Hubert Charles

Hubert Charles

Hubert Charles called "von Riaz" (born November 2, 1793 in Marsens , † March 28, 1882 in Friborg ) was a Swiss politician and State Councilor of the Canton of Friborg .

He was Catholic and came from a middle-class family from Echarlens who settled in Riaz in 1800 when Charles' father bought a large estate there. His parents were Pierre-Joseph-Nicolas Charles and Marie-Françoise born. Dupasquier. His father was a wealthy landowner, owner of the large estate that later passed into the possession of the Riaz Hospital by legacy . He was a judge at the District Court in Bulle, Grand Councilor and deputy cantonal appellate judge.

Life

Charles attended from 1807 to 1813 the college of St. Michael , which he graduated with the Matura . In 1814 he went to Paris to study law and Greek. In 1815 he also attended chemistry courses with Professor Langier in the Jardin des Plantes . He went to Vienna, where he secretary of the Duke of Württemberg, a relative of the Russian Tsar Alexander I was. He accompanied the duke on his travels, especially to St. Petersburg . He traveled to Italy alone to deepen his literary and artistic knowledge. As a competent intellectual and self-taught, he mastered French, Latin, Greek, Italian, German and English and read the relevant writers in the original language.

Returned to Freiburg in 1819 , he was appointed district judge in Bulle (1819-1820) before making further study trips to Germany (1820-1823). From 1825 to 1830 he stayed again in Bulle , where he managed the large family property. Remaining single, he led the life of a gentleman farmer who remained closely connected to his sisters.

From 1824 to 1825 Charles stayed in Valais to study river barriers. Back in the Gruyère region, the Council of State appointed him director of the hydropower plants that were built by the affected communities between the bridges of Montbovon and Thusy . This successful company made him known throughout the Gruyère region.

Political career

In 1829 Charles could have started a political career. He would have been appointed Grand Councilor if he voted in favor of the State Council. As a liberal, he refused, stating that he was voting as his conscience dictated. The Restoration regime (1814-1830) removed him from the Grand Council, and he openly went into opposition. A little later he took part in the uprising of December 1830, in which the oligarchy of the capital's privileged citizenship was overthrown.

Now the first, very active part of his political life began for Charles at the cantonal level: Constitutional Council, Grand Council of the Gruyère District (1831–1846) and State Council (1831–1846). He took an active part in the government's system of commissions and chaired the Police Council (1831–1841), which launched the comprehensive program of the paved cantonal roads, the Council of the Interior (1831–1839), the Health Council (1831–1837) and the management of the Cantonal Post Office ( 1832-1841). As a devout Catholic and political liberal, he did not follow the extreme minority of liberals who are approaching radicalism. As a supporter of the «Juste milieu», however, he also stayed away from the conservatives, who gained in importance after 1837. His influence in government waned. In 1846 he resigned after fighting in vain the canton's accession to the Sonderbund . He took the same stance as his friend and future colleague Romain Werro : Both were dismayed by the rise in political extremism.

After the beginning of the radical regime (1847), he returned to politics to combat the excesses of the Schaller government. In elections held in the form of popular assemblies, he risked his health and life, but remained the champion of legal resistance and won over the moderate conservatives for his cause. Charles was one of the organizers of the Posieux People's Assembly. In 1852 he was elected to the National Council, where he remained until 1863, and from 1853 to 1871 he was a Grand Councilor. He published brochures and organized petitions that shook the radical regime until it was overthrown in December 1856.

Charles' second political career began on June 4, 1857, when the Grand Council elected him to the State Council with 70 votes out of 73. He accepted the election on the condition that Parliament also appoint his friend Romain Werro to the Council of State, which is what happened. Charles became the strong man of the executive branch, which he presided over in 1857, 1859, 1861, 1862, 1864, 1866 (June through December), 1867, 1869, and 1871. For fifteen years (1857–1871) he was director of education. He reintroduced classical teaching at St. Michael's College (1857), organized the teachers' seminar in Hauterive (1868) and reformed the primary school (1870). The politician, who succeeded in uniting the liberals hostile to radical excesses with the moderate conservatives, prevailed as the unofficial head of government between 1857 and 1865. After that, the moderate forces lost their influence and the liberal-conservative alliance began to crumble. Tensions arose which led Charles to turn his back on politics in December 1871 at the age of 78. He went on trips again and often stayed in Montpellier to indulge his literary passion. He died on March 28, 1882 at the age of 89.

Charles loved literature and science. With his prose and his poetry he was one of the reasons for the success of the magazine L'Emulation, founded in 1841. He wrote numerous political brochures and a notable Course dans la Gruyère (1827).

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

• François Schneuwly: Charles, Hubert. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .