Max Schmidt (politician, 1862)

Max Schmidt (born April 6, 1862 in Aarau ; † October 14, 1951 there ; entitled to live in Aarau) was a Swiss politician ( FDP ) and judge . From 1892 to 1907 he was mayor of Aarau, then government councilor of the canton of Aargau until 1929 .

biography

Schmidt graduated from the canton school in his hometown of Aarau. He then studied law at the Universities of Heidelberg , Munich , Leipzig and Strasbourg . In 1886 he was admitted to the bar and initially worked as a director's secretary in the Aargau Department of Justice, from 1889 he was President of the Aarau District Court. Only a year later, Schmidt began political career when he became Aarau Stadtammann was chosen. His merits include the renovation of the town church, the construction of two schoolhouses, the introduction of electricity, the construction of the sewer system and a new municipal financial system. From 1891 to 1907 he was also a member of the Aargau Grand Council .

At the end of 1906 he was elected to the cantonal government, and Schmidt took up his new office at the beginning of the following year. As a government councilor, he was in charge of the justice, police and medical departments. His most important task was the implementation of the Swiss Civil Code , which came into force in 1912 , for which he wrote the Notarial Ordinance and the cantonal introductory law. From 1912 he headed the finance department. Schmidt managed to balance the budget despite the crisis years during and after the First World War. In 1923 he moved to the building department, which he headed for six years. His main focus was on adapting the roads for increasing automobile traffic.

Schmidt is considered a pioneer in the electricity industry . The municipal power station he initiated in Aarau is one of the oldest in Switzerland. In 1916 he was a co-founder of the Aargau Electricity Works and was a member of its board of directors for twelve years . He made his advice available to the north-eastern Swiss power plants , and he was also the state commissioner for the Ryburg-Schwörstadt power plant . In 1929, after his resignation as a member of the government, he took over the presidency of the board of directors of the Aarewerke, which built new river power plants in Klingnau and Wildegg . Schmidt was a talented tenor , played several instruments and took part in concerts, opera performances and singing festivals in his free time.

literature

• Biographical Lexicon of the Canton of Aargau 1803–1957 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 68/69 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1958, p. 679-681 .

Web links

• Patrick Zehnder: Schmidt, Max. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .