Johann Melchior Kubli

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Johann Melchior Kubli

Johann Melchior Kubli (born September 16, 1750 in Netstal , † January 3, 1835 in Quinten ) was a Swiss politician . He became known for his role as a clerk in the witch trial of Anna Göldi in 1782 . He was a representative in Basel and broker in the “Gossauerhandel”, Senator and President of the Senate of the Helvetic Republic , Grand Councilor and Government Councilor in St. Gallen , promoted Pestalozzi's reform pedagogy and was a successful wine and fruit grower.

Life

According to the obituary , he was born on September 13, 1750 in Netstal. His birth on September 16, 1750 is documented in the genealogical collections in Glarus . He was the first child of Caspar and Katharina Kubli (née Zopfi). His father was a businessman, land clerk and envoy. The family ran a sawmill and timber trade in Netstal . As early as 1749, Caspar Kubli belonged to a group of people from Glarus who did business with France. After the death of his father, Johann Melchior Kubli took over the management of the sawmill and the timber trade at the age of 15. In 1768, after he had been declared of age prematurely, he succeeded his father as a land clerk . He remained active in the office of land clerk for 24 years. In 1776 he became a councilor in Glarus.

In 1782 Kubli served as clerk and councilor in the trial against Anna Göldi . She was the last woman to be executed as an alleged witch in Europe . Kubli took a stand for the accused, pleaded for her innocence and against the use of torture. It was he who had the secret files published, to the horror of the Glarus authorities. In 2006 Walter Hauser came across the so-called register of the German publicist Heinrich Ludewig Lehmann (Ava Fautoribus Amicisque) and in 2007 he was the first to publish this historical document from 1782 in his book Der Justizmord an Anna Göldi . Various main characters of the Anna Göldi trial have handwritten entries in the studbook. A passage of text in the studbook provides evidence that the court clerk Kubli had handed the secret court files to the journalist Lehmann. Through this indiscretion by Kubli, the witch trial against Anna Göldi became public throughout Europe.

In the years to come, his influence grew. He became regional ensign in 1792 , salt director in 1794, and federal representative in 1796. In 1797 he was envoy in Basel and mediator in the so-called “Gossauerhandel”, a dispute between the Toggenburgers and the prince abbot of St. Gallen. As a result, the rebellious subject areas of the St. Gallen monastery received their own district administrator with a seal. In 1798, Kubli proposed to a rural community that the Glarus subject areas should become independent. In return, Kubli was able to win the subject areas into allies of the Glarus people against the threat from France.

In May 1798 Kubli was elected Helvetic Senator of the newly proclaimed Helvetic Republic. He represented the newly founded canton of Linth , to which Glarus belonged. In the same year he was elected President of the Senate. He signed the ratification of November 30, 1798 with France, which promised the French an auxiliary force of 18,000 volunteer soldiers. This could never be kept, but Kubli managed to win the trust of the French and to save Eastern Switzerland from war. Together with Senator Heinrich Krauer from Lucerne , he submitted a draft constitution to parliament . This went down in history as the draft constitution of the 5th month. The ideas contained therein were incorporated into today's Swiss federal constitution in 1848 . After a second coup , the Swiss Senate was dissolved under French military force . Kubli returned to the Glarnerland. He strongly advocated the Pestalozzi method , road building and the division of the Allmeinden . In 1808 he moved to Quinten. He had bought a house there years earlier. He dedicated himself to fruit growing and viticulture and bought the best varieties from abroad and from the Nüsperli tree nursery in Aarau . The fig trees were an expensive type of fruit at five cents a piece, but they thrive excellently in the Quinten climate. They have meanwhile become a symbol of fifths. He also ran a sheep farm and raised merino sheep .

In Quinten he settled a long-standing dispute about the use of wood and determined the boundaries of the place. He taught the bag master how to run a church. As a thank you, Kubli was given honorary citizenship in fifths. In 1813 he was elected to the Grand Council of St. Gallen. In the re-elections in 1815 he was Councilor and was at the Justice - and policing before. In 1830 he was not re-elected and returned to Quinten. Towards the end of 1834 he began to be ailing. He died on January 3, 1835 in the Kublihaus in Quinten and was buried in the Reformed cemetery in Mühlehorn .

Plaque

The great statesman, Johann Melchior Kubli, was remembered at a memorial service on November 29, 2015 in the Reformed Church in Mühlehorn. 180 years after his death, a memorial plaque was erected in his honor in the cemetery.

biography

Movie

musical

  • Anna Göldi - Das Musical (2017), Roland Hermann in the role of Kubli

Sources and literature

  • Genealogical entries in the regional archive of Glarus .
  • Chronicle of the Kubli family .
  • Historical-Biographical Lexicon of Switzerland . 1921/34.
  • Gallus Jakob Baumgartner : The history of the Swiss Free State and Canton of St. Gallen. With special reference to the origin, effectiveness and decline of the southern St. Gallen monastery . Verlag Wöhrl, Zurich 1868.
  • Christoph H. Brunner (Ed.): Swiss clover. To help up the Swiss heroes; a Glarus farmers' talk from 1803 and its author Johann Melchior Kubli . Tschudi Druck und Verlag, Glarus 1991, ISBN 3-85546-048-5 .
  • Johannes Dierauer : Political history of the canton St. Gallen 1803-1903 . Fehr publishing house, St. Gallen 1904.
  • Walter Hauser : The judicial murder of Anna Göldi , new research on the last witch trial in Europe . Limmat Verlag , Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-85791-525-3 .
  • Caspar Kubli: President of the Civil Court Caspar Kubli. An autobiography . Glarus 1891.
  • Rainer J. Schweizer, Ulrich Zelger: “Alle Macht dem Volk!” The draft constitution by Senators Heinrich Krauer and Johann Melchior Kubli from 1800 as a milestone in Swiss constitutional history . In: Bernd Marquardt, Alois Niederstätter (Hrsg.): The law in cultural-historical change. Festschrift for Karl Heinz Burmeister on retirement . KVK VG, Konstanz 2002, ISBN 3-89669-777-3 , pp. 305–339.
  • Paul Thürer: History of the community of Netstal . Baeschlin Verlag , Glarus 1922.
  • Pankraz Vorster : Intervention by the umbrella locations in St. Gallen . In: Communications on patriotic history from the Historical Association of the Canton of St. Gallen / 3. Series , 21, 74-82 (1884).
  • Jakob Winteler: History of the Land of Glarus, Vol. 2: From 1638 to the present . Baeschlin Verlag, Glarus 1954 (published on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the “Glarner Bund” by the government of the Canton of Glarus).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Commemoration for Johann Melchior Kubli ( Memento of the original from January 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Glarus24 on November 30, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.glarus24.ch
  2. ^ Johann Melchior Kubli honored with dignity in Southeastern Switzerland on November 30, 2015