Daniel Bertschinger

Daniel Bertschinger (born March 15, 1761 in Lenzburg ; † September 8, 1830 there ) was a Swiss notary , judge and politician . From 1815 to 1830 he was a member of the Small Council , the government of the Canton of Aargau .

biography

Bertschinger came from a respected Lenzburg family and was the son of a butcher. Nothing is known about his youth and his education. In the 1790s, when Lenzburg was still part of the Bernese Aargau , a subject area of ​​the city ​​and republic of Bern , he worked as a notary. Under the influence of the French invasion, Bern tried to reform the Grand Council in February 1798 by adding representatives of the subjects. Bertschinger was one of two elected representatives from Lenzburg. But only a month later the old political order collapsed and the Helvetic Republic was born . After the founding of the canton of Aargau in the same year, he was elected to the district court of Lenzburg.

Bertschinger became the leader of the patriotic party in Lenzburg and was one of the supporters of the new republican state order. As a supporter of the Unitarians, he advocated a centralized Helvetian unitary state based on the French model. He categorically refused a return to the previous conditions, as in his opinion this would provoke a civil war. He resolutely advocated the independence of the canton of Aargau from the previous rulers from Bern. In 1801 Bertschinger represented the canton of Aargau at the meeting . Shortly before the Stecklikkrieg in autumn 1802, government governor Johann Heinrich Rothpletz appointed him a member of the Lenzburg municipality . However, he only took up this post after the end of the uprising.

After the introduction of the new mediation constitution of 1803, Bertschinger was elected to the Grand Council of the Canton of Aargau. Although the conservative forces were now in the majority, the Grand Council elected him as judge of appeal because of his professional qualities. He was also a member of the Auditing Commission. In 1815 the Liberals came back to power. The Grand Council then elected Bertschinger to the Small Council, the cantonal government endowed with great power. Until his death he was a member of both the executive and legislative branches.

literature

• Biographical Lexicon of the Canton of Aargau 1803–1957 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 68/69 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1958, p. 64-65 .

Web links

• Andreas Steigmeier : Bertschinger, Daniel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .