Walther Munzinger

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Walther Munzinger (born September 12, 1830 in Olten , Switzerland ; † April 28, 1873 in Bern ) was a law professor and church politician. As a lawyer , he was one of the intellectual fathers of Swiss trade law and the law of obligations , as a church politician he was the leader of the Catholic reform movement and one of the founders of the Christian Catholic Church .

Life

His father Josef Munzinger , a committed fighter for democracy and liberalism, was a member of the Solothurn parliament when he was born and soon afterwards mayor of Solothurn. In 1848 he was a member of the first Siebnerkollegium of the Swiss Federal Council . Under the influence of the father Walther 1847 already involved the age of 17 on the side of Liberalism in Sonderbundskrieg against the conservative Catholic cantons. His younger brother Werner Munzinger was a well-known Africa explorer.

Walther Munzinger studied law in Paris , Berlin and Bern and completed his habilitation in 1855 at the University of Bern shortly after the early death of his father, who died in office as a Federal Councilor. In 1859 he married Maria Isenschmid. Until his death he worked as a professor at the law faculty in Bern, where he was full professor for canon law, commercial law and French and Jura civil law from 1863.

In addition to his professorship, Munzinger was also a member of parliament, first in the Bern City Council, then in the Swiss National Council , and served as a judge.

Working as a lawyer

As a professor, Walther Munzinger was commissioned by the Federal Council to make preliminary investigations for a Swiss commercial code. In 1864 he submitted an expert opinion and a draft for such a commercial code. Despite his background as a specialist in French civil law, he oriented himself more towards the General German Commercial Code , published in 1861, than the French Code de commerce of 1807. Walther Munzinger also developed two drafts of the Code of Obligations . This work played an important part in what would later become the Swiss Code of Obligations and Commercial Law of 1881.

Working as a church politician

Walther Munzinger advocated the idea of ​​a liberal Catholic people's church all his life and thus stood in opposition to ultramontanism . In 1860 he wrote in his pamphlet Papsttum und Nationalkirche "Break this pressure, let the sun of the free spirit and the free spirit shine through and there will certainly be a green, fresh life."

Walther Munzinger was one of the first to protest against the dogmas of the first Vatican Council in Switzerland ( see: Kulturkampf in Switzerland ). On September 18, 1871, he organized the first Swiss Catholic congress in Solothurn . A few days later, he and Augustin Keller represented Switzerland at the first German Old Catholic Congress in Munich.

In the fight against the Vatican he founded the "Swiss Association of Liberal Catholics" and in 1872 organized the lecture tour of Wroclaw professor JM Reinkens in Switzerland. In 1873 he wrote in the Katholische Blätter: "We want a church that seeks the truth and is based on the love for truth of its members. We want a church whose constitution rests on the broad basis of the community of believers. We want a church in which the light of science shines. "

Following the desire for oratorio works, Walther Munzinger and like-minded people founded the Cäcilienverein der Stadt Bern on November 13, 1862. In November 1937, the 75th anniversary was celebrated under the direction of Fritz Brun .

In 1873 he arranged for the appointment of Eduard Herzog, excommunicated from Rome, to the Christian Catholic parish of Olten, who in 1876 became the first Christian Catholic bishop in Switzerland.

Walther Munzinger also played a key role in founding the Christian Catholic theological faculty at the University of Bern, which took place in 1874 after his death.

Web links

literature

  • Urs Fasel: pioneer Munzinger . Bern u. a .: Haupt, 2003. ISBN 3-258-06570-5
  • Urs Fasel: "Walther Munzinger. Pioneer of Swiss legal unity". In: Journal for European Private Law , 2-2003, pp. 345–352.
  • Peter Dietschy and Leo Weber: Walther Munzinger. A picture of life . Olten 1874.
  • Gerold Meyer von Knonau:  Munzinger, Walter . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, p. 49 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1937, Cäcilienverein der Stadt Bern


personal data
SURNAME Munzinger, Walther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss lawyer and church politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Olten , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1873
Place of death Bern , Switzerland