Johann Baptist Weder

Johann Baptist Weder (born June 27, 1800 in Oberriet , † October 17, 1872 in St. Gallen ) was a Swiss politician , journalist and judge . From 1848 to 1851 and from 1858 to 1872 he was a member of the National Council, from 1855 to 1857 the Council of States . He was both President of the National Council and the President of the Council of States . In the years 1847 to 1851 and 1861 to 1863 he was a member of the government of the Canton of St. Gallen .

biography

Born as the son of a wealthy farmer, Weber first studied philosophy from the winter semester 1822/23 , then law at the universities of Freiburg and Göttingen . He became a member of the old Freiburg fraternity and in 1824 of the Corps Alemannia Freiburg . To the Dr. iur. doctorate , he worked as a lawyer from 1827 . Neither was a supporter of liberal radicalism ; In 1831 he was one of the founders of the St. Galler Zeitung and worked for it as an editor. In 1846 he switched to the St. Galler Bote, for whom he worked until 1851. From 1855 to 1861 he was a judge at the cantonal court of cassation. From 1863 he worked again as a lawyer.

In 1833, Weder was first elected to the Grand Council of the Canton of St. Gallen . He was a member first until 1835, then from 1837 to 1839, 1841 to 1851 and finally from 1855 to 1867. In the years 1859/60 and 1861 he worked as a constitutional councilor in the drafting of a new cantonal constitution. The Grand Council elected him for the years 1847 to 1851 and 1861 to 1863 to the St. Gallen Government Council . In October 1848 he ran in the first parliamentary elections and then represented the constituency of St. Gallen-Süd for three years . From 1855 to 1857 he was a member of the Council of States (which he presided over in 1857), from 1858 he was a member of the National Council for the constituency of St. Gallen-Nordost (which he presided over in 1860). From the 1860s onwards he pursued a compromise course, which led to a break with the radical liberals. In 1870 he worked on the revision of the Federal Constitution , but ultimately rejected it because it was too centralistic for him. In 1872 he withdrew from politics.

Neither had a major influence on the St. Gallen church and education policy. From 1833 to 1835 and from 1855 to 1857 he was a member of the Catholic Education Council, and from 1855 to 1857 President of the Catholic Administrative Council . He was a member of the canton school council from 1856 to 1859, and the cantonal education council from 1862/63. Important concerns for him were the strict control of the church by the state, the introduction of a non-denominational high school (implemented in the form of the canton school on Burggraben in 1856 ) and state supervision of the entire education system (implemented in 1861 with the new canton constitution). In 1864 he proposed the establishment of the St.Galler Kantonalbank , which happened four years later.

literature

• Wolfgang Göldi: Neither, Johann Baptist. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 6: T-Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8253-5063-0 , p. 224.
• Hans Hiller: Johann Baptist Weder . In: Die Landammänner des Kantons St. Gallen , first part 1815–1891. St. Gallen, Verlag der Fehr'schen Buchhandlung, 1971, (111th New Year's Gazette , edited by the Historical Association of the Canton of St. Gallen), pp. 23–24.

Web links

• Publications by and about Johann Baptist Weder in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library