Gottlieb Ott

Gottlieb Ott (* 1832 in Worb ; † December 4, 1882 in Bern ) was a Swiss building contractor.

Gottlieb Ott

Life

Gottlieb Otts great- grandfather had come to Jegenstorf from the Swabian town of Untertürkheim in 1782 and his grandfather had settled in Worb in 1806. In 1843 his father took over a forge in the Matte district of Bern . In Bern Ott attended high school and then studied at the Polytechnic of Karlsruhe . During the Neuchâtel trade in 1857 he worked on the fortifications of Basel and then took over his father's business. In 1864 he opened an office for bridge construction , from which the Ott & Cie. emerged; over time he became one of the most influential businessmen in the city of Bern.

In 1866 Ott was elected to the Grand Council , where he belonged to the radical-liberal circle around Jakob Stämpfli . Because of his great influence in railway politics, Ulrich Dürrenmatt wrote a parody of Georg Neumark's famous song Who only lets God rule over him in 1878:

       Whoever lets dear Ott rule
       and always hopes for him
       , he will wonderfully develop
       the glory of state finances.

Otts company organized the demolition of the Christoffelturm in 1865 and built a. a. the Kirchenfeldbrücke , which was inaugurated on September 24, 1883 and planned by his colleague Jules Röthlisberger . In 1865 Ott became a member of the civic community of Bern . In the National Council elections of 1881 he suffered a defeat against the conservative Bern mayor Otto von Büren . This and great financial difficulties led to the fact that he most likely committed suicide in the Aare on December 4, 1882 .

The details of his death were described in the covenant :

“On Saturday evening, December 2nd, 1882, he was sitting with friends in a café on Spitalgasse until 11 am. He says goodbye there to go home, but has not arrived there. The search will probably begin on Sunday, and workers from his company will also take part in the search on Monday. On Wednesday morning, December 6, 1882, the body was found in the mat in the Aare Canal. The autopsy shows that he drowned. Since he only had a small wound on his head and otherwise had all his possessions with him, a crime was ruled out. His watch showed the time 2:00 am. "

Despite Ott's death and the financial problems he left behind, his company managed to successfully complete the construction of the Kirchenfeld Bridge after 21 months.

literature

• Peter Lüthi-Ott: Gottlieb Ott (1832–1882) - The builder of the Kirchenfeld Bridge . In: Heinrich Richard Schmidt (Ed.), Worber Geschichte , Bern 2005, pp. 604–607