Josef Anton Hess (politician, 1832)

Josef Anton Hess (born March 15, 1832 in Unterägeri ; † January 4, 1915 there , entitled to live in Unterägeri) was a Swiss politician (Catholic conservative) and textile entrepreneur .

biography

Josef Anton Hess was on March 15, 1832 as the son of the mayor , dyer born and textile entrepreneur Joseph Anton Hess senior in Unterägeri.

From 1846 he attended the St. Michael College in Freiburg. In 1853, after the death of his father, he took over his business in Unterägeri and had it expanded into a large goods store with attached weaving , embroidery and dyeing works. He also founded a weaving and embroidery factory in Prà near Genoa in 1862 .

Josef Anton Hess, whose first marriage was to Johanna, the daughter of councilor Anton Gamma, and his second marriage to Maria Elisa, the daughter of the entrepreneur Nikolaus Benziger , died on January 4, 1915 at the age of 82 in Unterägeri.

Political activity

Josef Anton Hess also followed in his father's footsteps in politics. He was a member of the Cantonal Council of Zug from 1854 to 1857, 1864 to 1867 and 1892 to 1906 . In addition, he represented his canton in the Council of States between 1877 and 1883 . At the municipal level, he served from 1877 to 1891 as mayor , and from 1897 to 1908 as Korporationsrat in Unterägeri.

Josef Anton Hess, who enjoyed the reputation of an “idiosyncratic village king” , broke the supremacy of the liberals with his party in the 1870s , who were supported by the Unterägerer spinning mills of the Henggeler family, but at the same time got involved with his political opponents for the development of the Municipality, especially in the field of water supply , traffic development and tourism .

literature

• Zuger Nachrichten, January 9, 1915;
• Erich Gruner: Federal Assembly 1, 366;
• Ägerital - its history, 2003;
• Renato Morosoli: Hess, Josef Anton. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .