Louis Bourgknecht (politician)

Louis Bourgknecht (born November 25, 1846 in Romont , † April 2, 1923 in Friborg ) was a Swiss politician and State Chancellor of the Canton of Friborg . He was a member of the Conservative Party.

Life

Louis Bourgknecht came from a Catholic family belonging to the privileged citizens of the city of Freiburg. His parents were Pierre-Louis Auguste Bourgknecht (1820–1873) and Louise-Joséphine nee. Ruffieux (1822–1906), daughter of Joseph, from Romont . Pierre Bourgknecht was a lawyer , chief magistrate of the Sense district and from 1872 a cantonal judge. Louis Bourgknecht married Ernestine Maria Beatrice Freiin von Auffenberg in 1871, daughter of Baron Alexander von Auffenberg (Baden).

Louis Bourgknecht attended the College of St. Michael , where he shone in the theatrical performances because he had a remarkable eloquence. He spent a year in Einsiedeln to improve his German and to take his Matura. He began his legal studies in Freiburg im Breisgau and finished them at the law school in his hometown, where he was admitted to the bar in 1870. He was mobilized and did frontier duty as a Fourier and then as a quartermaster . He then completed a legal internship with Louis Wuilleret, the head of the Conservatives.

Louis Bourgknecht was State Chancellor from 1872 to 1885. From 1876 to 1881 he sat on the Grand Council . Because of his liberal-conservative ideas (he was a member of the Cercle de l'Union) he was in harmony with the Weck-Reynold regime. In 1881 the conservative leaders, who were now alone in power, decided to purge the administration. In its session on May 8, 1885, the Grand Council elected Emile Bise as Chancellor with 49 votes , while Louis Bourgknecht received only 32 votes; ideological loyalty was rated higher than demonstrated competence. 400 people from the opposition to the conservative regime protested against Bourgknecht's elimination.

Bourgknecht was admitted to the bar and opened a law firm that was very popular. Associated with the Liberal Conservatives of the Bien Public, who were close to the Liberals, he became a Grand Councilor in 1896 and held this office until 1906. In 1895 he was elected to the city council of Freiburg. For the first time, the election of the Ammann was made by the municipal council and no longer by the State Council. The majority made up of free-spirited "bienpublicards" put Louis Bourgknecht at the head of the city's executive. Bourgknecht proved to be an honest and level-headed Syndic.

After the regime’s financial scandals, Musy's election to the State Council (1911) prompted the Conservatives to move closer together in order to confront a militant liberalism and the Social Democrats. As a sign of goodwill towards the “Bienpublicards”, the Grand Council elected the 65-year-old Bourgknecht to the cantonal court in 1911, which he presided over three times until his death in 1923.

Louis Bourgknecht was very active at the club level. He was a founding member of the newspaper Le Bien public , president of the Moléson section of the Swiss Alpine Club , head of the St. Luke Brotherhood, member of the Cercle de l'Union and the choral society of the city of Friborg, of which he was the oldest active member in 1923. He also chaired the board of directors of the Teintureries de Morat et lyonnaises in Lausanne .

literature

• Georges Andrey , Hubertus von Gemmingen (translation): The Freiburg State Council: 1848–2011; History, organization, members . Ed .: John Clerc, Jean-Pierre Dorand, Nicholas Gex. Paulus, Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7228-0815-4 .