Martin Escher

Martin Escher (born November 7, 1788 in Zurich ; † September 28, 1870 there ; also called Martin Escher-Hess ) was a Swiss industrialist and an early promoter of railway construction in Switzerland.

biography

He was the son of Salomon Escher, the silk manufacturer in the Wollenhof in der Schipfe and guild master of the Meisen . His brother Hans Jakob Escher, who was five years older than him, was Mayor of Zurich from 1831 to 1837 . In 1813, Martin Escher and his brother Heinrich took over their father's company, which in the 1820s employed over 500 weavers at home and exported silk to Germany and later to the USA . In 1816 he married Elisabetha Hess, daughter of the silk manufacturer Paulus Hess in the Florhof . The architect Hans Conrad Stadler built the “House to the Kronentor” on Seilergraben for him . Escher was president of the commercial directorate that existed until 1834. When it was dissolved, he ensured that the funds released were available for urban building purposes.

In 1837, the Zurich Chamber of Commerce commissioned plans for a railway line between Zurich and Basel and founded the Basel-Zurich Railway Company . But the project failed because of the uncertain political situation at the time ( Züriputsch 1839 and Aargauer Klosterstreit 1841) and the company dissolved in December 1841. Escher remained interested in a railway line. Under his leadership, a new committee was established in May 1845 , which auctioned all documents such as protocols, plans, measurements and calculations. From this committee, the Swiss Northern Railway , the first railway company in Switzerland , was formed in March 1846 . She built the Zurich – Baden railway line , which opened on August 7, 1847.

Escher had since the founding director of the Northern Railway Company until this 1853 with the Zurich-Bodensee Bahn to Swiss Northeastern Railway merged (NOB). He then served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NOB until 1858 .

Web links

Ueli Müller: Martin Escher. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . April 7, 2006 , accessed July 1, 2020 .

Individual evidence

↑ Katja Hürlimann: Hans Jakob Escher (from the glass). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 9, 2004 , accessed July 1, 2020 .
^ Werner Huber: Zurich main station. The planning and construction history of the largest train station in Switzerland . Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-85881-490-6 , p. 16-18 .

personal data
SURNAME	Escher, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Escher-Hess, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH	November 7, 1788
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zurich
DATE OF DEATH	September 28, 1870
Place of death	Zurich

[1] Katja Hürlimann: Hans Jakob Escher (from the glass). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 9, 2004 , accessed July 1, 2020 .

[2] Werner Huber: Zurich main station. The planning and construction history of the largest train station in Switzerland . Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-85881-490-6 , p. 16-18 .