Friedrich Seiler

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Friedrich Seiler (born February 28, 1808 in Bönigen , † January 17, 1883 in Interlaken ) was a Swiss politician , hotelier and industrialist . He was a member of the National Council from 1848 to 1851 and from 1863 until his death .

biography

The son of an innkeeper ran the Pension Jungfrau in Aarmühle, as Interlaken was called until 1891. He represented radical liberal views and was elected to the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern in 1837 , to which he belonged until 1841 and again from 1843 to 1846. In March 1845 he took part in the second free march to Lucerne . The radical cantonal government appointed Seiler as governor of the Interlaken district in 1846 . Four years later, he was ousted by the new Conservative government because he neglected auditing during his tenure and had never served prison terms for some convicts. His removal in January 1851 led to riots between radicals from Bödeli and conservatives from Grindelwald .

In October 1848, Seiler ran for the first National Council elections and was elected in the Oberland constituency. He resigned three years later to focus on his business activities. In 1850 he founded a parquet factory together with Albrecht Weyermann and from 1852 to 1863 managed their branch in Paris . He also founded a match factory and a brick factory . In 1856 he sold the Pension Victoria, which was later expanded to become today's Grand Hotel Victoria-Jungfrau . In 1863 he moved back to the National Council and was a member of it for another twenty years.

Seiler promoted tourism in the Interlaken region as much as possible. So he supported the construction of the Brünigbahn and Bödelibahn . In 1869 he suggested building a pneumatic railway from Lauterbrunnen to the Rottal valley at the foot of the Jungfrau , from where a secured path should lead to the summit. This idea was not entirely altruistic, because Christian Seiler, owner of hotels on Kleine Scheidegg since 1842 , was related to him. The Jungfrau Railway project was only taken up again in the 1890s and finally completed in 1912.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Beat Junker: Third part: Conservative interlude 1850-1854. In: History of the Canton of Bern since 1798: Volume II. Historical Association of the Canton of Bern, 1998, accessed on December 9, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Aldo Rota: The way to the Jungfrau Railway. (PDF, 3.6 MB) Tec21 , 2012, p. 20 , accessed on December 9, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Quirinus Reichen: Seiler (BE). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
personal data
SURNAME Seiler, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician, hotelier and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Bönigen
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1883
Place of death Interlaken