Heinrich Schnyder (politician, 1897)

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Heinrich Schnyder (born August 8, 1897 in Uttewil (municipality of Bösingen ), † October 14, 1974 in Zollikon ) was a Swiss agricultural scientist and politician ( LdU ). He was a member of the National Council from 1935 to 1947 and a member of the Government Council of the Canton of Zurich from 1942 to 1943 .

biography

He was the youngest child of the farmer Jakob Schnyder and Anna Herren. In addition to eleven siblings, he also had ten half-siblings. The parents' farm owned a cheese dairy, a distillery, a blacksmith's shop, a mill and a large bakery. After attending primary and secondary school in Laupen , Schnyder spent a year in French-speaking Switzerland , after which he entered the Rütti agricultural school in Zollikofen . Although he had to do military service during the First World War , he passed the entrance examination to the ETH Zurich . After completing his studies as a qualified engineering agronomist in 1920, he traveled through Canada and the USA , where he earned his living as a milker, mechanic, fruit picker and cowboy. In 1923 he returned to Europe and set up a model farm near the French city of Angers .

From 1924 Schnyder taught business apprenticeship at the agricultural school in Brugg , at the same time he was the manager of the farm at Wildegg Castle . He got to know the entrepreneur Gottlieb Duttweiler , who called him to Zurich in 1932 to coordinate the agricultural action program of the Migros retail chain . This guaranteed the farmers a higher income with unchanged import tariffs because Migros bought their products at a higher price than the competition. Schnyder was promoted to director and chaired the editorial committee of the newspaper Die Tat founded by Duttweiler . After leaving Migros in 1942, he worked as a businessman. In 1951 Federal Councilor Friedrich Traugott Wahlen appointed him head of a group of experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Pakistan . In 1954 he founded the Swiss general agency of the household appliance company AEG , which he managed until his retirement.

politics

In the National Council elections in 1935 Schnyder ran on the "List of Independents" cited by Duttweiler and was elected in the Canton of Zurich . In December 1936 he was one of the founding members of the party that emerged from the Landesring der Independentigen (LdU). In the National Council he dealt with the issues of national supply, alcohol management, the war economy and the military. In 1942 he was elected to the Zurich government council (to replace Ernst Nobs , who had resigned ), whereupon he headed the medical department. Contrary to his advice, the LdU not only put him up as a candidate in the regular government council elections in 1943, but also Otto PfÄNDER . Although the LdU was able to almost double its number of seats in the cantonal elections that took place at the same time , Schnyder was unable to defend his seat on the government council. When Duttweiler wanted to give him the post of regional chairman (party leader) of the LdU, he turned down the offer out of disappointment.

Like almost the entire LdU parliamentary group, Schnyder also increasingly alienated himself from Duttweiler. He saw his social commitment and his work against a ban on the Communist Party as a "slide to the left". When Duttweiler announced in June 1943 that three years after his resignation he wanted to run for a member of the National Council again, Schnyder decided against it. Contrary to the recommendation of the parliamentary group in the National Council, the assembly of delegates decided on September 30th for Duttweiler's candidacy. As a result, on October 1, the dissidents drew up their own electoral list, the “Independent-Free List”. In the 1943 National Council elections , Schnyder was the only opponent of Duttweiler who could win a seat. He resigned from the party and exercised his mandate in the National Council until 1947 without belonging to a parliamentary group.

Private

From 1935 Schnyder was married to Gertrud Leemann from Brugg, who died in childbed after the birth of her son. His marriage to journalist Barbara Seidel (daughter of Robert Seidel ) in 1942 resulted in two daughters. Together with his second wife, he founded the “Zurich Builds for Forgotten” foundation in 1960, which campaigned for refugees from Austria and war victims in England . His estate is kept in the Archives for Contemporary History at ETH Zurich .

Works

  • New ways of fruit improvement
  • Textbook on agricultural construction

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Schnyder, Heinrich (1897-1974) - DB3222. Agricultural history archive, 2018, accessed October 2, 2019 .
  2. ^ Alfred A. Häsler : The Migros Adventure. The 60 year old idea . Ed .: Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Migros Presse, Zurich 1985, p. 64-65 .
  3. ↑ Curt Riess : Gottlieb Duttweiler - a biography of Curt Riess . Europa Verlag, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-905811-32-2 , pp. 288 .
  4. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 113-114.
  5. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 114-116.
personal data
SURNAME Schnyder, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss agronomist and politician (LdU)
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Uttewil, municipality of Bösingen FR
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1974
Place of death Zollikon