List of personalities of the city of Rapperswil

The list of personalities of the city of Rapperswil includes important people who either come from the city of Rapperswil SG or have worked there for a long time.

List of personalities of the city of Rapperswil

Early middle ages

• Kunigunde von Rapperswil († 4th century): According to legend, one of the companions of Saint Ursula of Cologne , who died in Rapperswil on the way back from the pilgrimage to Rome.

High and late Middle Ages

"Alt-Rapperswiler" see Genealogy of the Counts of Rapperswil .

• Count Rudolf II of Rapperswil (* around 1160, † around 1218); moved the headquarters (Alt-Rapperswil) from Altendorf (SZ) to Rapperswil (SG); Founder of the city of Rapperswil; Participants in the Fifth Crusade together with Luetold IV von Regensberg .
• Count Rudolf III. von Rapperswil (* 1180/90, † 1251): Completed the construction of the town and castle of Rapperswil ; Founder of the parish and town church in Rapperswil ; Jerusalem trip 1217; In 1229 , he gave the Rüti monastery the Bollingen Church, including tithes and all of its members.
• Anna, daughter of Rudolf III. († 1253): married Count Hartmann von Kyburg in 1251/52 , but died shortly after the birth of their son Werner II von Kyburg in 1253.
• Adelheid von Rapperswil: sister of Rudolf III. from Rapperswil; married to Walter III. von Vaz and mother of Count Rudolf IV. von Rapperswil (Rudolf III. von Vaz).
• Count Rudolf IV of Rapperswil (approx. * 1230, † July 27, 1262): Born as Rudolf III. von Vaz-Rapperswil, son of Walter III. von Vaz and Adelheid von Rapperswil; called himself the heir of the County of Rudolf IV of Rapperswil; 1259 (second?) Founder of the Wurmsbach Cistercian monastery in Bollingen .
• Mechthild von Neifen: wife of Rudolf IV and mother of Vinzenz († around 1261), who only lived briefly, of Elisabeth and Rudolf V; Together with her husband sponsor of the Oetenbach monastery in Zurich, the knight Burkhard Brühunt, a follower of the Rapperswil family, confirmed that he had sold the building site on the Oetenbach to the nuns in 1261.
• Count Rudolf V. von Rapperswil (* around 1265, † January 15, 1283): brother of Elisabeth von Rapperswil; died as a minor and without offspring; last Count of Rapperswil in male line of succession.
• Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil (* around 1251/61, † 1309): Sister of Rudolfs V .; married to Count Ludwig von Homberg († April 27, 1289) and later to Count Rudolf von Habsburg-Laufenburg (uncle of Johannes von Regensberg ); was, like her mother and father, one of the patrons of the city of Zurich monastery Oetenbach; After the death of their husbands, first Count Johann I, then his son Count Johann II. inherited the County of Rapperswil.
• Cäcilia von Homberg (* probably before 1300, † after 1320): daughter of Elisabeth from her first marriage to Count Ludwig von Homberg; Prioress of the Oetenbach Monastery ; promoted its further expansion from 1317.
• Count Werner von Homberg- Rapperswil or Hohenberg (* 1284, † 1320 near Genoa): son of Elisabeth von Rapperswil from her first marriage to Count Ludwig von Homberg; Minstrel ; Vogt of Einsiedeln (1296?); from 1309 was imperial count and imperial bailiff of the Waldstätte , imperial field captain (lieutenant general) in Lombardy at the time of Emperor Henry VII ; Founded the Liebfrauenkapelle of the Oetenbachkloster around 1320.
• Count Johann (es) I von Habsburg-Laufenburg- Rapperswil (* before 1295/6, † 1337): son of Elisabeth von Rapperswil from her second marriage to Count Rudolf von Habsburg-Laufenburg; Father of Count Johann II and presumably at least two other sons; granted asylum to the councilors ( Constaffler ) in Rapperswil in 1336, who had been banished from Zurich by Rudolf Brun ; was killed in the battle of Grynau .
• Count Johann (es) II. Von Habsburg-Laufenburg-Rapperswil (* around 1330, † 1380): Participated in the 1350 murder night of Zurich , whereupon the Zurich mayor Rudolf Brun ravaged Rapperswil in an act of retaliation; During his imprisonment in the Wellenberg in Zurich, the count composed the minnie song "Blümli blawe", immortalized by Goethe in the ballad "Das Blümlein Wunderschön: Lied des Captured Count"; sold the remnants of the County of Rapperswil to Albrecht II of Habsburg Austria in 1354 and 1358.
• Maria von Oettingen: widow (?) Of Rudolf von Habsburg-Laufenburg; Wife of Werner von Homberg, the son of Countess Elisabeth.
• Albrecht von Rapperswil or Albrecht von Raprechtswil (probably 13th century): Minnesinger and marshal at the Rapperswiler Hof mentioned in Codex Manesse ( folio 192v ) .
• Gottfried III. von Habsburg-Laufenburg († 1373): Count of Alt-Rapperswil.
• Count Johann (es) IV. Von Habsburg-Laufenburg († 1408): The last of the Laufenburg line died without male descendants entitled to inheritance; when his daughter Ursula married Count Rudolf von Sulz in 1410, the Landgraviate of Klettgau passed to the Counts of Sulz.
• Ursula von Habsburg-Laufenburg (* probably before 1400): daughter of Johann IV, married to Count Rudolf von Sulz.
• Johannes Hettlinger (* before 1452; † 1489 Rapperswil): town clerk of Rapperswil; Leader of the pro-federal forces and the uprising against Habsburg Austria.

