Franz Waller

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Franz Waller (born November 18, 1803 in Bremgarten , † July 2, 1879 in Wädenswil ) was a Swiss politician and manager . He served from 1838 to 1850 as Councilor of the Canton of Aargau . From 1849 to 1866 he was a member of the National Council . For a quarter of a century he was director of the Swiss Rhine Saltworks in Rheinfelden .

biography

Waller's family originally came from Hünenberg in the canton of Zug and settled in Bremgarten, in 1825 they also received citizenship of the neighboring community of Eggenwil . The father's occupation is not known. Due to a lack of local opportunities, Waller received his secondary education in Aarau , Lucerne and Freiburg . He then studied law at the University of Jena and in Freiburg im Breisgau , where he became a member of the old Freiburg fraternity in 1822 .

After being admitted to the bar in Aargau in 1831, he opened his own law firm in Bremgarten in 1838. In 1837 he was elected to the Grand Council of the Canton of Aargau, by the council members themselves (which was still possible according to the cantonal constitution at the time). In 1841 he was directly elected as a representative of the Aarau district for the first time, and from 1844 he represented the Wohlen district . The Grand Council also elected Waller to the cantonal government in 1838 . In the years 1841 and 1848 he led the government as Landammann .

As a supporter of radical liberalism and a member of Zofingia , Waller stood in opposition to the predominantly Catholic-conservative population of his home region Freiamt and strove to suppress the influence of the Roman Catholic Church . The Muri monastery in particular was a thorn in his side. In a referendum on January 5, 1841, a new cantonal constitution was adopted, but conservative free offices did not want to accept the result. The government decided to send Waller along with a dozen country hunters to Muri on January 10th to arrest members of the “Bünzer Committee”, which is considered to be rebellious. After two arrests, an angry crowd gathered in front of the office building and demanded the release of the prisoners. Waller refused, but was overwhelmed and locked himself up with his companions. In the commotion he received a severe blow on the back of the head. Afterwards armed uprisings broke out in Freiamt, but they were quickly put down; Waller was freed after two days. The government used the events as a justification to order the abolition of all monasteries in Aargau on January 13th. This measure resulted in an escalation of the Aargau monastery dispute.

In 1844, Waller represented his canton as an envoy at the Diet . In the same year he took part in the first unsuccessful free march to Lucerne. In 1849 he was elected to the National Council, replacing Friedrich Frey-Herosé , who had been elected to the Federal Council. After the entire canton of Aargau had formed a single constituency in the first national elections, Waller represented the Aargau-Mitte constituency from 1851 until his resignation in 1866 . He kept his seat in the Aargau Grand Council until 1868. One of his achievements is the completion of the “General Civil Code for the Canton of Aargau” between 1847 and 1855 (forerunner of today's Swiss Civil Code ). He also edited the cantonal inheritance law in 1856 .

In 1850 a career change occurred: Waller gave up his law firm in Bremgarten and moved to Rheinfelden , where he worked as director of the Swiss Rhine Saltworks. Under his leadership, the merger of three salt works in the lower Fricktal to form the United Swiss Rhine Saltworks came about in 1874 . In 1875 he retired and withdrew from the public.

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. 814-816 .
  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 6: T-Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8253-5063-0 , pp. 200-201.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugo Müller: Muri in the Free Offices, Volume 2: History of the Muri Community since 1798 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 101 . Sauerländer, Aarau 1989, ISBN 3-7941-3124-X , p. 37-41 .
  2. ↑ Company history. United Swiss Rhine Saltworks, accessed on June 16, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Waller, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politicians and managers
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremgarten AG
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1879
Place of death Waedenswil