Josef Jäger (politician)

Josef Jäger (born December 1, 1852 in Säckingen , † July 19, 1927 in Baden ) was a Swiss teacher , journalist and politician ( DP and FDP ). From 1896 to 1905 and from 1911 to 1925 he represented the canton of Aargau in the National Council . He was also mayor of Baden from 1910 to 1927 . Due to internal party differences, he led the Rhine District Party from 1905 to 1912, a split from the Aargau FDP.

biography

Jäger's father, who came from Herznach , was a partner in a ribbon weaving mill in Säckingen, and later the technical manager of a weaving mill in Badisch Laufenburg . Son Josef graduated from the district school in Laufenburg in Aargau , later he trained as a teacher at the Wettingen teacher training college. He then studied German and economics at the universities of Zurich , Tübingen and Geneva . In 1874 he taught German and history at the district school in Schinznach . In 1875 he moved to the district school in Baden, where he worked as a German and French teacher for the next ten years (until 1884 also as rector ). In 1884 Jäger founded the Swiss Free Press newspaper together with Arnold Künzli and was its editor from 1885 to 1910.

As a member of the Democratic Party, Jäger sat in the Aargau Constitutional Council in 1884/85, which drafted a new cantonal constitution. In 1885 he was elected to the Grand Council . In the canton parliament, which he presided over in 1914/15, he was particularly committed to the education system, small farmers and the workers. He also called for the conversion of the mixed- economy Aargauer Bank into the state-owned Aargauische Kantonalbank - a concern that was realized in 1913. Hunter was politically active at the local level: in 1902 he was appointed to the city council elected by Baden, 1910 was followed by the election of the city Ammann . During his tenure, Baden developed from a quiet health resort to an industrial city, which necessitated the planning and implementation of numerous infrastructure measures.

After the Democrats in Aargau merged with the Liberals to form the FDP, Jäger belonged to the left wing. In 1893 he ran in the constituency of Aargau-Nord (also known as the Rhine district), but was not yet elected to the National Council . However, he was successful in the National Council elections in 1896. At the federal level, he campaigned primarily for the unification of law in Switzerland ( civil code ), the establishment of the National Bank and health and accident insurance. Within the party, Jäger was controversial with his socially liberal politics. After he was re-elected in 1902 only with the support of the Grütliverein , he was voted out of office in 1905. Thereupon the liberals of the Rhine district split off from the cantonal party and, under Jäger's leadership, formed the Rhine district party, which advocated cultural and social progress. With this program he was again elected to the National Council in 1911.

In 1912, the dissidents reconciled with the Aargau FDP and rejoined it, as almost all of their positions were taken into account in the new party program. Jäger was now largely undisputed and was re-elected as a National Council five more times. From 1914 he was a member of the board of directors of the Northeast Swiss Power Plants . Towards the end of the First World War he organized aid deliveries for children in need in Vienna and Hungary , and under his leadership the city of Baden carried out an aid campaign for Tuttlingen after the war . In 1920 Jäger was granted honorary citizenship of Baden, and remained city administrator until his death.

literature

• Biographical Lexicon of the Canton of Aargau 1803–1957 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 68/69 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1958, p. 397-398 .

Web links

• Patrick Zehnder: Hunter, Josef. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .