Ulrich Dürrenmatt

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Ulrich Dürrenmatt

Ulrich Dürrenmatt (born April 20, 1849 in Schwandacker, municipality of Guggisberg ; † July 27, 1908 in Herzogenbuchsee ) was a Swiss conservative journalist and politician in the canton of Bern . He is the father of Hugo Dürrenmatt and the grandfather of Peter Dürrenmatt and Friedrich Dürrenmatt .

Life

Ulrich Dürrenmatt was a son of Christian Dürrenmatt (born October 17, 1802 in Krachen, municipality of Guggisberg) and his wife Anna Zbinden (born April 25, 1808).

After attending the teachers' seminar in Münchenbuchsee , Dürrenmatt initially worked as a teacher in Rüschegg and Bern , then trained as a secondary teacher and worked as such in Delsberg , Frauenfeld and Thun . From 1880 to 1908 he was the editor of the conservative Berner Volkszeitung based in Herzogenbuchsee, the so-called «book newspaper».

In 1882 he helped found the conservative Bern People's Party , which he represented in the Herzogenbuchsee municipal council from 1899 to 1905, in the cantonal parliament from 1886 to 1908 and in the Swiss National Council from 1902 to 1908 . In 1874 he fought a planned liberal school concept in a referendum. In 1893 he led the campaign in favor of the popular initiative to ban slaughter . In the same year he rejected an article on social policy within the framework of a new cantonal constitution, arguing that this would mean incorporating the socialist theory that property is theft in the constitution.

Anti-Semitism was a constant in Dürrenmatt's conservative worldview . He saw in the Jews a "race ... which knows only two instincts in the smallest as well as in the greatest: the hatred of Christians and the hunger for gold" and took the view: "If Rothschild and his friends want, the armies march and steam the fleets."

Dürrenmatt was a pioneer for the public use of the Bernese dialect and became known for his political poems, some of which were held in dialect. He provided each number of the book newspaper with an up-to-date "title poem". These poems contributed significantly to the u. a. after the turn of the 20th century, the Bern German movement prepared by Gottfried Strasser .

Friedrich Dürrenmatt characterized his grandfather in the lunar eclipse as follows:

«A strange, lonely and stubborn rebel: small, hunched over, bearded, bespectacled, with sharp eyes, a Bernese who published his own newspaper; who hated liberality, socialism and the Jews; To which no political cliché fit and who fought for a Christian, federalist, rural Switzerland, at a time when it was preparing to become a modern industrial state, a political unique, whose title poems were famous and of a sharpness that is rare today dared. "

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic tendencies of the newspaper, see: Theres Maurer: The "Berner Volkszeitung" by Ulrich Dürrenmatt . In: Aram Mattioli (Ed.): Antisemitism in Switzerland 1848–1960. Zurich 1998, pp. 241-277.
  2. ↑ Ingrid Kaufmann: From outlawing Jews to respecting animals? History and background of the ban on slaughter in Switzerland. Seminar paper at the University of Lucerne, winter semester 2005/2006.
personal data
SURNAME Dürrenmatt, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss conservative journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwandacker, municipality of Guggisberg
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1908
Place of death Herzogenbuchsee