Otto Alder

Otto Alder (born March 28, 1849 in Hemberg ; † May 2, 1933 in St. Gallen ; entitled to reside in Speicher and St. Gallen (from 1892)) was a textile industrialist from eastern Switzerland from the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden .

Life

Otto Alder was the son of Arnold Alder, a partner in a colored weaving factory, and Susanna Alder nee Mettler. In 1873 he married Anna Elise Bänziger, the daughter of the gunsmith Johann Ulrich Bänziger. After attending the mercantile department of the St. Gallen Cantonal School , he completed commercial training in St. Gallen and Hemberg from 1866 to 1869. From 1869 to 1873 he worked as a salesman in Singapore . He was a partner in the embroidery companies Seiler & Alder, Alder & Rappolt and the Otto Alder & Co. company founded in 1902, from which he retired in 1916.

Otto Alder was considered a pioneer of new techniques and creations for mechanical embroidery . From 1893 to 1929 he was a member of the St. Gallen Commercial Directorate , of which he was President from 1917. In 1905 and 1906 he worked as a technical expert in the negotiations on trade agreements with France and Germany . During this time he became President of the Commission for the St. Gallen Museum of Industry and Commerce . Otto Alder was co-founder and president of the aid fund for the embroidery industry. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA) , AG Cilander Herisau and the Embroidery Trust Cooperative. Until 1932 he was a board member of the Association of Swiss Embroidery Exporters. He was a member of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce , the commission of the Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich in 1883 and a member of the jury at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889 . Otto Alder published various works on embroidery, but also biographies and autobiographical works.

literature

• St. Galler Tagblatt , May 5, 1933.
• Embroidery time. Catalog of the exhibition in the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen April 1 to August 6, 1989. Concept and realization Peter Röllin. St. Gallen: VGS 1989, pp. 60-64, 77-90.
• Fabian Brändle: childhood memories of the Hemberger businessman Otto Alder. In: Toggenburger Jahrbuch 2017, pp. 101–114.

Web links

• Thomas Fuchs: Otto Alder. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . May 29, 2001 , accessed March 27, 2020 .
• Otto Alder in the Dodis database of diplomatic documents in Switzerland
• Machine embroidery sample collection by Otto Alder 1882-1920 in the St. Gallen Textile Museum
• Publications by and about Otto Alder in the catalog of the St.Gallen library network SGBN

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