Bernhard Friedrich Kuhn

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Bernhard Friedrich Kuhn (baptized September 26, 1762 in Grindelwald ; † February 4, 1825 in Avenches ) was a Swiss lawyer and, as a representative of the Unitarians, one of the most important politicians in the Helvetic Republic . He has also made a name for himself as one of the fathers of contemporaryism and the founder of glacier science.

biography

Bernhard Friedrich Kuhn was the son of the reformed pastor and doctor of Grindelwald, Friedrich Kuhn. Little is known about his early life, not even his exact date of birth. He was baptized in Grindelwald on September 26, 1762. His birth will probably have taken place a few days before. He studied theology, law and natural sciences and was a founding member of the Natural Research Society in Bern. Perhaps inspired by JA Höpfner's treatise on the inhabitants and the valley of Grindelwald, he described the mechanism of the glaciers , the moraines and the glacier scrapes on the valley walls in the years 1787 and 1788, strictly applying the actualistic principle . He saw terminal moraine walls in the land used as evidence of earlier glacier advances, e.g. B. the powerful advance in 1600. With the evidence of old moraines , the search for fluctuations in glaciation was also initiated. His work is also remembered in more recent works.

In 1787 he became professor for patriotic law ( Ius publicum Helvetiae ) at the Bern Academy and worked as a lawyer.

When the French marched into the Swiss Confederation in 1798 and directly threatened the city-state of Bern, Kuhn volunteered as an officer despite his opposition to the aristocratic regime of the Bernese patriciate and took part in the fighting during the French invasion. On April 12, 1798 he was elected the first President of the Grand Council of the Helvetic Republic . In 1799 he was assigned to the Helvetic Army as civil commissioner, which was supposed to work together with the French army against the invasion of the coalition troops in eastern Switzerland. Although a staunch supporter of the new unitary state order of the republic, he represented rather moderate positions within the party of the Unitarians and is also assigned to the group of republicans. On January 8, 1800, he took part in the coup d'état of the Republicans against the Directory of the Helvetic Republic and in the same year published a much-acclaimed paper in which he outlined a moderate-Unitarian position with regard to the drafting of a new constitution for the Helvetic Republic and turned against federalism.

Kuhn was one of the most important politicians in the country during the Helvetic era and was involved in all upheavals, coups and overturns. On August 7th, he became a member of the Executive Council, the new government of the Helvetic Republic, and after another upheaval, on September 7th, 1801, he became president of the new Helvetic Diet, which had been formed in accordance with the Malmaison constitution. When, under his leadership, the constitution began to revise the constitution in the interests of the Unitarian majority, the constitution was changed in the context of the third coup of the federalists on 27/28. Dissolved in October 1801 and, like the other Unitarians, expelled from all offices. Kuhn took part in the fourth Unitarian coup in a row in April 1802. On his initiative, the second Helvetic constitution was drawn up by an assembly of notaries and put into effect after the first referendum in the history of Switzerland. The new government sent him to Vaud as government commissioner to negotiate with the rebellious peasants who opposed the reintroduction of the old basic rates (→ Bourla Papey uprising). In July 1802 he became Minister of Justice and Police, but resigned a short time later because his reform projects did not find support.

After the government was overthrown again, Kuhn took part in the Helvetian Consulta in Paris in 1803 as a representative of the Unitarians. During the mediation period he withdrew from active politics and resumed teaching at the Bern Academy. After the death of his wife in 1815, his mental condition deteriorated to such an extent that he had to be admitted to an institution in Avenches, where he died in 1825.

Works

  • Experiment on the mechanism of the glacier , Zurich 1787.
  • Addendum to the experiment on the mechanism of glaciers , Zurich 1788.
  • Opinion on the abolition of feudal rights , 1798.
  • On the unitary system and federalism as the basis of a future Swiss state constitution , Bern 1800.

literature

  • Emil Bloesch: Bernhard Friedrich Kuhn (1762-1825), a Bernese statesman during the Helvetic era. New year sheet. Historical Association of the Canton of Bern. KJ Wyss, Bern 1894.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Albrecht Höpfner: Something about the moral and domestic condition of the inhabitants of the Grindelwaldthales and Oberland. In: Swiss Museum. Volume 2, issue 9. Zurich 1785. pp. 769–787. [1]
  2. ^ Bernhard Friedrich Kuhn: Attempt on the mechanism of the glacier. In: Magazine for the natural history of Helvetia. Volume 1. Zurich (Orell, Geßner, Füßli and Company) 1787. pp. 117-136. [2]
  3. ↑ Bernhard Friedrich Kuhn: Addendum to the experiment on the mechanism of glaciers in the first volume of this magazine. In: Magazine for the natural history of Helvetia. Volume 3. Zurich (Orell, Geßner, Füßli and Company) 1788. pp. 427-436. [3]
  4. ↑ Conradin A. Burga: Oswald Heer's "Die Urwelt der Schweiz" in the light of modern research. Selected aspects of the Ice Age. In: Quarterly publication of the Natural Research Society in Zurich. Volume 154 issue 3/4. Zurich 2009. pp. 97–108. [4]
personal data
SURNAME Kuhn, Bernhard Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician
DATE OF BIRTH baptized September 26, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Grindelwald
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1825
Place of death Avenches