Fridolin Anderwert

Swiss politician

Fridolin Anderwert (19 September 1828, in Frauenfeld – 25 December 1880) was a Swiss politician.

He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on 10 December 1875 and was member of the council until 25 December 1880. He was affiliated to the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland.

During his office time he held the Department of Justice and Police and was Vice-President of the Swiss Confederation in 1880.

On 7 December 1880 he was elected President of the Swiss Confederation for the year 1881. Immediately after the election a nasty campaign against him broke out in the press, in particular about the eating habits of the obese bachelor, but also rumors that he was a regular visitor in gay brothels. Drawn by physical exhaustion and severe depression, Anderwert killed himself on Christmas Day 1880 on the "Kleine Schanze", a small park next to the Houses of Parliament. The only published sentence of his farewell letter states: "They want a victim, they shall have it."

External links

Profile of Fridolin Anderwert with election results on the website of the Swiss Federal Council.
Fridolin Anderwert in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

Preceded by Joachim Heer	President of the National Council 1870/1871	Succeeded by Rudolf Brunner
Preceded by Wilhelm Matthias Naeff	Member of the Swiss Federal Council 1875–1880	Succeeded by Louis Ruchonnet