Johann Caspar Sieber

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Johann Caspar Sieber around 1860

Johann Caspar Sieber (also Johann Kaspar Sieber) (born December 12, 1821 in Seebach (City of Zurich) , † January 22, 1878 in Hottingen (City of Zurich) ) was a Swiss educator , social reformer and politician .

Life

Sieber was born in Seebach in 1821 as the son of the farmer Diethelm and the Regula Christinger. He attended the local village school and then the country boys' institute (1835–1837) and the industrial school (1837–1839) in Zurich. From 1837 to 1839 he trained as a secondary teacher at the Küsnacht teacher training college. After graduation, he held various vicariate positions.

From 1841 to 1843 he taught as a secondary teacher in Wetzikon . There he was dismissed for teaching content critical of the republic and religion and received a five-year professional ban for the canton of Zurich. In 1843 he acquired the teacher's license from the canton of St. Gallen, which was revoked in 1844 for political reasons. On March 31, 1845, he took part in the Second Freischarenzug on the side of Gottfried Keller , Johann Jakob Treichler , Heinrich Grunholzer .

From 1845 to 1847 he was a teacher at the girls' school in Murten , Canton of Friborg . Because he had participated in the failed move to overthrow the conservative Freiburg government in January 1847, he was expelled from the canton in April and moved to Bern. In November he volunteered with the Sonderbund troops against Freiburg and returned to Murten after the overthrow of the conservatives. Here he founded the newspaper "Der Wächter, Ein Freisinniges Volksblatt", which he published from January to November 1848, and soon afterwards a people's association. His criticism of the liberal government led to another expulsion from the canton of Friborg and the settlement in Bern in October.

Through the mediation of Ludwig and Wilhelm Snell , he was co-editor of the radical Berner Zeitung from 1848 to 1950 . In 1850 he returned to the canton of Zurich, taught as a caretaker and from 1853 to 1869 as a teacher at the secondary school in Uster . At the same time, he was involved in community and district school maintenance, in the Zurich School Synod as president from 1860 to 1862 and advocated a progressive school system with lectures and articles.

As a supporter of the early socialist Johann Jakob Treichler and from 1854 to 1858 as Zurich's Grand Councilor, he fought against the liberals around Alfred Escher . He publicly criticized the working conditions in the factories of the "spinner king" Heinrich Kunz (1793-1859), which brought him to court, and called for legal protection. In 1864 he founded the weekly newspaper "Der Independent" and was its editor until 1868.

Along with Salomon Bleuler, he was one of the leading champions of the democratic movement (1867–1869) in the canton of Zurich: in 1867 as a member of the cantonal committee, as the author of the “Manifesto of Democrats” of December 8, 1867, and as a speaker at the people's assembly (“Landsgemeinde ») From December 15, 1867 in Uster, from 1868 to 1869 as an influential member of the 35th commission of the Zurich Constitutional Council, which drafted the direct democratic constitution of 1869 . Before Zurich, no canton had made such a radical change from a purely representative system to a model with far - reaching direct democratic elements . From 1869 to 1878 he was Zurich governing councilor of the Democratic Party : in 1869 director of education, in 1875 director of sanitary and prison services and in 1877 director of the interior.

He died in office. There is a memorial plaque on the Schlossweg opposite the Reformed Church in Uster. His estate is kept in the archive of the Paul Kläui Library in Uster.

"The people are well worth being told the truth wholly and undisguised."

- Johann Caspar Sieber, memorial plaque in Uster

plant

In the spirit of Ignaz Thomas Scherr , his teacher at the teachers' seminar, Sieber, as an educational politician, saw the education of people to be responsible citizens as a contribution to solving the social question.

As a government councilor and director of education, he tried to implement his goals in a comprehensive education law. Together with educational counselor Heinrich Wettstein , he had worked out a new teaching law with numerous innovations which, among other things, provided for the dissolution of the seminars. The future teachers should first be trained at a secondary school and then at the university. In 1872, the bill was rejected outright in a referendum, because the aversion to university-trained teachers was particularly strong in rural areas. As a result, Sieber was voted out of office in June 1872.

After he had regained his seat of government in a replacement election in September, he was able to realize individual points of his program. He achieved partial successes before (abolition of school fees) and afterwards (improved salaries for teachers, free secondary school lessons, opening of the Winterthur technical center ). As a medical director, he placed the emphasis on hygiene in a medical law.

Fonts

  • What is to be done? Ceremonial address given in Freiburg on January 31, 1848
  • Memorial speech for Dr. Thomas Scherr , in: Report on the negotiations of the Zurich School Synod of 1870

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Caspar Sieber  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter edition by Alfred Escher
  2. ↑ NZZ of April 17, 2019: The day on which Zurich opts for a “truly democratic” constitution
  3. ↑ NZZ of January 26, 2018: When the people of Zurich overthrew the “system”
  4. ^ Sieberhaus Uster: memorial plaque
  5. ^ Zurich government councilor: curriculum vitae of Johann Caspar Sieber
  6. ↑ 150 Years of Zurich Elementary School, School and Parents, Education Authority of the City of Zurich, 1982
  7. ^ Michael Köhler: Johann Caspar Sieber. A life for the people's rights. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2003
  8. ^ E-periodica: Pedagogical Observer Volume 4, 1878
  9. ↑ Hans Wattelet: Freiburg Geschichtsblätter. Volume 14, 1907
personal data
SURNAME Sieber, Johann Caspar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sieber, Johann Kaspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss educator, social reformer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Seebach (City of Zurich)
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1878
Place of death Hottingen (City of Zurich)