingen – Wettingen line via Baden . Kellersberger managed to avert the financial ruin of the community by obtaining a long-term loan of 2.4 million francs from the federal government and persuading the local community to provide support amounting to half a million francs. He successfully fought against the plans of the Zurich cantonal government and the city of Winterthur to open bankruptcy proceedings against the Aargau guarantee cities of Baden, Lenzburg and Zofingen .

The Great Council elected Kellersberger to the Council of States in 1881 as the successor to Augustin Keller . He soon gained great influence in parliament, particularly on military issues. So he advocated the construction of the Gotthard fortress and the arming of the Landsturm . In 1884/85, as the Aargau constitutional council, he tried to balance the denominational differences that had intensified through the Kulturkampf . In 1890/91 he was President of the Council of States . In 1895, one year after founding the Swiss FDP , he succeeded in uniting the democratic and liberal wings in a common cantonal party in Aargau.

In addition to his political activities, Kellersberger promoted the settlement of industrial companies in Baden. Since its establishment, he has been a legal advisor to the boards of directors of Elektrizitätswerke Baden and Motor AG for applied electricity (later Motor-Columbus ). From 1898 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hagneck -Elektrizitätswerke, and from 1894 to 1902 he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Northeast Railway . From 1894 to 1898, Kellersberger and his son-in-law carried out excavations on his property in Baden. As a result, numerous ancient objects came to light that brought new knowledge about the Roman settlement Aquae Helveticae and are now owned by the History Museum of the City of Baden.

literature

• Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Hrsg.): Biographical Lexicon of the Canton of Aargau 1803–1957 (=  Argovia . Volume 68/69 ). Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1958, p. 442-445 .

Web links

• Andreas Steigmeier : Kellersberger, Armin. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener corps lists 1910, 115 , 202