Henri Schaller (politician)

Henri Schaller

Henri Gaspard de Schaller (born October 8, 1828 in Versailles , France , † May 18, 1900 in Friborg ) was a Swiss politician and State Councilor of the canton of Friborg .

Life

Schaller was Catholic and came from a family belonging to the privileged citizens of the city of Freiburg . His parents were Jean-François Schaller (1784–1860), captain in the French service who survived the Spanish (1808) and Russian campaigns (1812), and Almire nee. de Clermont-Gallerande, which belonged to the French nobility. After Jean-François Schaller returned to Freiburg, he became colonel of the federal troops and inspector general of the Freiburg troops. Henri-Gaspard Schaller, Julien Schaller's first cousin , married Henriette de Spaur (1827–1900) in 1853, from the old South Tyrolean nobility.

After visiting the St. Michael College , Henri Schaller volunteered in a reserve company during the Sonderbund War (November 1847). He studied law at the Freiburg Academy of Law and at the Universities of Würzburg , Heidelberg and Paris before doing an internship with lawyer Louis de Wuilleret . In 1855 the radical Council of State appointed him clerk at the cantonal court. The liberal-conservative government promoted him to senior bailiff of the Sense District (1857-1858). From 1857 to 1900 he was a member of the Sense District in the Grand Council .

On May 11, 1858, Henri Schaller was elected by the canton parliament with 40 out of 66 votes to the State Council of the canton of Friborg, to which he belonged until 1900, i.e. for 43 years, a record that placed him ahead of Georges Python (42 years from 1886 until 1927). Schaller presided over the government in 1881, 1893 and 1899. In Bern he sat in the Council of States (1870-1896), which he presided over in 1892, after the parliamentary elections in 1896 until his death in the National Council .

Schaller successively headed the Cultural Directorate (1858–1862), the Interior Directorate (1862–1872), the Education Directorate (1872–1886) and the Police Directorate (1886–1900). He was a workaholic who left an extensive body of work. During his short time as director of culture, he continued Romain Werro's policy, which aimed to re-establish good relations between the state and the Catholic Church, especially with regard to the administration of church property and the confiscated property of some monasteries. As director of the interior, he renewed the law on parishes and parishes (1864), with which general councils were created in larger localities. He supported the establishment of the hospital in Billens (1866) and the psychiatric clinic in Marsens (1869), created laws on welfare and begging (1869) and on the homeless (1870) and supported agriculture (aids for improving livestock breeding 1863, for the dairy cooperatives and cheese dairies 1867), forestry, water construction and the draining of marshland. He also campaigned for the water and forest company as well as Guillaume Ritter's industrialization efforts in the canton's capital.

Schaller took over the education directorate at a time when the financial situation of the state was less tense. This enabled him to improve teachers' wages (1872) and their pensions (1881). He passed the law on secondary schools (1875) and received a good endowment for the teachers' college in Hauterive , expanded the college of St. Michael to include a business school and granted college teachers an increase in salaries (1872). In addition, he supported the historical and scientific museums. He prepared the ground for his successor Georges Python by opening new primary schools , standardizing their material and introducing gymnastics lessons . In 1884 the new school law came into force. He received federal recognition for the maturity exams he introduced . After leaving the Board of Education, he supported Georges Python's efforts to found a university.

As police director, Schaller set up a penal colony in Bellechasse (1899). He fought the increase in pints in the canton, which he believed to be breeding grounds for alcoholism, and improved fire fighting by strengthening the fire department. Finally he improved the insurance against livestock diseases (1899).

Schaller was a moderate conservative with some liberal ideas. This was shown particularly clearly by his activities in the federal chambers, since there he felt less restricted by the conditions in Freiburg. In Freiburg he stayed away from intrigues and conspiracies, but gradually approached the ultramontane conservatives, an expression of a certain opportunism and a sense of political survival. In addition to politics, he had other interests and was, for example, enthusiastic about the history of the canton and the state. He was a member of the Société d'histoire du canton de Friborg, which he presided over in 1877, the Société d'histoire de la Suisse romande, the Economic Society, the Société des Beaux-Arts and various other scientific, economic and artistic associations. Several historical works and articles come from his pen. Schaller was a civil servant who could look back on a remarkable work. Amiable and cheerful, welcomed in company and an excellent speaker, he had to pass a tough test when his wife Henriette went mad. He died on May 18, 1900 after a long illness at the age of 72. He is one of the last representatives of the generation of politicians who established the liberal-conservative regime in 1856. His work is remarkable, but dwarfed by that of Louis de Weck-Reynold and Georges Python .

literature

• Georges Andrey , John Clerc, Jean-Pierre Dorand et Nicolas Gex: The Freiburg Council of State: 1848–2011. History, organization, members . Editions La Sarine, Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-2-88355-153-4 .

Web links

• Jean-Pierre Dorand and ASCH: Schaller, Henri Gaspard de. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .