Jakob Bertsch

Jakob Bertsch (born May 26, 1890 in Feldkirch ; † April 13, 1957 ibid) was a politician in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg . From 1923 to 1934 he was a member of the Vorarlberg Landtag for the Social Democratic Labor Party and from 1945 to 1957 for the Socialist Party of Austria . In addition, after the Second World War, he was Vice President of the Vorarlberg State Committee from May 24 to December 10, 1945 and in the subsequent Vorarlberg State Governments until 1957, State Councilor for Welfare and Health Care and State Agencies.

Live and act

Jakob Bertsch was born on May 26, 1890 as the son of Johann Josef and Anna Maria Bertsch in Feldkirch. After attending elementary school in Frastanz and a four-year high school in Feldkirch, he first worked for a year as an unskilled worker before joining the postal service in 1907. Bertsch continued to work as a post office clerk - with an interruption during military service between 1911 and 1918 - until his retirement. On April 10, 1918, Jakob Bertsch married his wife Berta Maria (née Kerbler) in Slovenizel Brod.

First political experiences

In 1910 Jakob Bertsch became a member of the Social Democratic Labor Party. In 1918 he founded the local social democratic organization in Frastanz, and in 1919 he was elected to a political office for the first time as city representative in Bregenz . On November 6, 1923, Bertsch was elected for the first time for the Social Democrats as a member of the Feldkirch electoral district in the Vorarlberg state parliament. Just one year later, Bertsch switched from Bregenz to Feldkirch city politics and became city representative in his hometown on March 7, 1924. Only one year later, on August 8, 1925, he also became a member of Feldkirch's city council. He had to resign both functions as well as his mandate in the state parliament in the course of the establishment of the Austro-Fascist corporate state in 1934 and the associated ban on the Social Democratic Workers' Party. In the same year he was arrested as an avowed social democrat, but released again soon afterwards.

Postwar Politics

Towards the end of the Second World War, Jakob Bertsch joined the Vorarlberg resistance movement against the Nazi regime and, after the liberation of Austria in 1945, became party leader of the newly founded Socialist Party in Vorarlberg , which he remained until his death. In the same year he was appointed Vice President of the provisional state government, known as the Vorarlberg State Committee , by the ÖVP politician Ulrich Ilg . At the same time he became a member of the provisional Feldkirch community committee again. Following the first free election after the end of the Nazi era on November 25, 1945 ( state election in Vorarlberg 1945 ), in which the SPÖ won 27.3% of the vote, Jakob Bertsch von Ilg became part of the first free state government in Vorarlberg appointed as regional councilor for welfare and health care as well as state institutions. Even after the state elections in 1949 and 1954 , Bertsch became a member of the Vorarlberg state government as a state councilor.

Jakob Bertsch died on April 13, 1957 at the age of 66 in his hometown of Feldkirch.

Web links

• Biography of Jakob Bertsch (PDF; 140 kB) in the parliamentary documents of the Vorarlberg state parliament.