Peter Emil Isler

Peter Emil Isler (born January 31, 1851 in Wohlen ; † March 10, 1936 in Lugano ; legal resident in Wohlen AG) was a Swiss politician ( FDP ). From 1884 to 1890 he was a member of the National Council , after which he represented the canton of Aargau in the Council of States until 1932 . He was one of the co-founders of the Aargauische Kantonalbank and was a member of the board of directors and boards of numerous companies. Isler is one of the most important Aargau politicians of the early 20th century.

biography

Isler came from an influential family of industrialists in the straw weave industry, whose center was in Wohlen. His great-grandfather Jacob Isler (1758–1837) is considered a pioneer of the international trade in straw hats and braids, his father Jakob Isler (1809–1862) was a member of the National Council and the Council of States for a short time. After graduating from Aarau Cantonal School , Peter Emil Isler did not strive to run the family business. Instead, he studied law at the Universities of Lausanne , Heidelberg and Göttingen from 1869 to 1872 . In 1873 he opened a law firm in Wohlen, which he moved to Aarau together with his place of residence in 1891 .

In 1880 Isler was elected to the Grand Council for the first time , to which he belonged until 1925 (apart from an interruption from 1897 to 1899). In the years 1885/86 and 1915/16 he was President of the Grand Council. In the years 1884 and 1885, as a constitutional councilor, he played a decisive role in drafting the new cantonal constitution. In particular, with a church article he helped to overcome the deep confessional rifts that had existed since the Kulturkampf .

In the National Council elections in 1884 , Isler won the Aargau-Mitte constituency (at that time the majority procedure was still in force ). In 1890 he lost this mandate again, but only three weeks later the cantonal parliament elected him to the Council of States. In 1895 he was one of the founders of the Aargau section of the FDP . In the Council of States, Isler headed the commission that created the civil code in collaboration with his friend Eugen Huber . Isler also had a decisive influence on the design of company law and water legislation. 1925 awarded him the University of Basel , the honorary doctorate in 1932, he retired from politics.

Professionally, Isler worked increasingly as a business lawyer. From 1885 he was a representative of the state on the board of directors of Aargauische Bank, which he chaired from 1891. Under his leadership, the transformation into the public-law Aargauische Kantonalbank (AKB) took place in 1912 . He remained Chairman of the Board of Directors of AKB until 1933. Isler also sat on the boards of numerous other companies. These include the shoe manufacturer Bally (1908–1933), the Laufenburg power plants (1909–1932), the Aargauische Elektrizitätswerk (1916–1929), the Nordostbahn (1891–1902, Vice President from 1896), the Gotthardbahn (1896–1909, from 1904 Vice President) and the Swiss Trust Company (1906–1934). From 1889 to 1892 he was also President of the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau.

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. 411-414 .

Web links

• Anton Wohler: Isler, Peter Emil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .