Josef Zemp

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Josef Zemp

Josef Zemp (born September 2, 1834 in Entlebuch ; † December 8, 1908 in Bern ; entitled to live in Entlebuch) was a Swiss politician . From 1863 to 1891 he was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Lucerne , from 1871 to 1872 of the Council of States . He sat in the National Council from 1872 to 1876 and from 1881 to 1891. In December 1891, Zemp was elected to the Federal Council as the first representative of the Catholic Conservatives (today's CVP ) . He was the first member of the Swiss state government who did not belong to the previously ruling liberal-radical group. During his term of office, private railway companies were bought back and the Swiss Federal Railways founded .

biography

Studies and canton politics

He was the oldest of eleven children of the shopkeeper and court clerk Jost Zemp and Maria Josefa Meier. After attending primary and secondary school in Entlebuch , he went to high school in Lucerne . He then studied law at the Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich . Zemp belonged to the Catholic-Conservative student association AV Semper Fidelis Lucerne , in 1857/58 he was the Central President of the Swiss Student Union . After receiving his doctorate in 1859, he returned to Entlebuch and opened a law firm there. In 1860 Zemp married Philomena Widmer from Emmen , and this marriage had 15 children. At the age of 28 he was elected to the Grand Council of the Canton of Lucerne in 1863 and belonged to it as a member of the Catholic-Conservative parliamentary group (later the Catholic-Conservative People's Party and today's CVP ) until 1891.

Federal politics

In January 1865, Zemp ran for a seat in the National Council for the first time in a by-election , but was clearly defeated by the liberal Josef Bucher in the Lucerne-South constituency . In July 1871, the Grand Council appointed him one of the two representatives of Lucerne in the Council of States , to which he was a member for barely a year and a half. In the National Council elections in 1872 , he was elected without opposition in the Lucerne-Southwest constituency. He was then from December 1872 to October 1876 and again from December 1881 to December 1891 a member of the National Council (a National Council mandate had higher prestige at that time).

Zemp quickly rose to one of the leading figures of the Catholic-Conservative opposition in parliament and was its parliamentary group leader from 1880 to 1885. At the beginning of the 1880s he tried to merge the independent Catholic-Conservative associations of the individual cantons into a more tightly run nationwide “Catholic Union”, but failed with this project due to cantonal self-interests (this only succeeded in 1912). Together with Johann Joseph Keel and Martino Pedrazzini , he called in a motion in 1884 for a partial revision of the federal constitution . This meant a departure from the previous policy of obstruction against the liberal federal state , which had prevailed since the Kulturkampf , and the faction turned to a realpolitical course.

The change of course forced the radical-liberal coalition to give up its policy of exclusivity in filling the highest offices at the federal level and to seek compromises more and more. In 1887, for example, Zemp was the first representative of the Catholic Conservatives to be elected President of the National Council. After the people and the cantons had clearly refused to buy back the Centralbahn on December 6, 1891 , Post and Railway Minister Emil Welti resigned immediately. The radicals and liberals, who had previously ruled alone, prevented a government crisis by offering the Catholic Conservatives a seat in the Federal Council and thus giving up their claim to sole representation. The parliamentary group then agreed on Zemp as the official candidate. On December 17, he received 129 out of 154 valid votes in the first ballot, 25 votes for a few people. The election of Zemp to the Federal Council forced the Catholic Conservatives to renounce purely opposition politics and take on government responsibility. Parts of the group sharply criticized the new course.

Federal Council

At the beginning of 1892 Zemp took over the management of the postal and railway department , although as a member of parliament he had campaigned against the nationalization of the railway . As a member of the government, however, he changed his mind after the Catholic Conservatives had failed in 1894 with a popular initiative with which part of the customs revenue should have been allocated to the cantons. He saw this as a signal that he had to move away from the strictly federalist policy of the Catholic Conservatives. A law drawn up by Zemp, which regulated the accounting of the railways, survived a referendum vote on October 4, 1896. The anti-statist wing of the Catholic-Conservative parliamentary group resisted the repurchase law that was subsequently passed and held the referendum again. But on February 20, 1898, the people accepted the bill with a large majority. Zemp said: "We have remained federalists, but we have become realpoliticians and will remain so."

This cleared the way for the gradual nationalization of the most important private railways. Caspar Decurtins complained that Zemp had "forgotten all his past" and had "moved into the radical camp with bag and baggage". The critic was not deterred by this and took the necessary steps to bring the Swiss Central Railway , the Swiss Northeast Railway , the United Swiss Railway and the Jura-Simplon Railway into state ownership. Finally, on January 1, 1902, the Swiss Federal Railways were founded . Also in 1902 Zemp was Federal President for the second time and took over the Political Department for a year (in 1895 the usual rotation principle was suspended). The Federal Palace in Bern was completed in his presidential year ; he also had to deal with diplomatic disagreements with Italy after an anti-Italian article appeared in an anarchist newspaper in Geneva.

In his traditional department, Zemp was also responsible for post, telephone and telegraph. Technological advances in these areas required new legal regulations. While the introduction of the Central European Period was controversial in 1894, the federal law passed in 1907 on the organization of telephone and telegraph administration was undisputed. Numerous representative post offices were built under Zemp's direction. He also prepared the revision of the Postal Act, which could not be completed until 1910 under his successor. Zemp resigned on June 17, 1908 for health reasons. He died four and a half months later at the age of 74.

literature

  • Urs Altermatt : Josef Zemp . In: Urs Altermatt (Ed.): Das Bundesratslexikon . NZZ Libro , Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-03810-218-2 , p. 200-205 .
  • Association Book Project Federal Councilor Josef Zemp (Ed.): Josef Zemp. A Federal Council creates the balance . His life and work in dialogue with the present. [Rothenburg (Konstanz 8)]: Association book project Federal Councilor Josef Zemp [c / o A. Hartmann] 2008, ISBN 978-3-907821-56-5 .
  • German Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, Munich a. Leipzig, KG Saur, 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Altermatt: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 200.
  2. ^ Altermatt: The Federal Council Lexicon. Pp. 200-201.
  3. ^ Federal decree on the purchase of the Swiss Central Railway , voting result of December 6, 1891 on admin.ch
  4. ^ Altermatt: The Federal Council Lexicon. Pp. 201-202.
  5. ^ Altermatt: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 202.
  6. Federal law on the acquisition and operation of railways for the account of the federal government and the organization of the administration of the Swiss federal railways , voting result of February 20, 1898 on admin.ch
  7. ^ Altermatt: The Federal Council Lexicon. P. 204.
  8. ^ Altermatt: The Federal Council Lexicon. Pp. 202-204.
  9. ^ Altermatt: The Federal Council Lexicon. Pp. 203-204.
predecessor Office successor
Emil Welti Member of the Swiss Federal Council
1892–1908
Josef Anton Schobinger