Philipp Albert Stapfer

Philipp Albert Stapfer ( born September 23, 1766 Bern, † March 27, 1840 in Paris) was a Swiss politician, diplomat and theologian. The citizens of the town of Brugg was Minister of Education of the Helvetic Republic and instrumental in the formation of the Canton of Aargau.

Life and work

Stapfer came from a traditional Reformed theologian family. His great-grandfather, his grandfather and his father had been pastor. His uncle Johann Friedrich Stapfer was one of the most respected Swiss theologian of the 18th century. Another uncle, Johann Stapfer, was a professor of theology. Philipp Albert Stapfer studied at the Academy also Berner theology. 1789 and 1790, he was a student at the Georg -August- University of Göttingen, where he became interested in the concerns of the Jacobins and the ideas of the French Revolution.

After an educational trip to London and the revolutionary Paris in 1791 Stapfer began in Bern to teach, and was appointed in 1792 professor of philology. 1798 appointed him the government of the Helvetic Republic to the Minister of " science, art, buildings, and roads ." One of his closest associates in the ministry was a native of Magdeburg Heinrich Zschokke, with Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi he had to do professionally. To get an overview of the state of the education system, Stapfer led in January 1799 to all teachers of the Helvetic Republic, a school - by Enquête. His ambitious school reform plan, which provided for a three-tier school system with elementary school, secondary school and scientific academy, has been whittled down to a minimum by Parliament and could not be implemented in advance of the Second Coalition War.

From 1800 until the end of 1802, he was of Swiss ambassador in Paris and met in this function often with Napoleon Bonaparte. Stapfers main concern was the formation of an orderly and independent Swiss state. In 1802 he prevented diplomatic skill to the annexation of the Valais by France.

In December 1802 Stapfer was invited as a delegate to Paris to liquidate the failed Helvetic Republic and negotiate the mediation Constitution. He successfully lobbied for the creation of the canton of Aargau in its present form a. This was finally established on 19 February 1803 and was composed of the Bernese Aargau, the Frick Valley Canton and the Canton of Baden. Stapfer was also President of that Commission, which was responsible for the liquidation of the assets of the unitary state.

In the summer of 1803, he finally in France, the home of his wife, down, and was only occasionally in Switzerland to visit. To his friends and acquaintances in Paris included, among others, Alexander von Humboldt and Anne Germaine de Staël. Furthermore Stapfer worked as a writer, translator and speaker and devoted himself to theological studies. The canton of Aargau offered him at several times on political offices, but Stapfer always leaned on. Its the time of the Helvetic Republic elaborated ideas in education, some of which were far ahead of their time, have now been implemented by others.

Since 1960, led by Pro Argovia Foundation Stapferhaus recalls in the same building at Lenzburg Castle at these pioneering politician, as is the Stapferschulhaus in Brugg.