Alfred Escher

Origin and family

Alfred Escher is resulting from a former family, Escher vom Glas, which generated many notable, of politicians and engineers. His/her grandfather, Hans Caspar Escher (1755-1831), had to emigrate after the greatest bankruptcy that Zurich knew hitherto and it entered the Russian army. His/her father, Heinrich Escher (1776-1853), is turned over to Switzerland after having made fortune in America. Alfred Escher grew in the district of Enge to the Belvoir villa. His/her mother was Henriette Lydia Zollikofer. In the house of his/her parents, Escher was pilot animated political debates. Thereafter, Escher took party for the Radicals. In 1857 Escher married Auguste von Uebel. Lydia, their single child, has later wife Friedrich Emil Welti, the son of the federal adviser Emil Welti. Its connection with the artist Karl Stauffer started a scandal. Lydia committed suicide in 1891.

The politician

Alfred Escher had already woven his political network at the Company of the students of Zofingue (in German). At 25 years. Escher was elected in the Grand the Council of the Canton of Zurich and in 1846 member of the federal Diète. The November 6th 1848, during the first meeting of the National council, it was appointed vice-president of this one. It sat in the National council, of which it was three times the president, until his death. In its career it belonged to not less than 200 commissions. Radical Jonas Furrer, first president of Confédration, and the federal advisers Jakob Stämpfli and Emil Welti (of which the son had married the girl of Escher) belonged to his/her friends.

The cofounder of modern Switzerland

Alfred Escher who was one of the cofounders of the Credit Suisse, of the Nordostbahn, the federal Polytechnic school, Schweizerische Rentenanstalt as well as the promoter of the tunnel of the Saint-Gothard, can be regarded as one of the fathers of modern Switzerland. Its capacity was such as it was made call the king Alfred or the tsar of Zurich .

The king of the railroads

As of its beginnings in policy its most important field of activities was the construction of railway lines. It deposited a motion, a plan for the development of a general network of Swiss railroad and decisions for obtaining the concessions for this last, also by private companies. A commission had been formed to study these projects. The majority of this commission was of the opinion that the construction of the railroads was a thing which related to the State while a minority preferred a construction by private companies. In 1852 a law concerning the railroads was formulated and on July 28th of the same year it was accepted by the National council. According to this law a great freedom with the companies guaranteed and retained that the Confédération did not have the right to refuse concessions safe for military reasons.

The intention of Escher was to prove that private construction was also able to ensure of the railway lines Switzerland. It was named president of Zurich-Bodenseebahn (Zurich Winterthour - Romanshorn) which had obtained the concession of the Confederation on January 28th, 1853. This company then amalgamated with Schweizerische Nordbahn (Zurich Baden) to become Schweizerische Nordostbahn. At the assembly constitutive of September 12th, 1853 it was appointed president of the direction, a station which it occupied until it was called with the head of Gotthardbahngesellschaft in 1872. There however remained chairman of the board of Nordostbahn until its death in 1882.

From the years 1860, he pled for an alpine railway line, initially for a line of the Lukmanier, then, after closer examinations, for that of Saint-Gothard. He obtained that in 1863 15 cantons as well as the 2 companies Centralbahn and Nordostbahn met to form the Union of Gothard of which the goal was the construction of this line. Escher belonged to the commission which carried out the talks for the financing of the line with the federal and cantonal authorities, the Neighboring states, the Germany and the Italy, like with other interested groups. This finally tipped the scales in favor of the line of Gothard among the various projects for an alpine railway line.

In 1872 it was called with the head of the administration of the line of Gothard and in 1873 work started. Major problems and additional costs weighed on the continuation of work. The president of the direction had to face strong reproaches. When it was in more question of transferring the seat from the company of Zurich to Lucerne, Alfred Escher resigned the 2 jullet 1878. June 1st, 1882, the line of Gothard was inaugurated, but Escher, already marked by death, could not take part in it any more. It is deceased at the end of the same year.

The Alfred-Escher monument of Richard Kissling was inaugurated on June 22nd, 1889. It is in the place of the station in front of the main station of Zurich.

The funds Alfred Escher is in the following files and libraries:

federal Files, Bern
Landesbibliothek of Kantons Glarus, Glarus
Staatsarchiv of Kantons Zurich, Zurich

External bonds

Article Alfred Escher in the historical Dictionary of Switzerland

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