Urs Widmer (politician)

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Urs Widmer (1986)
Urs Widmer (1984)

Urs Widmer (born December 20, 1927 in Winterthur ; died September 2, 2018 there ) was a Swiss politician ( DP , from 1971 FDP ). From 1966 to 1990 he was mayor of Winterthur for 24 years, making him the second-longest incumbent mayor.

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Urs Widmer was born on December 20, 1927, the third son of Hans Widmer , who himself served as mayor from 1930 to 1939, and Hanna Widmer-Schoellhorn and grew up in the doctoral center in Winterthur- Töss . From 1934 he attended schools in Töss, in 1939 he lost his father at the age of twelve. In addition to the death of his father, Widmer also had a broken skull when he shot put in high school . In 1946 he enrolled at the ETH Zurich and graduated in 1950 as a civil engineer. He then worked at Geilinger & Cie. in Winterthur, then in 1952 at Seeberger & Cie. in Frutigen and in 1953 and 1954 in the USA with Othmar H. Ammann in New York and with Robert D. Dewell in San Francisco . After two years in the USA, he returned to Switzerland and worked for a Baden-based company Motor-Columbus as a construction manager in the Mattertal, among other things in the construction of hydropower plants. In 1957 he married Anne-Marie Rinderknecht from Kloten, the marriage resulted in two sons and two daughters. In 1958 he returned to Winterthur and ran his own engineering office there until he was elected mayor.

Back in Winterthur, he was elected to the Great Municipal Council on January 21, 1962 for the Democratic Party to which his father was already a member . There he was a member of the auditing commission and held the report for the building authority. Already in the first year, the Gutschick development promoted by City Councilor Heinrich Zindel was dealt with in the local council, and land cedings for the construction of the A1 autobahn were also part of his presentation. After the resignation of the previous President of the Auditing Commission, he took over the chairmanship of the commission on May 20, 1963 and now the department for the finance, tax and personnel office.

Urs Widmer was nominated by the Democratic Party on 1 October 1965 as a candidate for the city Bureau, in the internal party Ausmarchung he sat down on a tight More to eventual general director of the Zurich Cantonal Bank , Richard Müller by. Shortly after the Democrats nominated the Social Democratic Party with Arthur Bachmann for his good candidate as Widmer also first ran for the City Council at the same time and to defend the third seat of the Social Democrats in the government. Compared to the bourgeois candidate Widmer, Bachmann has also previously distinguished himself less in urban politics. In the elections of April 24, 1966, Widmer was then able to prevail, while his rival Bachmann was elected in the city council elections, but was eliminated as a surplus.

Widmer took over the office of mayor at the time of the boom in Winterthur, which lasted until the mid-1970s. Then the recession began and Winterthur was again confronted with increasing economic and social problems. As city president, the promotion of cultural life was important to him, he was instrumental in founding the city's own theater in Winterthur and was a sponsor of the Technorama , of which he was the president of the board of trustees. He also initiated a reorganization of the Winterthur libraries . In 1970, as part of the 700th anniversary celebrations, as chairman of the Albanifest Committee, he was responsible for the organization of the first modern Albanifest . From 1980 to 1982, on the recommendation of the Association of Cities and by appointment of the Federal Council, he headed the national committee of the Council of Europe's urban renewal campaign , and from 1981 he was also a member of the board of the Swiss Association of Cities . In addition to the Albanifest, he also sponsored other public festivals during his tenure, including two cantonal rifle festivals, the Federal Gymnastics Festival in 1984, the Federal Music Festival in 1986 and the Federal Shooting Festival in 1990. He was often the OC President himself. In 1990 he did not stand for re-election for reasons of age, his successor was the liberal Martin Haas .

After resigning as mayor, Widmer took over the presidency of the Kunstverein Winterthur , which he held until 1998. During his time as mayor, from 1975 to 1986 he headed the Society for Swiss Art History . In 2000 his wife died, with whom he had four children. He dealt with the history of the city of Winterthur, worked as a city guide and from 2006 onwards, together with Heinz Bächinger, set up the Winterthur glossary, an online encyclopedia about the city of Winterthur.

Widmer died on September 2, 2018 after a short hospital stay in Winterthur. Most recently Widmer lived in the former studio of the painter Hans Schoellhorn in Winterthur, and he often spent the winters in his holiday home in Valbella .

Political positions

Widmer was considered a politician close to the people. He was seen as pro-business and pro-progress, but was closer to the SP than to the FDP on some social issues. Cultural policy was important to him.

Although he initially welcomed the merger with the FDP in 1971, the relationship with the liberal party gradually cooled down and Widmer viewed the merger as a mistake rather than progress while still in office - he found support in political issues in many cases from the SP. Widmer resigned from the FDP at the end of his political career.

Works

  • Urs Widmer (Ed.): Acknowledgment of the City of Winterthur 1956-1981 (=  New Year's Gazette of the City Library of Winterthur . No. 314 ). Vogel bookstore, Winterthur 1984.
  • The Tössbrücken in Winterthur . Bookstore Vogel, Winterthur 1996, ISBN 3-85961-051-1 .
  • Spoken . a quarter of a century of city history in Winterthur. Bookstore Vogel, Winterthur 2007, ISBN 978-3-85961-066-8 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Martin Gmür: Rich life, satisfied person . In: The Landbote . Winterthur December 20, 2017, p. 7 ( landbote.ch [accessed October 10, 2018]).
  2. ↑ a b c Martin Gmür: Urs Widmer was a bridge builder, democrat and philanthropist . In: The Landbote . Winterthur September 4, 2018, p. 3 ( landbote.ch [accessed October 10, 2018]).
  3. ^ A b c d Thomas Isler: Obituary: Mayor Urs Widmer became an engineer of a cultural city . In: NZZ am Sonntag . September 8, 2018 ( nzz.ch [accessed October 10, 2018]).
  4. ^ Widmer Urs, Mayor, Engineer, 1927–2018 in the Winterthur Glossary. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  5. ^ Albert Eggli: 25 years in the service of the community . In: Urs Widmer on his 60th birthday . Winterthur 1987, p. 5 .
  6. ^ A b Hans Schaufelberger: The city of Winterthur in the 20th century . Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft, Winterthur 1991, p. 126-128, 270-271 .
  7. ^ Werner Bircher: City Association and Urban Renewal . In: Urs Widmer on his 60th birthday . Winterthur 1987, p. 93 .
  8. ↑ Othmas Hüssy: The human being Urs Widmer . In: Urs Widmer on his 60th birthday . Winterthur 1987, p. 27-28 .
  9. ↑ Alex Hoster: A contemporary witness of Winterthur history . In: The Landbote . Winterthur November 29, 2008, p. 16 .
  10. ↑ Hans Martin Gubler: The love of art, or acting is better than dreaming ... In: Urs Widmer for his 60th birthday . Winterthur 1987, p. 55 .
  11. ↑ Imprint. In: winterthur-glossar.ch. Retrieved October 9, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Widmer, Urs
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician and mayor of Winterthur
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Winterthur
DATE OF DEATH 2nd September 2018
Place of death Winterthur