Wilhelm Vigier (politician, 1823)

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Wilhelm Vigier, 1886

Josef Wilhelm Viktor Vigier (born August 27, 1823 in Solothurn ; † March 18, 1886 there ) was a Swiss liberal politician .

Life

Vigier was born as Joseph Wilhelm Viktor von Vigier into the noble patrician family von Vigier (also Vigier von Steinbrugg ), who came from southern France and had lived in Solothurn since the early 17th century . However, he already represented liberal , democratic views in his youth , which led him to abandon the nobility predicate "von". Vigier studied at the Universities of Zurich , Bonn , Berlin and Heidelberg jurisprudence . During this time he joined the Swiss Zofinger Association . During his stay in Berlin he was able to follow the events of the German March Revolution in 1848 ; Vigier published his memories of it shortly before his death in 1886 under the title "The March Days of 1848". After his return to Switzerland in 1849, Vigier was editor of the Solothurner Blatt from 1850 to 1852 . In 1851 he founded a law firm together with Wilhelm Munzinger , a son of Federal Councilor Josef Munzinger , in which he worked until 1856.

However, Vigier soon got into politics. As the spokesman for the radical-liberal so-called “Reds” of the canton of Solothurn , who advocated direct democracy , Vigier, a member of the Solothurn Cantonal Council since 1854 , opposed the old-liberal “grays”. He made a major contribution to the adoption of a constitutional revision in the radical-liberal sense in 1856, and was elected to the Solothurn government council that year , where he remained in a leading position for the thirty years until his death in 1886. During this time, which is also known as the “Vigier era”, he held the office of Landammann eleven times and was also a member of the Council of States without interruption . In the article by Martin Gisi in the ADB , Vigier is referred to as "the most popular man in the canton" at the time. He deserves the credit of having “promoted the introduction of a number of industrial establishments in the canton and the expansion of the railway network without burdening the state's assets”. Vigier also heavily promoted health and education; Thanks to his commitment, the schools in Solothurn have been significantly expanded. At the time of the Kulturkampf in the 1870s, Vigier was one of the founders of the Christian Catholic Church , initially looking for a good understanding between the state and the Roman Catholic Church . Later he was also involved in the settlement of the disputes and the restoration of the diocese of Basel .

As a member of the Council of States, which he presided over in 1862 and 1882, Vigier was also influential at the federal level. In 1881 he ran for federal councilor and was only barely defeated by the Solothurn incumbent Bernhard Hammer . From 1858 to 1874 Vigier was also a member of the Federal Supreme Court , which he also presided over twice, in 1864 and 1873. He was one of the main advocates of a total revision of the 1848 Federal Constitution , which came into force in 1874 and expanded federal competencies and popular rights .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Vigier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Josef Wilhelm Vigier in the digital Alfred Escher letter edition . Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  2. ↑ Swiss Lexicon
  3. ↑ Gisi, p. 697
  4. ↑ Gisi, p. 697
  5. ↑ Swiss Lexicon
  6. ^ Gisi, p. 698
  7. ↑ Urs Altermatt : Bernhard Hammer . In: Urs Altermatt (Ed.): Das Bundesratslexikon . NZZ Libro , Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-03810-218-2 , p. 158-159 .
personal data
SURNAME Vigier, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vigier, Josef Wilhelm Viktor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss liberal politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Solothurn
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1886
Place of death Solothurn