Hans Oprecht

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Hans Oprecht (born July 19, 1894 in Muri near Bern , † June 21, 1978 in Embrach ) was a Swiss politician ( SP ) and trade unionist .

biography

Hans Oprecht came from a humble background. His father was first a station helper, later a tax officer for the city of Zurich. He grew up in Zurich and entered the teachers' college in Küsnacht in 1910, where he was trained as a primary school teacher until 1914. During the First World War he worked as a primary school teacher in Niederglatt and in the city of Zurich and began studying psychology, philosophy, and civil and criminal law at the University of Zurich , which he completed in 1918 with a doctorate.

After completing his studies, Oprecht took up a position as official guardian of the city of Zurich and was involved in the union of state employees, the association of community and state workers. As a trade unionist, Oprecht rose to become one of the leading figures in the Swiss labor movement. From 1921 to 1931 he was President of the Association of Community and State Workers and the Swiss Association of Public Service Personnel (VPOD), and from 1926 he also worked in the association's secretariat. After the end of his presidium, he took on the influential role of executive secretary of the VPOD (until 1946). At the same time, he was a member of the Federal Committee of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) , the central association of the Swiss trade union movement, from 1928 to 1946 .

In addition to his work in the trade union movement, Hans Oprecht also pursued a political career in the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP) . Between 1925 and 1963 he sat for the SP in the National Council and was a member of the Powers of Attorney Commission during the war . As a trade unionist, Oprecht represented a reform-oriented course within the SP and sought cooperation with forces from the political center. He stood in opposition to the class struggle-oriented leadership of the SP around Ernst Reinhard and Robert Grimm . Oprecht's influence within the SP increased after Hitler came to power in Germany when he was a co-founder and member of the board of the newspaper Die Nation in the anti-fascist collection movement on the left of the political center (“Front der Arbeit” under the leadership of Andreas Gadient ). In the discussion within the party, Oprecht vehemently advocated turning away from the propagation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the recognition of national defense and the Swiss defense system in order to pave the way for the integration of the SP into the Swiss political system.

Together with Max Weber , he shaped the discussion about the “Plan of Work”, a trade union model for overcoming the economic crisis in the mid-1930s. Weber later launched the so-called crisis initiative with the SGB in competition with the plan of work and thus pushed the SP and Oprecht's plan out of public discussion.

After 1935, the growing divergences in the issues of economic crisis management and the attitude towards the army between the various wings and directions within the SP became more and more evident. With Max Weber's policy movement, the trade unions increased the pressure on the party leadership to bring the SP into a coalition with left-wing bourgeois forces. The turning point in 1936 was the debate about a 235 million loan for a renewal of the Swiss army, which forced the SP to give up its ambivalent attitude towards the army. The so-called "Defense Loans Party Conference" in Zurich in 1936 brought a heavy defeat for the reform-oriented forces, as the delegates of the party leadership did not follow the party leadership in their cooperative attitude towards the army. As a result of this decision, the longstanding party leadership under the Bernese Ernst Reinhard and Robert Grimm resigned, and the suburb of the party was relocated to Zurich, where a completely renewed party leadership was put together under Hans Oprecht as president.

Oprecht led the SP through the war as president until 1952 and made a significant contribution to the fact that the labor movement could be integrated into the Swiss political system of concordance. Nevertheless, in 1951, he was defeated by his old competitor and colleague Max Weber in the nomination for the successor to the first SP Federal Councilor Ernst Nobs. Together with his brother Emil Oprecht , he was one of the leading figures in the anti-fascist movement in Switzerland, was committed to refugees and emigrants and, in 1940, co-founded the " National Resistance Campaign". After the Second World War he rebuilt the Socialist International and since 1957 he has run a gallery in Zurich with his wife.

Works

  • The Oprecht case . VPOD (Ed.), O. O. uo J. (1939).
  • The Second World War and the Swiss Workers. Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (ed.), Zurich 1941.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Oprecht, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politicians and trade unionists
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Muri near Bern
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1978
Place of death Embrach