Karl Hoffmann (politician, 1820)

Karl Hoffmann (born February 2, 1820 in St. Gallen ; † July 26, 1895 there ) was a Swiss politician . He represented the canton of St. Gallen in the Council of States for 17 years . In 1881 he rejected the election to the Federal Council .

biography

He was the son of the businessman Johann Martin Hoffmann from Frankfurt am Main . After his father's death and his mother's remarriage, from 1832 he was the stepson of the St. Gallen lawyer and cantonal councilor Johann Baptist Gruber. Hoffmann studied law at the Universities of Bern , Jena and Munich . From 1840 he practiced as a lawyer in St. Gallen. In 1844 he received Swiss citizenship and a year later he married the factory owner's daughter Sabine Elisabeth Steinlin.

Hoffmann's political career began in 1853 with his election to the St. Gallen Cantonal Council , to which he belonged until 1870 and again from 1873 until his death. As a candidate for the radical democrats (later FDP ), he was also elected to the Council of States in 1873 . He presided over the Council of States commissions, which were responsible for drafting the Code of Obligations and the Debt Collection and Bankruptcy Law . The Federal Assembly elected Hoffmann to the Federal Council on February 22, 1881 , but he did not accept the election for family reasons and waived in favor of Louis Ruchonnet . In 1883 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich , and in 1891 he resigned as a Councilor.

One of his children was Arthur Hoffmann , who later became Federal Councilor .

Web links

• Marcel Mayer: Hoffmann, Karl. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .