Felix Rosenberg

Felix Rosenberg (2004)

Felix Rosenberg (born June 9, 1941 in Bern ; † April 21, 2014 in Frauenfeld ) was a Swiss politician ( CVP ), manager and cultural promoter.

Life

Felix Rosenberg grew up as the third eldest of six children of the journalist and general secretary of the later CVP Martin Rosenberg , who came from Freiamt in the canton of Aargau , in Bern. One of his sisters was Monika Rosenberg (1947-2010), editor of the Federal Palace of the NZZ .

From 1953 he attended the collegiate school of Einsiedeln Abbey and, after graduating in 1961, studied history, literature, journalism and law at the universities of Bern and Freiburg . He completed his studies in 1968 as lic. iur. at the University of Freiburg. He was a member of the AKV Alemannia student association .

After graduating, he first worked as a clerk at the district court in Baden AG . In 1969, the Thurgau government councilor Franz Josef Harder brought him to Frauenfeld as the secretary of the finance, forestry and military department of the canton of Thurgau .

From 1978 to 2003 Rosenberg was a member of the University Council of the University of Freiburg, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2005 for his public commitment. He was a founding member of the University's International Institute of Management in Technology and served on its advisory board until his death.

Felix Rosenberg was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Voigt AG, Romanshorn, and De Martin AG, Wängi, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Huser & Peyer AG, Sirnach.

After his political and entrepreneurial career, Rosenberg stayed in Frauenfeld. Since 1969 he was with Monika Rosenberg, geb. Riedweg, married and had a son and two daughters with her. He died after a serious illness.

Political career

Felix Rosenberg began his political career in 1974 as president of the CVP local party Frauenfeld, where he played an important role in mediating between the wings of the former Catholic Conservatives, now united in the CVP, and the Christian Socials. When his mentor Franz Josef Harder resigned as head of the finance, forestry and military departments in 1974, Rosenberg ran for the then department secretary and was elected in the second ballot. At 33, he was by far the youngest member of the Swiss government. He was re-elected three times with a high level of approval and successfully led the department until 1989, including the military sector, although for health reasons he had no military career. He was regional president three times and from 1978 on the board, from May to September 1989 president of the conference of financial directors. From 1984 to 1989 he was a member of the Presidium of CVP Switzerland.

PTT / Swisscom

In 1989 Felix Rosenberg was elected general director and head of the telecommunications department (from 1991 Telecom PTT) of the then purely state-owned company PTT (Post, Telephone and Telegraph Company). In the mid-nineties, together with the general directors of the presidential department and the post office, he began to prepare Post and Telecom PTT for the split into two companies and Telecom PTT for the IPO and thus the transition of the then monopoly to the era of the liberalized telecommunications market. From this, the two new companies, Die Post and Swisscom , emerged at the beginning of 1998 . Rosenberg took over the task of the Director General (Chief Executive Officer) of Swisscom, but had previously declared in the year, his candidacy as CEO to waive the restructured top management to focus entirely on the job as a state representative in the Board of Directors to focus, in the he was elected in 1997. In 1998 he handed over the management of Swisscom to Tony Reis, who he had previously appointed as head of the marketing and product department (who completed the IPO of Swisscom in October 1998, resigned at the end of 1999 and was replaced by Jens Alder) and changed as a representative of Major federal shareholder on the Board of Directors of Swisscom.

The self-confessed Catholic Rosenberg had to survive difficult moments as head of the telecom division of the PTT, when the latter was accused of helping to spread pornography for operating the 156 phone sex numbers and when Rosenberg was sentenced to a fine in 1995 after years of litigation in the so-called Telekiosk judgment. As General Director of the PTT, he was unhappy when it came to foreign commitments. The participation in Unisource 1993 (together with Telia, today Telia Company , Sweden, PTT Netherlands , today KPN , and Telefónica , Spain) failed in 2004 with a big loss. His engagements in 1995 in Hungary (Jasztel) and in Czechoslovakia (Cesky Telecom) were reversed in 1998 and 2003 respectively. The commitments from 1996 in Malaysia (Mutiara, today Digi) and India (Aircel Digilink), which were broken off in 1999 with considerable losses, failed even more briefly, with the Asian crisis of 1997/1998 playing a decisive role and the companies afterwards several times that of Swisscom the price paid. At the end of 2005, as a representative of the federal government, he was on the board of directors of Swisscom and was responsible for the executive board's decision to restrict foreign obligations, which prevented the close to completion of the takeover of the Irish telecommunications provider Eircom. At the initiative of its member at the time, Christoph Blocher , the Federal Council reacted to the looming largest loss of a foreign engagement so far, in which the investment in the German Debitel entered into in 1999 and 2001 by Rosenberg's successor Tony Reis was written off with a loss of CHF 3.3 billion had to become. In 2011 Rosenberg stepped down from the Swisscom Board of Directors for reasons of age.

Cultural promotion

Felix Rosenberg made great contributions to the restoration and furnishing of the former, collapsing Carthusian monastery Kartause Ittingen in Warth as a culture, seminar and education center and agricultural business as well as a home for the disabled. He was the founding president of the foundation, which took over the Ittingen Charterhouse in 1977, and won various sponsors to finance the project, including entrepreneur and politician Max Schmidheiny . The Ittingen Charterhouse has also become known through the Ittingen Whitsun Concerts, which have been taking place since 1995 under the artistic direction of András Schiff and Heinz Holliger (until 2013), Heinz Holliger (2014), Graziella Contratto (2015) and Oliver Schnyder (2016). In 2002 Rosenberg was awarded the Thurgau Culture Prize for his services to the Ittingen Charterhouse. In 1992 Rosenberg resigned as President of the Foundation Council because, in his opinion, an incumbent government councilor should preside over it. He was made Honorary President and remained a member of the Board of Trustees until his death.

Rosenberg was also culturally active from 1982 to 1989 as a member of the Pro Helvetia Foundation Board and from 1998 to 2009 as President of the Pro Patria Foundation , which supported the Ittingen Charterhouse in 1997 by issuing a Pro Patria stamp dedicated to it. As general director of the PTT he supported the establishment and development of the Museum for Communication, u. a. as founding president and later honorary president of the Association of Friends of the Museum of Communication. He was also a co-founder of the Choral Schola St. Nikolaus in Frauenfeld.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Anton Scherrer: Farewell to Felix Rosenberg - entrepreneur and fine spirit. In: NZZ . April 23, 2014.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Philipp Stähelin: He was the youngest member of the Swiss government. In: Thurgauer Zeitung . April 29, 2014.
3. ^ ^{A b} Felix Rosenberg - Former Swisscom boss has died. In: NZZ. May 29, 2014.
4. ↑ In memory of Dr. hc Felix Rosenberg. In: International Institute of Management in Technology at the University of Freiburg.
5. ↑ Felix Rosenberg. In: Moneyhouse, Commercial Register and Business Information.
6. ↑ Election of the Board of Directors of Swiss Post and Swisscom AG. Media release by the Federal Department of Transport and Energy, September 29, 1997.
7. ↑ BGE 121 IV 109th Federal Supreme Court decision of February 17, 1995 (French).
8. ↑ Foreign engagements: six blue eyes. In: Balance . February 24, 2012.
9. ↑ Federal Council blocks Swisscom veto against foreign commitments. In: NZZ . November 26, 2005.
10. ↑ Pirmin Meier : PTT CEO Felix Rosenberg was a Christian Democrat who was committed to cultural policy. In: lu-wahlen.ch, Internet platform for elections and voting in the canton of Lucerne, April 24, 2014.
11. ↑ Margrit Pfister-Kübler: Doris Leuthard came to say goodbye. In: Thurgauer Zeitung . April 29, 2014.