Martin Birmann

Martin Birmann, his memorial plaque by the pond in Rünenberg, Baselland. Switzerland

Martin Birmann , born Grieder (born November 26, 1828 in Rünenberg , † August 19, 1890 in Liestal ) was a Swiss politician , theologian, poor relief worker and author. He was a councilor and first inspector for the poor in the canton of Basel-Landschaft , president of several political and non-profit organizations and a writer.

biography

Birmann was a son of the trimmers Johannes Grieder and Elisabeth Buser. In 1859 he married Elisabeth Socin († 1927) from Basel , who gave birth to a daughter. After attending the education department in Basel , he and his friend Jonas Breitenstein studied theology at the University of Basel and at the University of Göttingen . In 1852 he was ordained pastor in Liestal. In 1890, Birmann was buried in the cemetery in Kilchberg BL .

Poor relief and political offices

Since he came from poor house, Birmann was supported by J. Kettiger and 1853 - during the lifetime of his parents -from Juliana Birmann Vischer (1785-1859), the widow of the painter , Samuel Birman in Basel adopted whose name it in this Connection also assumed. From then on, until his death in 1890, he campaigned for poor people with all the means available to him, was an unpaid poor inspector of the canton of Basel-Landschaft until 1888 and, from 1853 to the end, president of the poor education association.

Financially supported by his adoptive mother, he bought the institution for neglected boys in Augst as early as 1854 and was always available to her as president. As a reorganizer of the canton hospital, he initiated the construction of the new hospital in 1877. As a moderate liberal, he also held a large number of political offices until his death, for example from 1854 with a few interruptions as district administrator , where he was active as the creator of the cantonal poor law, as a member of many commissions, from 1869 also as a councilor and from 1884 also as a Commissioner for church and cultural policy issues.

Further commitment

In 1854 he was an important co-founder of the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung . From 1859 on he was a member of the board of directors, and from 1878 he was chairman of the Hypothekenbank Basel-Landschaft. He has been involved with the Waldenburgerbahn since 1880 , where he also became president from 1888. He was also active in the agricultural association and the Swiss non-profit society . In the last two decades of his life, Birmann was also active in literary and local history.

Honors

1885 awarded him the Philosophy and History Faculty of the University of Basel the honorary doctorate . The Martin-Birmann-Spital for the chronically ill in Liestal, inaugurated on April 23, 1968, bears his name in his honor.

Publications (selection)

• The landscape painter Peter Birmann von Basel [1758–1844]. New year's paper of the Zurich Art Society, Zurich 1859
• The primary schools (Switzerland). Together with Max Wirth. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1874
• Three pages from the history of the St. Jacob's War. Basel 1882
• Count Oswald von Thierstein and the outcome of his family. Basel 1883
• The institutions of German tribes on the soil of Helvetia. Baur, Basel 1887 (New Year's Gazette of the Society for the Promotion of the Good and the Charitable)
• General Joh. Aug. Suter. There were strange fates in life. Reflexes of transatlantic fates. Association for the Dissemination of Good Writings at Emil Birkhäuser, Basel 1907. (The biography of General Sutter , with additions up to 1884, first appeared in the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung in 1868.)

literature

• Gerold Meyer von Knonau :  Birmann, Martin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 46, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1902, pp. 560-562.

Web links

• Kaspar Birkhäuser : Birmann, Martin. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Publications by and about Martin Birmann in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Martin Birmann , in: Personal Lexicon of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft
• Martin Birmann - Living in Poverty
• Martin Birmann - the social advancement
• Official website on the history of the canton with biography and mentions of Martin Birmann
• Pictures by Martin Birmann

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Samuel Birmann: Sources and Documents ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.