Karl Johann Im Obersteg

Karl Johann Im Obersteg (born October 9, 1849 in Boltigen ; † December 31, 1926 in Basel ) was a Swiss entrepreneur and collector .

Karl Johann Im Obersteg-Friedlin

life and work

In Obersteg was the eldest son of the doctor, music and literature lover and collector Johannes Im Obersteg (1809–1872).

Im Obersteg originally studied law in Zurich and Strasbourg . He took a job in a London export company and in 1874 joined the “emigration company” of Andreas Zwilchenbart (1786–1866) in Basel. The company set new standards in Switzerland with its extensive range of services in the area of ​​the emigration business - contacting authorities, bookings, financial services - and was considered a leader in the local market.

The first extensive trip to the United States and Canada followed and the marriage to the daughter of Andreas Zwilchenbart. The marriage was childless and short-lived. The company, which also had a branch in New York City , continued on upstairs after his divorce.

In 1880 Im Obersteg married Elisabeth, née Friedlin (born September 28, 1861, † January 15, 1937) von Steinen in Wiesental in southern Baden . Together with their two sons, they lived in Basel in a spacious property on Bundesstrasse 19, which was named "Fermel" based on the Fermeltal , a side valley of the Obersimmental .

In 1885 Im Obersteg participated in the establishment of the Swiss colony "Bernstadt" in Kentucky . As a successful businessman and businessman, he also participated as a representative of the English railway company “ South Eastern and Chatham Railway London” and the insurance company “L'Urbaine Incendie et Vie Paris”.

Grave in the Hörnli cemetery

In 1889 Im Obersteg and his brother founded a second company in Basel, the freight forwarding company "Im Obersteg & Cie". In 1890 he was naturalized in Basel. Im Obersteg was a member of the Basel Grand Council from 1893 to 1902 and a representative of the government in the commission of the Basel Historical Museum from 1892 to 1919 .

After the First World War, Im Hof ​​concentrated on the tourism and travel business and became a Swiss leader in this field. He took part in the founding of the Society for Aviation in Basel, from which Balair later emerged.

Since Im Obersteg suffered from hearing loss in old age, he withdrew from public life and devoted himself to genealogical work on the old Simmental genders and collected remnants of cultural and historical times. Im Obersteg remained true to his homeland insofar as he kept his parents' property in Boltigen, a stately country house that his father had built, in his possession. A large part of the various collections (weapons and militaria collection, a collection of ethnographic objects and Simmental furniture as well as a painting collection) found a suitable setting and enough space. As a kind of private museum, the collections were accessible to an interested public on request.

When Im Obersteg died in 1926, his two sons donated the weapons and militaria collection to the Thun Historical Museum, which housed it in Thun Castle , and in 1927 to the Burgdorf Ethnological Museum . Here she added to a collection already donated by Im Obersteg in 1921.

In Obersteg, together with his wife, he found his final resting place in the Hörnli cemetery . Together they had two sons: Armin Im Obersteg-Bühler (1881–1969) who became a lawyer and Karl Im Obersteg-Buess (1883–1969) who continued to run his father's forwarding company. His grandson was Jürg im Obersteg .

Karl Im Obersteg was also the founder of the "Art Collection Im Obersteg". This was given to the Kunstmuseum Basel on permanent loan in 2002 . The Kunstmuseum Bern , which had to cope with the move out of the Paul Klee Foundation at the time , had also applied for the collection of almost 200 works - not a few of them world-class .

Web links

• Collection Im Obersteg In: Kunstmuseum Basel
• The Im Obersteg family from Basel, a collector dynasty from Boltigen. In: Docplayer
• Nekrolog für Karl Johann Im Obersteg In: Die Berner Woche, Vol. 17, 1927, p. 60.
• Dominique Spirgi: Collection Im Obersteg In: TagesWoche , October 13, 2015