Johannes Knechtenhofer

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Johannes Knechtenhofer (born March 14, 1793 in Thun ; † March 9, 1865 there ) was a Swiss politician and hotelier . He promoted tourism in the Lake Thun region and was a member of the National Council from 1850 to 1851 .

biography

Share for CHF 500 in the United Steamship Company on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz from July 1, 1843

The son of a master butcher completed an apprenticeship as a baker, after which he worked as an accountant and linen dealer in Sumiswald . In 1824 he acquired the Gasthof zum Weissen Kreuz in Thun. Ten years later, he and his brothers Johann Jakob and Johann Friedrich opened the Hotel Bellevue in Oberhofen on Lake Thun . A road was planned to be built on the opposite bank of the lake and the brothers feared that their hotel could be cut off from traffic. In response, they ordered a steamboat from a French shipyard . On July 31, 1835, the maiden voyage of the "Bellevue" took place, the first steamship on Lake Thun; the captain was Johannes Knechtenhofer himself.

A little later, the brothers agreed with a competitor to found the "United Steamship Company of the Thuner and Brienzersee " (this was taken over by the Thunerseebahn in 1912 , which in turn merged with the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon-Bahn in 1913). In 1848 Knechtenhofer, who had the rank of colonel in the Swiss army , took part in the exploration of the Beatus caves ; he and his sailors advanced into a grotto, which in his honor is called "Captain's Grotto". From 1858 to 1870 he was the owner of the Hotel Giessbach (before it was expanded into today's Grand Hotel).

Knechtenhofer belonged to the Thun city government as early as the 1820s, and from 1832 to the new Thun municipal council . From 1834 to 1836 he served as mayor , from 1853 to 1862 he was again a councilor. Knechtenhofer initially represented liberal views, but later turned to the conservatives. His friends included the future French Emperor Napoleon III. and Guillaume-Henri Dufour . He was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern from 1829 to 1846 and from 1850 to 1862. In a by-election in the Oberland constituency in October 1850, he was elected to the National Council, but only one year later he could not be re- elected in the National Council elections in 1851 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aktiensammler 02/12, p. 9, ISSN  1611-8006
  2. ↑ 175 years of shipping on Lake Thun. (PDF, 1.4 MB) BLS AG , 2010, accessed on November 18, 2014 .
  3. ^ History of shipping on Lake Thun. BLS AG, accessed on November 18, 2014 .
  4. ↑ A mountain hides beauty in the belly. Jungfrau Zeitung , April 2, 2007, accessed on November 18, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Knechtenhofer, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician and hotelier
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Tuna
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1865
Place of death Tuna