Johann Jakob Keller (politician)

Portrait of Johann Jakob Keller

Johann Jakob Keller (born March 27, 1823 in Lanzenmoos ( Fischenthal ); † June 28, 1903 there ) was a Swiss industrialist and politician. He was the main initiator («bank father») for the establishment of the Zürcher Kantonalbank .

Life

Johann Jakob Keller grew up as the son of the small farmer and home weaver Hans Jakob in Lanzenmoos in the Fischenthal community, near the watershed between the Jona valley and the Töss valley . After the village school he attended the Kunz Institute in Hombrechtikon from 1836 to 1838 . He had to break off the higher city school in Winterthur and the planned studies of theology in 1839 because the weaving and publishing business that his father had built up shortly after his birth went bankrupt.

He settled in Fischenthal and helped rebuild his father's business, which he ran with his mother in 1843 after the death of his father. From 1847 to 1857 he dealt with the publishing business of hand embroidery. In 1860 he received the concession for a mechanical weaving mill in Mühlebach (Fischenthal) and in 1863 he built a spinning mill with 7000 spindles in Gibswil (Fischenthal). With the help of his sons, he was able to constantly expand the business. When he handed the company over to his two sons in 1883, it had a capacity of 12,500 spindles.

In addition to managing his company, he served from 1851 to 1855 as mayor of Fischenthal and as peace (1851-1853), district (1855-1866) and commercial judge (1874-1891). From 1854 to 1869 he sat as a radical, later democratic politician in the Zurich Grand Council (cantonal council from 1869). In 1867 he became a member of the Action Committee of the Democratic Movement in the Canton of Zurich . From 1868 to 1869 he was a member of the Constitutional Council of the 35th Commission, which drafted the constitution for the constitution of 1869 . In the Zürcher Kantonalbank, which was established on the basis of the new constitution, he was a board member from 1869 to 1899. From 1869 to 1872 he was a cantonal councilor and national councilor until 1893. He was co-founder and from 1871 to 1876 board member of the Tösstalbahn .

plant

Keller was a successful entrepreneur and politician with a social concern. He was convinced that the improvement of the situation of the workers could not be brought about either through political agitation or through strikes, but only through understanding and mutual respect of the social partners. In 1850 he wrote a memorandum on the predicament of his heavily indebted home community Fischenthal. As a young mayor, he succeeded in redeveloping the indebted community.

In the canton of Zurich he was one of the first and leading democrats who campaigned for the extension of popular rights in the 1860s. He called for the establishment of a state bank, which should cover the need, especially in the landscape, for small loans. As a constitutional councilor, he succeeded in introducing this project into the draft of the new Zurich constitution of 1869. He became the main initiator for the establishment of the Zürcher Kantonalbank.

At the federal level, he campaigned in the National Council and in the press for compulsory social insurance (general and compulsory accident, health and old age insurance) as well as for a federal state bank ( Swiss National Bank ).

recognition

• 1975 Memorial in Gibswil by Charlotte Germann-Jahn .

literature

• Markus Bürgi: Keller, Johann Jakob. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 30, 2013 , accessed March 28, 2020 .
• Moia Schnyder: Johann Jakob Keller von Fischenthal 1823-1903 . In: Swiss Pioneers in Business and Technology 25, Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich 1971
• Fischenthal community: Fischenthaler Chronik 3rd part 1978 to 2017. Blossom and die - about the development of trade and industry in Fischenthal

Web links

• Johann Jakob Keller on the website of the Federal Assembly
• Johann Jakob Keller on the website of the Canton of Zurich
• Documents by and about Keller, Johann Jakob in the Dodis database of Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Rudolf Schmid: Keller, Johann Jakob in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 11 1977, page 459 [1]
2. ↑ Antonio Cortesi: "Bank father from Fischenthal". Heimatspiegel No. 10 from October 1, 1990 [2]
3. ↑ Reto Flury: "Cheap money for free citizens: How a Zurich factory owner fights against the“ Escher system ”and for a cantonal bank . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of April 17, 2019 [3]
4. ↑ "Fish Thaler Kaländer" of 1 December 2004: de About Bank father Chäller vo Gibschwil . [4] [5]