Wilhelm Füssli (politician)

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Wilhelm Füssli , also Füßli (born July 11, 1803 in Zurich ; † September 10, 1845 there ), was a Swiss lawyer , radical liberal politician of regeneration , co-owner and editor of the weekly newspaper Schweizerischer Republikaner, and a writer .

Life

Fuseli, scion of the Zurich Glockengießer- and artistic family füssli was a son of the merchant Hans Wilhelm Füssli (1770-1838) and his wife Anna, nee Werdmüller of Elgg (1771-1821). He was interested in art early on, and painting in particular. As a painter's dilettante, he sent the Zurich Art Society's exhibition in 1821/1822 . However, he studied law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg and worked from 1826 to 1828 as a chancellery . In 1828 he married Anna (* 1807), the daughter of the Zurich pastor Christoph Locher (* 1774). From 1828 to 1833, he was ex officio judge in Oberamt Zurich, 1833-1839 Chief Justice.

In a group of Zurich lawyers, especially in close cooperation with Friedrich Ludwig Keller and David Ulrich (1797–1844), he developed ideas for reform in the legal system of the canton of Zurich and Switzerland during the Restoration . So politicized, in 1830 he was one of the founders of the weekly magazine Schweizerischer Republikaner , which supported the demand for a new constitution made at the Ustertag and acted as a mouthpiece for the radical liberal movement , especially since 1831, when Ludwig Snell was already known throughout Switzerland liberal thinker had taken a leading position in the editorial team of the weekly newspaper. From 1834 to 1842 Füssli worked on the editing of the Swiss Republican . During the regeneration , Füssli belonged to the leadership circle of radical liberals, who advocated popular sovereignty , the lifting of press censorship , separation of church and state , representative democracy , freedom of the individual and legal equality . As the main speaker at a meeting in Bassersdorf on February 26, 1832, he called a Zurich Cantonal Association into life as a branch of the protective association spreading from Bern through Switzerland “to shield the existence of popular constitutions” and became one of the spokesmen for this people's association. From 1832 to 1839 he was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Zurich and from 1832 to 1835 of the Zurich Council of Churches. Like Jonas Furrer , he advocated the appointment of the controversial reform theologian David Friedrich Strauss to the University of Zurich in 1839 . The Züriputsch promoted by the appointment ended his professional and political career.

He then went on trips and turned to writing, following his interest in art history topics. His well-read writings on the “most important cities on the Rhine” drew detailed, art-historically significant literary views of Rhenish cityscapes and the urban cultural life of the Rhineland during the Biedermeier and Vormärz period , in particular a portrait of the Düsseldorf School of Painting . Until shortly before his death, Füssli was about to move to Germany to live with his son Wilhelm Heinrich , who wanted to become a painter.

Works (selection)

  • Munich's finest public art treasures . Munich 1841
  • Zurich and the most important cities on the Rhine with reference to old and new works of architecture, sculpture and painting . Zurich and Winterthur 1842 ( digitized )
  • The most important cities on the Middle and Lower Rhine in the German area, with reference to old and new works of architecture, sculpture and painting . Zurich and Winterthur 1843 ( digitized )
  • Johann Heinrich Füßli as a private person, writer and scholar . Manuscript, Zurich 1845 (partially published, Zurich 1900)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Faber: Conversations-Lexicon for Fine Art , Renger'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1848, p. 244 ( Google Books )
  2. ↑ Füßli, family . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 12 : Fiori-Fyt . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1916, p. 565 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Füßli, Wilhelm Heinrich . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 12 : Fiori-Fyt . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1916, p. 573 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  4. ^ Josef Anton Henne : Swiss Chronicle in four books . Third book, published by Huber and Comp., St. Gallen and Bern 1841, p. 1001 ( Google Books )
personal data
SURNAME Füssli, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Füßli, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss lawyer, radical-liberal politician, editor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1845
Place of death Zurich