Otto Pfänder

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Otto Pfänder (born May 30, 1890 in Flawil ; † January 24, 1978 in Zurich ) was a Swiss politician ( LdU ) and teacher . From 1939 to 1943 he was a member of the National Council.

biography

The son of sticker Alfred Pfändler and von Bertha (née Müller) attended the teacher training college in Rorschach after completing compulsory schooling . From 1910 he taught as a primary school teacher in Balgach , from 1918 in St. Gallen . In 1914 he married Anna Katharina Müller. After three decades in the school service, he gave up the teaching profession at the end of 1939 and took over the management of the regional ring of independents in Zurich in early 1940 . In 1944 he joined Migros , whereupon he headed their pension fund until his retirement in 1958 . In the Swiss Army he had the rank of lieutenant colonel .

politics

In 1939 Pf Händler was a member of the St. Gallen Cantonal Council for a short time . In the parliamentary elections in the same year he was elected the only LdU representative of the canton of St. Gallen in the National Council. He was the main author of the popular initiative "for the reorganization of the National Council" submitted in 1940 . She called for the number of representatives to be increased to 30,000 residents per National Council seat, the limitation of the term of office to twelve years and the abolition of the preprinted accumulations on electoral lists. The candidate's profession and board mandates should also be officially announced. The "Pfänder Initiative", supported only by the LdU, failed in the referendum of May 3, 1942 with 34.9% of the votes.

When Gottlieb Duttweiler , who had resigned as a member of the National Council in 1940, announced his renewed candidacy on June 15, 1943, the LdU parliamentary group turned against him because of his suspected “left- wing course”. Pfänder was the only LdU national councilor who explicitly spoke out in favor of including the Migros founder on the electoral list; the party executive shared his opinion. The assembly of delegates confirmed the candidacy on September 30th, which led to a break and the dissidents made their own electoral list. Pfändler again sided with Duttweiler, but declined to run for the National Council elections in 1943 and withdrew from politics.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BMA 381 Pfänder-Müller, Otto (1890-1978): primary school teacher, lieutenant colonel, national councilor, LdU. St. Gallen State Archives, accessed on September 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Werner Seitz: How the distribution of the seats in the National Council among the cantons has changed over time. DeFacto, August 31, 2017, accessed September 25, 2019 .
  3. ^ Alfred A. Häsler : The Migros Adventure. The 60 year old idea . Ed .: Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Migros Presse, Zurich 1985, p. 114-116 .
personal data
SURNAME Pledger, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Flawil
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1978
Place of death Zurich