Felix Balthasar

Felix Balthasar (born June 7, 1794 in Lucerne ; † April 21, 1854 in Zurich , legal resident in Lucerne) was a Swiss politician (liberal).

biography

Felix Balthasar came from the Lucerne patrician family Balthasar, originally from the Maggia Valley and naturalized in Lucerne in 1547, and was born as the son of Leodegar Balthasar and Maria-Xaveria Balthasar, née Schmid. Balthasar attended schools in Lucerne. He then learned the trade of a businessman in Switzerland and in Lyon , France. Then he went to the military and finally rose to the rank of officer (colonel) in the general staff. Balthasar was also the treasurer of the Federal War Chest. In the military service he was quartermaster with the rank of captain in the royal Dutch regiment Auf der Maur.

At the municipal level, Felix Balthasar began his political career by being elected to the Lucerne City Council in 1836. Before that, in 1832 he had rejected an election to the Lucerne City Council (city government). He held numerous offices (appeal judge, district judge, president of the corporation administration of Lucerne, member of the poor and orphan council). On January 2, 1848, he was re-elected to the city council. This time he accepted the election and was elected mayor of Lucerne . Felix Balthasar held this office until 1854.

His political career at the cantonal level was, on the one hand, membership in the Lucerne Grand Council (today the Cantonal Council ), of which he was a member - with interruptions - from 1828 to 1854. In 1837 he was President of Parliament. During this time, Balthasar was on several commissions (credit commission, criminal inspection commission, building commission). From May 22, 1837 to 1841, Felix Balthasar was also a member of the cantonal government of the Canton of Lucerne.

Balthasar was on the board of directors of Centralbahn . Also member of the Wednesday Society and owner of the Kastanienbaum estate in Horw .

Felix Balthasar was married to (Maria Angelika Aloysia) Eugenia Schwytzer von Buonas on February 23, 1824 . Ludwig Balthasar, born in 1825 as the only son, died in military service in the St. Gotthard hospice in 1847. The second child of this marriage was daughter Erika, born in 1826.

literature

• Lucerne State Archives : Biographies of the Lucerne Municipal Councils 1831–1988. (Ez 161) and Biographies of the Lucerne Grand Councilors 1831–1995. (Ez 111, supplementary volume, number 128).
• Ferdinand Schwarz: The correspondence between Isaak Iselin and Felix Balthasar In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Vol. 24, 1925, pp. 1–309
• Bruno Laube: Felix Balthasar In: Swiss Journal for History, Vol. 7, 1957, pp. 399–400

Web links

• Markus Lischer: Balthasar, Felix. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .