Gottlieb Käppeli

Gottlieb Käppeli (born July 26, 1840 in Merenschwand ; † December 17, 1909 in Aarau ; resident in Merenschwand) was a Swiss politician ( FDP ) and judge . From 1875 to 1905 he was Councilor of the Canton of Aargau .

biography

The son of the court president Joseph Leonz Käppeli attended the teachers' seminar in Wettingen , after which he studied law at the universities of Heidelberg and Zurich . In 1863 he received his doctorate with a thesis on water law . From 1866 he worked as a clerk, from 1868 as president of the Muri District Court .

In 1875 the Grand Council elected the radical-liberal Käppeli to the cantonal government. After temporarily heading the Department of the Interior, he took over the Department of Justice the following year. One of his main tasks was the implementation of the federal law on civil status and marriage. The amendment to the Morals Police Act drafted by him found no approval in parliament in 1878. In 1880 Käppeli moved to the building department. Main business of construction of the Cantonal Hospital in were Aarau (today's Cantonal Hospital ) and the establishment of a nursing home in the former monastery Muri concluded, however, in 1889 after a devastating fire again had to.

From 1885, Käppeli was in charge of the justice, police and medical departments. Under his direction a new civil code and a revised mortgage order were drawn up. The forced education institute for young people in the fortress of Aarburg , which opened in 1893, was a pioneering act for Switzerland. As head of the education department (from 1893) he managed to close the last denominationally separated schools and set up a teachers' pension fund, but failed in 1896 with his draft for a new school law. Finally, from 1901 to 1905 he headed the finance department.

Käppeli was a close friend of Augustin Keller , the co-founder of the Christian Catholic Church , and was committed to the new faith movement. In particular, he campaigned for the establishment of a Christian Catholic cantonal synod. In 1908 he was President of the Christian Catholic parish in Aarau, and from 1907 to 1909 President of the Swiss Synodal Council. Käppeli donated a large part of his fortune to the canton to create a scholarship fund.

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. 416-419 .

Web links

• Anton Wohler: Käppeli, Gottlieb. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .