Giuseppe Motta

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Giuseppe Motta (1916)

Giuseppe Motta (born December 29, 1871 in Airolo ; † January 23, 1940 in Bern ; resident in Airolo) was a Swiss politician ( KVP ). From 1895 he was represented in the Grand Council of the Canton of Ticino , from 1899 also in the National Council .

After failing to be elected to the Federal Council in 1908 , he did so three years later. From 1912 to 1919 he was in charge of the finance and customs department . He then headed the Political Department from 1920 until his death and played a decisive role in shaping Swiss foreign policy for two decades. He successfully campaigned for Switzerland to join the League of Nations , but the idealism of the first few years gradually gave way to real political constraints. Motta put neutrality back in the foreground and at the same time tried to maintain good relations with the National Socialist German Reich and fascist Italy . His 28-year term is the third longest of all Federal Councilors, and he has held the office of Federal President five times .

biography

Family, studies and work

Birthplace
Notice board at the birth house

He was the son of the politician Sigismondo Motta and Paolina Dazzoni, his uncle Giovanni Dazzoni was a member of the National Council in the 1880s . The father, a Catholic-Conservative member of the Ticino Grand Council , owned a hotel and was responsible for transporting mail between Faido and the Gotthard Pass . The opening of the Gotthard tunnel in 1882 brought the long-established family major financial losses. A year later, after her father's death, Motta was a half-orphan. He attended the schools in Airolo and Bellinzona . He received his high school education first at the Collegio Papio in Ascona and from 1887 at the College St. Michael in Friborg , which he completed in 1889 with the Matura .

Motta began studying law at the University of Friborg , which opened in the same year . He continued this at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and graduated from the Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg with the distinction " summa cum laude ". He was a member of two sections of the student association . In 1885 Motta settled back in Airolo and worked there as a lawyer and notary until 1912 . He has served as legal advisor to several companies, with particularly close relationships with Motor-Columbus . In 1899 he married Agostina Andreazzi from Dongio ; the couple had ten children together.

Cantonal and federal politics

Motta's political career began in 1895 when he was elected to the Grand Council of the Canton of Ticino . Soon he was one of the leaders of the Catholic Conservatives. He strove to modernize the party, for which, in his opinion, the very close ties to the Roman Catholic Church had to be loosened. In addition to his seat in the Grand Council, he ran for parliamentary elections in 1899 in the constituency of Ticino-North and was elected to the National Council . One of his main concerns in the federal parliament was the extension of the right of asylum to persons who were affected by the restriction of their freedom of expression . He also campaigned for proportional representation , which he viewed as a natural development of democracy. In contrast, he was against the plan to support primary schools with federal subsidies, as this would restrict the sovereignty of the cantons.

In 1908 Motta was first proposed as a candidate for the Federal Council , as successor to Josef Zemp . The choice fell on Josef Anton Schobinger , who, however, died three years later. Various newspapers suggested Motta, since with him the latent tensions between Ticino and the federal government could be reduced in the state government. Due to the emerging irredentism , which was propagated by the cultural magazine L'Adula , among other things , large circles in German-speaking Switzerland feared that Ticino could turn to Italy . In the Federal Council election on December 14, 1911, Motta received 184 out of 199 valid votes in the first ballot; another 15 votes were cast. For the first time, the linguistic minorities had three representatives in the government.

Federal Council

Finance minister

Motta took over the chairmanship of the finance and customs department on January 1, 1912 . In his first year in office, he proposed a tobacco monopoly in order to secure additional income for the federal government. The extremely costly mobilization of the army posed a particular challenge in the First World War . The additional costs could only be partially covered by loans , so that the Federal Council had to introduce new taxes. These included a progressive war tax in 1915, and a year later a war profit tax. Finally, stamp duty was added after the corresponding federal law had been adopted in the referendum of May 13, 1917 with just 53.2% yes-votes. Motta vehemently opposed a popular initiative by the Social Democrats to introduce the direct federal tax . After this was rejected on June 2, 1918 with 54.1% no, in 1919, however, in view of the post-war economic crisis, he was forced to introduce a second extraordinary war tax, which was levied until 1932.

Foreign Minister

At the beginning of 1920, Motta moved to the Political Department . After serving as Federal President in 1915 , he also headed the state government in 1920, 1927, 1932 and 1937. During his first few months as Foreign Minister, he and Felix Calonder were committed to Switzerland joining the League of Nations . It wrested an important concession from the League of Nations: on February 13, 1920, it declared Switzerland's neutrality to be compatible with the Charter of the League of Nations. Switzerland had to take part in economic sanctions, but not in military ones. Motta also managed to get the skeptical Catholic Conservative Party on his side. On May 16, 1920, the electorate accepted membership of the League of Nations with 56.3% yes, although the number of estates was only slightly in favor of the corresponding federal resolution. A month later, Motta received permission to re-establish the Apostolic Nunciature , which was suspended during the Kulturkampf in 1873 - this was generally considered in return for the Catholics' consent to join the League of Nations. In 1924/25 Motta was President of the League of Nations Assembly and spoke out in favor of the German Reich joining the organization.

Motta strove to de facto recognize the government of the Soviet Union for economic reasons , but the Conradi affair thwarted these efforts. Moritz Conradi, who was exiled from Russia and Switzerland, shot the diplomat Wazlaw Worowski in Lausanne in May 1923 . When the Federal Council refrained from condoling, the Soviet Union broke off all contacts. Conradi was acquitted by a jury, after which the Soviet Union no longer sent envoys to international conferences in Switzerland. Attempts to restore relations failed for several years due to resistance from anti-communist circles. In 1927 the mutual blockade measures were lifted. Motta was a staunch opponent of Stalinism . In 1934, under pressure from the public, he succeeded in making Switzerland one of the few states to vote against the admission of the Soviet Union, ruled by Josef Stalin , to the League of Nations. In addition, during the Spanish Civil War , the Federal Council sided with Franco's fascist troops in a controversial manner in terms of neutrality policy . For Motta, the main reason for this was the direct involvement of Soviet fighters on the part of the Republicans. Franco had started the uprising with the promise to save the Catholic Church from the attacks of atheist Stalinism.

Giuseppe Motta (around 1930)

Motta paid special attention to diplomatic relations with Italy, since as a Ticino he had strong cultural ties to the southern neighboring country. After the takeover of the fascists in 1922 were increasing in Switzerland clashes between anti-fascist refugees and fascist agitators. But the increasing irredentist efforts of fascist organizations did not in principle cloud the interstate relations. The Swiss authorities expelled several anti-fascist activists from the country, including Randolfo Pacciardi (1929) and Palmiro Togliatti (1933). When Cesare Rossi , Benito Mussolini's press officer who had fled , was kidnapped near the Campione d'Italia enclave in 1928 , the Federal Council refrained from any protests. During the Abyssinian War of 1935/36, Motta put the neutrality and trade interests of Switzerland above the decisions of the League of Nations and limited the sanctions largely to symbolic measures. At his suggestion, Switzerland was the first neutral state to legally recognize the annexation of Ethiopia by Italy. Finally, in 1938, he achieved that Switzerland was exempted from any sanction obligation.

Economic relations shaped the relationship with the Nazi- ruled German Reich, more than in any other country, with extensive investments by the Swiss economy playing a role. Motta strived for an official recognition of neutrality and also supported private initiatives in this matter. These include, for example, the visit of the former Federal Councilor Edmund Schulthess to the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in February 1937. Various incidents clouded relations, including the 1935 kidnapping of the German emigrant Berthold Jacob by the Gestapo in Basel and the 1936 murder of Wilhelm Gustloff in Davos . In 1938 Motta took a stand against excesses of the National Socialist press. This had wanted to impose a kind of «totalitarian neutrality» on public opinion in Switzerland.

The Abyssinian War had shown Motta the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations, all the more so when Japan , the German Empire and Italy left the organization. After the annexation of Austria he supported the proclamation of the Federal Council and the parliamentary groups regarding the neutrality of Switzerland.

In May 1938, Motta obtained a League of Nations resolution that granted Switzerland “integral neutrality”. Although Switzerland formally remained a member, it was no longer bound by any sanctions and was thus completely isolated in terms of foreign policy. In March 1939 Motta suffered a cerebral haemorrhage, in November 1939 another stroke , whereupon his left leg was paralyzed. He died on January 23, 1940 after another stroke in his Bern apartment at the age of 68.

Works

  • Testimonia Temporum. Discorsi e scritti scelti. Volume I (1911-1931), II (1932-1936), III (1936-1940), Istituto Editoriale Ticinese, Bellinzona 1931, 1936, 1941.

literature

  • Associazione ticinese in Berna (ed.): La prima elezione di un cittadino ticinese a Presidente della Confederazione Svizzera, richiami e documenti, Tipografia Traversa, Lugano 1915.
  • Mauro Cerutti: Giuseppe Motta . In: Urs Altermatt (Ed.): Das Bundesratslexikon . NZZ Libro , Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-03810-218-2 , p. 257-263 .
  • Mauro Cerutti: Giuseppe Motta. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . March 25, 2010 , accessed December 11, 2019 .
  • Aymon De Mestral: Le President Motta. Payot, Lausanne 1941.
  • Federazione Docenti Ticinesi (ed.): Nel decennio della morte , numero unico commemorativo, La Buona Stampa, Lugano 1950.
  • Enrico Celio: Un esempio di vita: Giuseppe Motta. Istituto Editoriale Ticinese, Bellinzona 1957.
  • Roberto Forni: Giuseppe Motta. In: Alberto Lepori, Fabrizio Panzera (ed.): Uomini nostri. Trenta biography di uomini politici. Armando Dadò Editore, Locarno 1989, pp. 23, 75-82.
  • Andrea Ghiringhelli: Il Ticino della transizione 1889-1922. Armando Dadò Editore, Locarno 1988, pp. 85, 86, 107, 108, 109, 112, 113, 114, 116, 137, 143 nota 31, 144 n. 56/57/61, 154, 157, 158, 160, 162, 164, 168, 170, 171, 172, 174, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 187, 189, 190, 191, 199, 205, 209, 210, 218, 224, 225, 226, 229 n.35/37/38/41, 230 n.66, 231, n.71/94, 232 n.101, 233 n.137, 238 n.248/260, 255, 301.
  • Bénédict de Tscharner: Giuseppe Motta Swiss statesman (1871–1940). Editions de Penthes, Pregny-Chambésy, 2007.
  • Various authors: Giuseppe Motta. Vita e opere (1871-1940) , Elvetica, Chiasso 1971.
  • Jean Rudolf von Salis: Giuseppe Motta. Orell-Füssli, Zurich 1941.
  • Paul Widmer: Swiss foreign policy and diplomacy from Pictet de Rochemont to Edouard Brunner . NZZ Libro, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-03823-632-0 .

Web links

Commons : Giuseppe Motta  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giuseppe Motta: Discours en Italien de Giuseppe Motta sur la neutralité intégrale de la Suisse. Swiss National Sound Archives , 1938, accessed on October 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c Cerutti: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 257.
  3. ↑ a b c Cerutti: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 258.
  4. ↑ Referendum of May 13, 1917. admin.ch , August 20, 2013, accessed on August 25, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Referendum of June 2, 1918. admin.ch , August 20, 2013, accessed on August 25, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Cerutti: The Federal Council Lexicon. Pp. 259-260.
  7. ↑ Referendum on May 16, 1920. admin.ch , August 20, 2013, accessed on August 25, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Cerutti: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 260.
  9. ^ Klaus Ammann: Russia. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . (Chapter «The USSR (1918–1991)»).
  10. ^ Dietrich Dreyer: Swiss cross and Soviet star . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85823-238-6 .
  11. ^ Mauro Cerutti: Italy. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . (Chapter «From the fascist seizure of power to World War II»).
  12. ↑ Cerutti: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 261.
  13. ↑ Cerutti: The Federal Council Lexicon. Pp. 261-262.
  14. ^ Federal Council (Switzerland) : Proclamation of the Federal Council and the parliamentary groups regarding neutrality. Swiss National Sound Archives , March 21, 1938, accessed on October 26, 2019 .
  15. ^ Proclamation of the Federal Council and the parliamentary groups regarding neutrality. In: Stenographic Bulletin of the Federal Assembly. National Council (Switzerland), March 21, 1938, accessed October 26, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Cerutti: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 262.
predecessor Office successor
Josef Anton Schobinger Member of the Swiss Federal Council
1912–1940 		Enrico Celio
personal data
SURNAME Motta, Giuseppe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician (CVP)
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Airolo
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1940
Place of death Bern