Enlightenment and Rococo

• Dominikus von Brentano (actually Dominik Anton Cajetan Brentano) (* 1740 Rapperswil, † 1797): publicist, enlightenment theologian and Bible translator.
• Marianne Ehrmann b. Brentano (* 1755 Rapperswil, † 1795 Stuttgart), actress, writer and journalist, publisher of the early German-language women's magazines Amaliens Erholungsstunden and The Hermit from the Alps ,
• Felix Maria Diogg (* 1762 Andermatt, † 1834 Rapperswil): most important classicist portraitist in Switzerland; also painted in Alsace, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt a. M.
• Johann Jakob Staub (* 1783 Richterswil, † 1852 Paris): a famous master tailor in Paris; In 1823 he bought a plot of land on the Meienberg and in 1828 he built an elegant country house in a classical style. Staub and his family later combined additional properties on the Meienberg to form an extensive landscape park. His daughter married the industrialist Jakob Braendlin-Näf, who lived here .

19th century

• Jakob Braendlin-Näf (* 1775 in Richterswil, † 1845 Rapperswil): A pioneer of the Swiss cotton industry; married the daughter of Johann Jakob Staub ; Founder of the Braendlin Brothers spinning mill ; built the neo-classical Villa Grünstels
• Alois Fuchs (* 1794, † 1855 Schwyz): Roman Catholic priest; 1828 to 1834 teacher at the Latin school and hospital pastor in Rapperswil. Here he came into conflict with the Bishop of Chur and St. Gallen because of his liberal outlook and had to answer before an episcopal heretic court.
• Franz Josef Greith ("1799 Rapperswil, † 1869 St. Fiden): composer and music teacher; composed the melody of the Rütli song (" Greetings from far away, you quiet area by the lake ").
• Count Wladislaw Plater (* 1808, † 1889 in Poland): Polish patriot; took over the Rapperswil Castle in 1869 on the basis of a 99-year lease and set up the Polish National Museum (1870–1927) there.
• Agaton Giller (* 1831, † 1887 in Poland): Polish historian, publicist and member of the Polish national movement; Co-founder of the Polish National Museum .
• Joachim Raff (* 1822 Lachen, † 1882 Frankfurt a. M.): composer and music teacher; Teacher at the primary school in Rapperswil; Orchestration of the symphonic poems by Franz Liszt .
• Johann Heinrich Bühler-Honegger (* 1833, † 1929): industrialist, founding member of the Südostbahn, National Council; Initiator of "Bühler-Allee".
• Theodor Curti (* 1848 Rapperswil, † 1914 Thun): journalist, politician, historian (“History of Switzerland in the XIXth Century”, 1902); Editor of the "St. Galler Zeitung ”, head of the Frankfurter Zeitung ; National Council.
• Stefan Żeromski (* 1864 Strawczyn, † 1925 Warsaw): Polish nobleman, writer and from 1892 to 1987 librarian and editor at the Polish National Museum in Rapperswil, where he lived with his wife and daughter.

