Emil Frey

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For the Swiss composer, see Emil Frey (composer).
Not to be confused with the Swiss car insurance company of the same name.

Emil Frey
International Telegraph Union
In office
11 March 1897 – 1 August 1921
Preceded byTimotheus Rothen
Succeeded byHenri Etienne
Personal details
Born(1838-10-24)24 October 1838
Arlesheim, Switzerland
Died24 December 1922(1922-12-24) (aged 84)
Arlesheim, Switzerland
Political partyFree Democratic Party
Military service
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Emil Johann Rudolf Frey (24 October 1838 – 24 December 1922) was a Swiss politician,

member of the Swiss Federal Council (1890–1897). He served as President of the Swiss Confederation
in 1894.

Early life

Frey was born in Arlesheim, in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft, to Emil Remigius Frey and Emma Kloss.[1] His father was a liberal separatist politician.

Frey's family provided refuge for

Forty-Eighters, veterans of the 1848 revolutions in Europe. For a while he worked for Hecker, but they had a falling-out.[2]

Military career

American Civil War

Frey in the Union Army, 1862

Frey enlisted in the Union Army's 24th Illinois Infantry Regiment as a private.[3] He wrote in his essay "My American Experiences" that "on 17th of June [1861] I enlisted in the 24th at Chicago. On that same day I was appointed by Colonel Hecker to be the colorbearer of the regiment, and in the evening we left Chicago for Alton, Ill." Hecker was his commander, and they became friends again, with Frey sharing a tent with Hecker's son. Frey was later promoted to first lieutenant but resigned on 17 June 1862.

Frey raised the 82nd Illinois Infantry Regiment (known as "Second Hecker Regiment") and was the regiment's acting colonel at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. He was taken prisoner on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg,[4] and following held in Libby Prison for eighteen months before being exchanged for Captain Gordon, a Confederate prisoner who had been sentenced to death. Frey held the rank of major at the end of the war .[3] He rescinded his Swiss citizenship on 14 July 1864, and took on the American.[4]

Swiss Army

He didn't count with the mandatory military service in Switzerland, but on his return from the United States, in view of his experience from the American civil war, he was made a major of the Swiss Army from the beginning.[4] When he assumed as a Federal Councillor, he had the rank of a Colonel.[4]

Political career

After the Civil War, Frey returned to Switzerland.

presided
in 1875/1876.

From 1882 to 1888, Frey was the first ambassador (Minister) of Switzerland to the United States in Washington.[4] The US President Chester A. Arthur saw him as the representative for both states.[4] During his tenure as ambassador, he always stayed the summers in Arlesheim, his hometown.[4]

He was elected to the

Military Department. During his tenure he tried to introduce a military reform, but in a referendum the people voted against it.[4] He was confirmed as a Federal Councillor in December 1896, but he resigned from office in 1897.[4]

He was

President of the Confederation
in 1894.

International Telegraph Union

In 1897, following his retirement from his second period as a member of Switzerland’s National Council, Frey was nominated as Director of the

ITU Bureau at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference to replace Timotheus Rothen. He held the post for almost a quarter of a century and took part in the International Telegraph Conferences of 1903 in London and 1908 Lisbon. [5][6]

After leaving ITU in August 1921, Frey died, two months after his eighty-fifth birthday, on Christmas Eve 1922.

Personal life

In 1870, he married Emma Kloss (born 1848) from Liestal, with whom he had five children: Hans (1871–1913), Emil (1872–1913), Carl (1873–1934), Anna (1874–1893) and Helene (1876–1944). In 1877 Emma died from pulmonary tuberculosis, aged just 28 years.

Literary works

  • Aus den Erlebnissen eines Schweizers im Sezessionskriege, Bern 1893, (translated: "From the experiences of a Swiss in the War of Secession")
  • Die Kriegstaten der Schweizer, dem Volk erzählt, Neuchâtel 1905, (translated: "The Swiss Acts of War, told to the People")

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Fritz Grieder. "Emil Frey". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in French). Translated by Pierre-G. Martin.
  2. ^ II Formation and Enlistment Archived 2008-11-19 at the Wayback Machine by Ray W. Burhop, accessed December 10, 2007
  3. ^ a b 'Receiving the Swiss Minister: Col. Frey receiving the congratulations of his countrymen' The New York Times, November 20, 1882; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois, Civil War, vols. 2 and 5.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wüest, Markus (21 October 2022). "Amerikaner Emil Frey – Er schwor der Schweiz ab und wurde trotzdem Bundesrat". Basler Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  5. ^ "ITU: ITU's Former Secretaries-General". Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2007.
  6. ^ "Elected Official Biography - Emil Frey". International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved 25 November 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Emil Frey.
Preceded by
President of the Swiss National Council

1875/1876 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Member of the Swiss Federal Council

1890–1897 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Timotheus Rothen
 Director
International Telegraph Union

1897–1921 		Succeeded by
Henri Etienne
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