Emil Frey (politician, 1861)

Emil Frey (born September 3, 1861 in Möhlin , † December 20, 1916 in Basel ; resident in Möhlin and Densbüren ) was a Swiss politician ( DP ). From 1893 to 1895 he was a member of the government of the Canton of Aargau , and from 1893 to 1896 he was a member of the National Council . He is considered a pioneer in the electricity industry .

biography

The youngest son of the savings bank administrator Johann Jakob Frey went to school in Möhlin and Rheinfelden and graduated from canton school in Aarau . He then studied law at the Universities of Basel , Munich and Heidelberg . In 1883 he received his doctorate in Heidelberg and received a patent as a notary and lawyer the following year. After a brief activity as council clerk for the city of Aarau, Frey opened a law firm in Brugg in 1886 . There he was a member of the city ​​council and initiated the municipal power station, which opened in 1892 and enabled Brugg to develop into an important industrial location.

Frey was elected as a candidate for the Democratic Party in the Aargau Grand Council in 1889 , which he presided over in 1892/93. In the parliamentary elections in 1893 he succeeded in entering the National Council , in the same year he was also elected to the cantonal government. But as early as 1895 he renounced all political offices at the cantonal level and in 1896 no longer stood for re-election as National Councilor. The reason for this was the offer to work as director of the power transmission works in Rheinfelden.

The company managed by Frey built the Rheinfelden hydropower plant , which was the largest river power plant in Europe when it opened in 1898 . Partly under his personal direction, the even larger Augst-Wyhlen power plant was built between 1908 and 1912 . Frey was considered an expert in the electricity industry at home and abroad. The Federal Council appointed him to the commission for the preparation of the Swiss water law law and to the administrative board of the Lötschbergbahn , for the Baden government he prepared an expert opinion on the construction of the Murg dam .

Frey's older brother Julius made a career in banking and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt .

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. 224 .

Web links

• Andreas Steigmeier : Frey, Emil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .