Gottlieb Ott

Gottlieb Ott ( * 1832 in Worb, † December 4, 1882 in Bern ) was a Swiss building contractor.

Life

Gottlieb Ott's great-grandfather had come in 1782 from the Swabian Untertürkheim Jegenstorf and his grandfather had settled in 1806 Worb. 1843 took over his father a blacksmith in the Bernese Matte district. In Bern Ott attended secondary school and then studied at the Polytechnic of Karlsruhe. During the Neuchâtel trade he worked in 1857 on the fixing of Basel and then took over his father's business. In 1864 he opened an office for bridge, from which then the Ott & Cie. emerged; in time he became one of the most influential business people of the city of Bern.

1866 Ott was elected to the Grand Council, where he belonged to the radical- liberal circle around Jacob Stämpfli. Because of his great influence in the railway policy wrote Ulrich Dürrenmatt as a mockery of Georg Neumark known songs Who only the good Lord can reign in 1878 about him:

Who only love can prevail Ott and put your trust in Him at all times, which it is wonderfully unfold the State Finance glory.

Ott's company organized in 1865 the demolition of the Christoffel tower and built, among other things which opened on September 24, 1883 Kirchenfeldbrücke. 1865 Ott was a member of the Civic Community of Bern. In the national elections of 1881 he suffered a defeat against the conservative Bernese Mayor Otto von Bueren. This and great financial difficulties meant that he probably committed suicide in the Aare on 4 December 1882.

The circumstances of his death have been described in the covenant:

"On Saturday evening, December 2, 1882, he sits to 11 clock with friends in a cafe at the Hospital Lane. He says goodbye to there to go home, but did not arrive there. The search operations begin well on Sunday, on Monday also employees of his company involved in the search. On Wednesday morning, December 6, 1882, the body is found in Aarekanal in the mat. The autopsy shows that he had drowned. Since he had only a small wound in the head and the rest had all his possessions with him, a crime has been excluded. His clock showed the time 02.00 clock. "

Despite the death of Ott and financial problems he had left, he managed his company to successfully complete the construction of the Kirchenfeldbrücke after 21 months.