Heinrich Eugen Abbot

Heinrich Eugen Abt (born June 22, 1854 in Bünzen ; † November 15, 1937 there ; entitled to live in Bünzen) was a Swiss politician ( FDP ) and farmer . He represented the canton of Aargau in the National Council from 1911 to 1919 and is considered a pioneer of the agricultural cooperative system in Switzerland.

biography

The son of the straw-woven industrialist Roman Abt and younger brother of the rack railway designer Carl Roman Abt showed more interest in agriculture than in industry. He attended the district school in Muri , completed a one-year language stay in Paris and went to the agricultural school in Muri. He took over the farm from his father and expanded it into a model business. From 1887 to 1906 he was a teacher at the newly opened agricultural winter school in Brugg , where he taught farm management and animal science. He also held the office of rector , but not in the winter semester of 1893/94.

Abbot was involved in agricultural policy . He wrote a monograph on the Brown Swiss , gave numerous lectures on agricultural topics and called for reforms in agricultural legislation, which at the time seemed revolutionary, but were implemented a few decades later. He was also active as a journalist; from 1895 to 1899 and again from 1905 to 1919 for the cooperative , from 1901 to 1903 for the Schweizerische Bauernzeitung .

In 1884, Abt founded the first agricultural cooperative in the canton of Aargau in Bünzen . Two years later he was a co-founder of the Association of Eastern Switzerland Agricultural Cooperatives ( Volg ), from 1905 to 1919 he was its president. In 1897 he was also a co-founder of the Association of Swiss Brown Cattle Breeding Cooperatives and served as its managing director until 1912. He held a leading position in the Swiss Farmers' Association.

Abbot was elected to the National Council in the parliamentary elections in 1911 . As a member of the FDP parliamentary group, he primarily campaigned for agricultural policy issues. He was a member of the boards of directors of the Swiss Federal Railways and the Aargauische Hypothekenbank. In 1919 he resigned as member of the National Council, followed by his son Heinrich Roman Abt .

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. 11-12 .

Web links

• Anton Wohler: Abbot, Heinrich Eugen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .