Hans Hürlimann

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Hans Hürlimann

Hans Hürlimann (born April 6, 1918 in Walchwil ; † February 22, 1994 in Zug ) was a Swiss politician ( CVP ) from the canton of Zug . As Federal Councilor from 1973 to 1982 he was Interior Minister and once held the office of Federal President .

biography

Hans Hürlimann was the first of four children of the blacksmith Johann Hürlimann and Katharina Hürlimann-Rust. He grew up in his town of Walchwil. At the age of twelve, Hürlimann entered the monastery school of the Einsiedeln monastery . There he became active under the vulgar name "Tiger" in the Corvina student fraternity and thus joined the Swiss student association . After graduating from high school, he studied law in Bern and Freiburg from 1939 to 1943 . He graduated with a doctorate. In the Second World War he also did active service as an infantryman in Zug's 48th battalion from 1939. He completed the officers' school and in 1945 became company commander, later commander of his battalion. As a colonel, Hürlimann commanded a mountain infantry regiment. Eventually he became a General Staff Officer and Chief of Staff of Mountain Division 9.

In 1946 he was admitted to the Zug bar and became a legal advisor to the municipal administration of Zug . In September 1947 he married Marie-Theres Duft, the youngest child of St. Gallen lawyer and National Councilor Johannes Duft . The couple was married by their brother, the Catholic priest Johannes Duft . From 1949 to 1954 Hürlimann was employed as the town clerk in Zug .

Canton politics

In 1947 he began his political career by being elected to the Cantonal Council , although, according to his own words, he had not campaigned. The party accepted that his uncle had chosen him as his successor, he said in an interview. In 1954 he was elected to the government council. At that time the cantonal government was still a part-time position, and Hans Hürlimann continued to work as a lawyer. Until 1962 he was director of justice, police and military, and then director of education. As such, in 1965 he co-founded the Conference of Directors of Education in Central Switzerland. From 1968 to 1973 he headed the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Education Directors (EDK). In 1970 he took a seat on the Swiss School Board, today's ETH Board . In 1965/1966 he was Landammann of the Canton of Zug.

In 1967 the Zug electorate also elected him to the Council of States . Among other things, he chaired the Statutory Business Audit Commission for two years .

Federal Council

Hans Hürlimann was elected to the Federal Council in the first ballot on December 5, 1973 . He achieved 48 votes more than the official candidate of the CVP, the Ticino Enrico Franzoni . The real favorite, Leo Schürmann from Solothurn , retired after Willi Ritschard was elected on the same day due to the cantonal clause valid at the time. After the election, he handed over his previous mandates.

During his tenure, he headed the Federal Department of Home Affairs . As Minister of Social Affairs, he made the 9th AHV revision and the law on occupational pension schemes eligible for a majority. Hürlimann was therefore considered the "father of the 2nd pillar". In the field of culture, among other things, he arranged the Pro Helvetia Foundation and created today's Federal Office of Culture . As education and research minister, in turn, he campaigned for a research law and the ETH in Lausanne .

Hürlimann was Federal President in 1979 and Vice President in 1978. Towards the end of his tenure as Federal Councilor, he suffered from the loss of his son Matthias, who died of cancer in February 1981. He resigned on December 31, 1982.

A statement in the speech he gave on the occasion of the opening of the Gotthard road tunnel on September 5, 1980 became legendary . He promised the affected population that the Gotthard road tunnel would “never become a corridor for heavy traffic ”.

After his resignation, Hürlimann worked for five years as a lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Friborg and performed humanitarian and cultural tasks, including as a member of the board of the Swiss Red Cross . He died in 1994 after a serious illness. Federal Councilor Flavio Cotti gave the funeral speech in the St. Michael church in Zug .

Thomas Hürlimann , the son of the former Federal Council, is one of the most famous writers in Switzerland . In his novel Der große Kater from 1998 he writes about the Spanish state visit by King Juan Carlos I and the resignation of his father as Federal President, using the nickname Kater (based on his nickname from his student days). The film adaptation of The Big Cat was released in 2010 with Bruno Ganz in the lead role.

Election results in the Federal Assembly

  • 1973: Election to the Federal Council with 132 votes (absolute majority: 115 votes)
  • 1975: Re-election as Federal Council with 206 votes (absolute majority: 114 votes)
  • 1977: Election of Vice President of the Federal Council with 192 votes (an absolute majority of 103 votes)
  • 1978: Election to the Federal President with 212 votes (absolute majority: 108 votes)
  • 1979: Re-election as Federal Council with 214 votes (absolute majority: 114 votes)

literature

  • Urs Altermatt , Urs C. Reinhardt : Hans Hürlimann . In: Urs Altermatt (Ed.): Das Bundesratslexikon . NZZ Libro , Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-03810-218-2 , p. 529-535 .
  • Thomas Hürlimann: My Catholic Family , in: NZZ Geschichte , No. 2 (July 2015), pp. 43–58.
  • Eduard Montalta : Federal Councilor Hans Hürlimann. Becoming and being of a personality. in: The welfare state , ed. by Hans-Peter Fagagnini and Hans Willi, Olten / Freiburg i. B. 1977/1979, pp. 305-310.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c P. Erwin Benz: Obituary for Hans Hürlimann , in: Zuger Nachrichten of March 2, 1994, p. 14.
  2. ↑ a b Urs Altermatt, Urs C. Reinhardt: Hans Hürlimann , in: Das Bundesratslexikon , Zurich 2019, p. 530.
  3. ↑ Urs Altermatt, Urs C. Reinhardt: Hans Hürlimann , in: Das Bundesratslexikon , Zurich 2019, p. 529.
  4. ↑ Urs Altermatt, Urs C. Reinhardt: Hans Hürlimann , in: Das Bundesratslexikon , Zurich 2019, p. 534.
  5. ↑ Urs Altermatt, Urs C. Reinhardt: Hans Hürlimann , in: Das Bundesratslexikon , Zurich 2019, p. 532.
  6. ↑ a b Urs Altermatt, Urs C. Reinhardt: Hans Hürlimann , in: Das Bundesratslexikon , Zurich 2019, p. 533.
  7. ^ Karl Etter: An open conservative value , in: Zuger Nachrichten of March 2, 1994, p. 13.
predecessor Office successor
Roger Bonvin Member of the Swiss Federal Council
1974–1982 		Alphons Egli
personal data
SURNAME Hürlimann, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Walchwil
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1994
Place of death train