20./21. century

• Louie Knie (* 1880, † 1949), Friedrich Knie (* 1884, † 1941), Rudolf Knie (* 1885, † 1933), Karl Knie (* 1888, † 1940), Eugen Knie (* 1890, † 1955): Founder of Circus Knie (1919).
• Josef Müller-Brockmann (* 1914 Rapperswil, † 1996): graphic designer , author, teacher and leading theorist and practitioner of Swiss typography .
• Fredy Knie senior (* 1920 Geneva, † 2003 Rapperswil): From 1941 to 1992 director of Circus Knie, member of the board of directors; is considered the founder of "humane horse training" and shaped horse training internationally and classic riding in Switzerland; Winner of the Honorary Prix Walo.
• Hans Rathgeb (* 1922, † 2000 Rapperswil): publicist, correspondent, editor, cantonal councilor; active in numerous associations in Rapperswil; including author of “Rapperwiler Chronik 1933–1948”, “Eastern Switzerland - a regional region presents itself”, “Between Lake Zurich and Lake Walen”, “From the arena to the circus - 175 years of the Knie dynasty”, “Rapperswiler crafts and trades - 750 years in Service of the city and region ”,“ Bridges across the lake ”.
• Vreni Spoerry (* 1938 Zurich, nee Toneatti): FDP politician; grew up in Rapperswil.
• Gerold Späth (* 1939 Rapperswil): writer, member of the PEN Center of Switzerland and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts; awarded, among others, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize , Alfred Döblin Prize , Targa d'Oro del Comune di Roma, Georg Mackensen Literature Prize , Prize of the Swiss Schiller Foundation , Culture Prize of the Canton of St. Gallen; “ Rapperswil is the room in which my stories live, this is where I grew up, this is where I have the overview and the perspective. "
• Margrit Colombo - Bart (* 1943 Untersiggenthal, † 2001 Rapperswil), first woman on the city council
• Dieter Kienast (* 1945 and † 1998 Zurich): Professor Dr., one of the most important European landscape architects at the end of the 20th century; Professorship for garden architecture at the Intercantonal Technical Center Rapperswil between 1980 and 1991.
• Alfredo Battistini (* 1953 Rapperswil, † 2008 St.Gallenkappel), sculptor, draftsman and sportsman. Created the clown sculpture in honor of Circus Knie at the entrance to the city of Rapperswil as well as the hands La Creazione in honor of Michelangelo Buonarroti, which were included in the collection of the Museo Michelangiolesco in Caprese Michelangelo .
• Martin Klöti (* 1954): politician, teacher, landscape architect and entrepreneur; from 1997 to 2005 FDP city ​​councilor.
• Fritz Mommendey (* 1954 Rapperswil): lawyer, entrepreneur and book author; 1982 co-founder of the commercial and office college (HBS).
• Barbara Bürer (* 1955 Rapperswil): radio and television presenter and journalist; from 2007 to 2018 moderator at SRF 1 and SRF 3
• Michael Steiner (* 1969 in Hergiswil NW): Grew up in Rapperswil; Filmmakers, for example, of Mein Name ist Eugen and Grounding - The last days of Swissair
• Helen Zellweger (* 1971 Zurich): actress and dancer, grew up in Rapperswil, Singapore, Zurich and Vienna.
• Sabine Fischer (* 1973): middle and long distance runner ; 9th place at the 2000 Olympic Games ; lives in Rapperswil and starts for the LC-Rapperswil-Jona .

See also

• History of the city of Rapperswil

Web links

Commons : Personalities from Rapperswil SG  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernst Tremp: Crusades. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
2. ↑ «I know a flower, beautiful, And long for it;
   I would like to go looking for it, but I am trapped.
   The pains are not small to me; Because when I went in freedom,
   I had it close by.
   From this castle, which is steep all around, I let my eyes wander
   And from the high tower floor I cannot take a look ;
   And whoever brings it before
   my eyes, It would be a knight or a servant, He should remain my dear friend ... »
   - GOETHE:« The little flower, beautiful : song of the captured count ».
3. ↑ Hans Rathgeb has been honored several times for his commitment and is considered one of the most important sponsors of the Polish Cultural Foundation ( Poland Museum in Rapperswil ) and is co-initiator of the reconstruction of the historic wooden bridge Rapperswil – Hurden , obituary for Hans Rathgeb  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .