Salomon Hirzel (historian)

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Salomon Hirzel (born May 13, 1727 in Zurich ; died November 15, 1818 there ) was a Swiss politician and historian .

Life

Salomon Hirzel, son of Hans Caspar Hirzel (1698–1751) and Regula Hirzel (1699–1741), showed after attending the Zurich schools Collegium humanitatis and Collegium Carolinum , where Bodmer and Breitinger were teaching at that time , like his older brother Hans Caspar Hirzel had little inclination to study theology. He would rather Jura study in order to devote himself as already father and grandfather of the city administration and politics.

He studied in Halle , where Justus Henning Böhmer and Daniel Nettelbladt were his teachers. After traveling through Berlin and France, he returned to Zurich, where he joined the city administration as a subordinate councilor. In 1753 he was promoted to assistant to the second state clerk, in 1762 head of the state chancellery and town clerk, 1768 member of the small council , 1769 chief bailiff in Horgen and 1773 member of the secret council. In 1785 he finally became master of the state cap and thus held one of the highest ranks in the Zurich state system.

In the French-dominated Helvetic Republic , however, there was no longer any use for him - as for many others. In 1798 he was removed from state offices. Only after the end of the Helvetic Republic in 1803 did he return to the Grand Council for a few years during the mediation period .

As a young man he was involved in the constitution of the Helvetic Society , a political association of enlightened Swiss, which his brother co-founded . In 1764 he founded the Moral Society in Zurich , which was dedicated to practical social goals, in particular to improving the education of the rural population. Moreover Hirzel member of another was Societäten and enlightening -politischen associations, especially in the patriotic helvetisch Society for Gerwi , the Société des citoyens in Bern , the Natural History Society , the Economic Commission and the Tuesday's Compagnie .

Hirzel also performed his tragedy Junius Brutus for the first time in Bodmer's Tuesday Compagnie . Here he was able to discuss with friends the story of Lucius Junius Brutus , the legendary founder of the Roman Republic, as an example of the self-sacrifice of patriotic citizens. This work, however, apart from a few occasional poems, remained his only literary work, whereby opinions are divided as to whether the intention has been achieved but the form has failed, or whether it is the other way round.

Hirzel became active as an author and historian especially after his discharge from civil service in 1798. Before that, he had contributed for decades to 1790 and then again from 1804 to 1815 for the New Year's gifts of the city library, one of which was a collection from 1806 under the title Noble Trains of Swiss history appeared. He wrote biographical sketches of his friends Isaak Iselin , the antist Johann Rudolf Ulrich and Hans Heinrich Schinz as well as his brother , and also of the former mayor of Zurich Heinrich Kilchsperger.

Are than larger plants to name a 1810 published in Latin Reformation history treatise Disquisitio de Magistratus in urbe Tigurina in reformationis opere praestito officio , by a German version in 1818 under the title over the merits of the authorities of Zurich to the work of faith improvement appeared before But above all the Zürcherische Jahrbücher in five volumes (1814-1819), a chronologically structured history of the city of Zurich extending up to 1515, in which he was able to refer to the archives and materials available to him on the city's history.

He died in 1818 at the age of 92.

Works

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The mother's maiden name is Hirzel: daughter of Salomon Hirzel (1671–1744), governor and guild master and the Regula Escher (vom Glas). Cf. Werner Ganz :  Hirzel, Hans Caspar. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 244 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ A historically oriented association founded by Bodmer in 1762 that met in the house of the tanners' guild ("Gerwe").
  3. ^ Esther Berner: In the sign of reason and Christianity: the Zurich rural school reform in the late 18th century. Volume 40 of contributions to historical educational research. Böhlau, Köln / Weimar 2010, ISBN 3-412-20388-2 , p. 294 ff.
  4. ^ Thomas Bürger : Enlightenment in Zurich. The Orell, Gessner, Füssli & Comp. in the second half of the 18th century. With a bibliography of the publishing works 1761–1798. Volume 48 of Archives for the History of the Book Industry - Reprints. De Gruyter, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-11-096813-4 , p. 21.
personal data
SURNAME Hirzel, Salomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician and historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1727
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1818
Place of death Zurich