Emil Frey

Template:Short description Template:For Template:For Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Emil Johann Rudolf Frey (24 October 1838 – 24 December 1922) was a Swiss politician, Union Army soldier in the American Civil War and 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.<ref name=HDS>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> His father was a liberal separatist politician.

Frey's family provided refuge for Friedrich Hecker when he fled the repression following the revolution in Germany in 1848. After attending gymnasium in Basel, Frey went to study in an agronomical institute in Jena.<ref name=HDS/> In 1860 he emigrated to the United States, arriving in Belleville, Illinois, an area with many Forty-Eighters, veterans of the 1848 revolutions in Europe. For a while he worked for Hecker, but they had a falling-out.<ref>II Formation and Enlistment Template:Webarchive by Ray W. Burhop, accessed December 10, 2007</ref>

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.<ref name=Times>'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.</ref> 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,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> 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 .<ref name=Times/> He rescinded his Swiss citizenship on 14 July 1864, and took on the American.<ref name=":0" />

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.<ref name=":0" /> When he assumed as a Federal Councillor, he had the rank of a Colonel.<ref name=":0" />

Political career

After the Civil War, Frey returned to Switzerland.<ref name=":0" /> From 1866 to 1872, he was a member of the cantonal government of Basel-Country. Not satisfied with the salary as politician he shortly was an editor for the journal Basler Nachrichten in 1872.<ref name=":0" /> The same year, Frey was elected to the Swiss National Council,<ref name=":0" /> council he presided in 1875/1876.

From 1882 to 1888, Frey was the first ambassador (Minister) of Switzerland to the United States in Washington.<ref name=":0" /> The US President Chester A. Arthur saw him as the representative for both states.<ref name=":0" /> During his tenure as ambassador, he always stayed the summers in Arlesheim, his hometown.<ref name=":0" />

He was elected to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 11 December 1890 and handed over office on 31 March 1897. He was affiliated to the Free Democratic Party. During his office time he held the Military Department. During his tenure he tried to introduce a military reform, but in a referendum the people voted against it.<ref name=":0" /> He was confirmed as a Federal Councillor in December 1896, but he resigned from office in 1897.<ref name=":0" />

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. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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")

External links

• Template:Swiss Federal Councillor
• Personenlexikon des Kantons Basel-Landschaft Template:In lang
• Emil Frey - der Baselbieter Bundesrat Template:In lang
• Template:HDS
• Archiv der Basler Familie Frey - Family archives in Basel Template:In lang
• Template:DNB portal