Friedrich Emil Welti
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Friedrich Emil Welti | |
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Kehrsatz, Switzerland | |
Occupation(s) | Historian, businessman |
Spouses | |
Parent |
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Relatives | Alfred Escher (father-in-law) |
Friedrich Emil Welti commonly known as Fritz Welti (15 June 1857 - 8 March 1940) was a Swiss businessman and
Biography
When his father was elected to the Federal Council in 1867, the family moved to Bern. He received his doctorate in law from the University of Bern in 1880 and moved to Winterthur, to work for the Swiss Accident Insurance Institute. He eventually sat on the Board of Directors there and at several other companies; notably the Schweizerische Mobiliar ; serving as its President from 1904 to 1937.
Some of this rapid rise in the industry was a result of his 1883 marriage to Lydia Escher, the only daughter of the politician and industrialist, Alfred Escher. One of the artists they patronized was Welti's childhood friend, Karl Stauffer-Bern. Not long after their marriage, Lydia and Stauffer began a secret love affair in Rome. When this was discovered, she and Karl fled, but Welti's father intervened, had Stauffer arrested and Lydia placed in an insane asylum. She was released in 1890, a divorce was granted, and she committed suicide the following year.
In 1893, he married Helene Kammerer (1865-1942), whose father was a doctor. As a result of the divorce proceedings, he had become wealthy and, in 1897, acquired the
As a legal historian, he regularly contributed articles to the Anzeiger für Schweizergeschichte (Annals of Swiss History), as well as histories of Bern, covering the 14th and 15th centuries, along with the tax books from that period. After that, he began a four-decade long collaboration with the historian, Walther Merz , doing research on behalf of the Collection of Swiss Law Sources and studying town privileges. In 1925, he published an annotated version of the travel diary of Hans von Waltheim .[1] His estate documents are kept at the Staatsarchiv Aargau and the Burgerbibliothek of Berne.[2]
References
Further reading
- "Biographisches Lexikon des Kantons Aargau 1803–1957", in: Argovia], Vol.68/69, Verlag Sauerländer, 1958
- Welti, Friedrich Emil in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
External links
- Bern Town Privileges (1902 Vol. I, 1939 Vol. II) [1] (several others available @ German Wikipedia)