Augustin Keller (10 November 1805 in Sarmenstorf, Aargau – 8 January 1883) [1] was a Swiss politician and a co-founder of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland, an Old Catholic Church denomination based in Switzerland.
He is considered to have started the Monastery dispute of Aargau (German : Aargauer Klosterstreit) which led to the abolition of all monasteries in Aargau in 1841 and the eventual establishment of the Swiss state. [2]
Keller was born in 1805 to Joseph Keller, a farmer, and his wife Barbara. [1]
After studying philology, history, pedagogy, philosophy and literature in Munich and Breslau, where he was influenced by Ludwig Wachler, Keller first worked as a teacher in Lucerne [1] and was the director of the teacher seminar of Aargau from 1834 to 1856. In this position he learned much about the building up of the education system in the canton of Aargau.
Keller was better known as a radical liberal politician and harsh critic of the Roman Catholic Church, although he was himself a Catholic. In 1835 he was elected into the parliament of the canton of Aargau, which he was a part of until 1856.
After conflicts resembling a civil war between government troops and Catholic insurgents in January 1841, Keller called the monasteries antagonistic to progress and made them accountable for the insurrection in Freiamt during a speech in parliament; [2] the government then abolished all monasteries in Aargau. The Monastery dispute of Aargau caused an international crisis and ended in the Sonderbund war of 1847, which was followed by the founding of the Swiss federal republic in 1848.
From 1848 to 1881, Keller was politically active on a national level and was almost consistently a member of either the National Council or the Council of States. [3] In 1871 and 1872 he was president of the latter. From 1856 to 1881, he was governmental council member of the canton Aargau. He spoke out for the complete equality for Jews in Surbtal. [1]
As president of the Aargau church council, Keller denounced the dogma of infallibility of Pope Pius IX in 1870 and called for the establishment of an independent Swiss national church during the Kulturkampf. He also worked to ban Jesuits from entering the new country; [4] this ban was lifted in 1973.
In 1871, he was one of the founders of the Swiss Association of Liberal Catholics and was elected president of the synod council in 1875; in 1874 he co-founded the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland. [1]
Augustin Keller was the great-grandfather of a major figure in the Fascist Frontsfrühling in Switzerland, Dr. Max Leo Keller. [5]
Aargau, more formally the Canton of Aargau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau.
Friedrich Emil Welti known as Emil Welti was a Swiss politician, lawyer and judge. From 1856 to 1866, he was a member of the government of the canton of Aargau and, beginning in 1857, the Council of States. In 1867, Welti was elected to the Bundesrat as a representative of the liberal-radical faction.
Obwalden or Obwald is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of seven municipalities and the seat of the government and parliament is in Sarnen. It is traditionally considered a "half-canton", the other half being Nidwalden.
Beinwil am See is a municipality in the district of Kulm in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.
Lenzburg is a town in the central region of the Swiss canton of Aargau and is the capital of the Lenzburg District. The town, founded in the Middle Ages, lies in the Seetal valley, about 3 kilometres south of the Aare river. Lenzburg and the neighbouring municipalities of Niederlenz and Staufen have grown together in an agglomeration.
Magden is a municipality in the district of Rheinfelden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.
The rise of Switzerland as a federal state began on 12 September 1848, with the creation of a federal constitution in response to a 27-day civil war, the Sonderbundskrieg. The constitution, which was heavily influenced by the United States Constitution and the ideas of the French Revolution, was modified several times during the following decades and wholly replaced in 1999. The 1848 constitution represented the first time, other than when the short-lived Helvetic Republic had been imposed, that the Swiss had a central government instead of being simply a collection of autonomous cantons bound by treaties.
Wettingen Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in Wettingen in the Swiss canton of Aargau. It was founded in 1227 and dissolved during the secularisation of 1841, but re-founded at Mehrerau in Austria in 1854. The buildings are listed as a heritage site of national significance.
The Swiss Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation is a grouping of Benedictine monasteries in Switzerland or with significant historical Swiss connections.
Brunegg is a municipality in the district of Lenzburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.
Hendschiken is a municipality in the district of Lenzburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.
The Freiamt or Freie Ämter is a region in Switzerland and is located in the southeast of Canton of Aargau. It comprises the area between the Lindenberg and Heitersberg and from the terminal moraine at Othmarsingen to Reuss river in Dietwil. Today the area of the Bremgarten and Muri Districts are called the Freiamt. Previously, the area around Affoltern District in the canton of Zurich was called the (Zurich) Freiamt.
The Swiss Northern Railway , informally known as the Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn, opened the first railway line within Switzerland in 1847, the Zürich–Baden line. This followed the extension of a French railway to Basel in 1844. The original line generally followed the south bank of the Limmat from Zürich to near its confluence with the Aar near Brugg, and then the south bank of the Aar to Olten. It was absorbed into the Swiss Northeastern Railway in 1853 and extended from Baden to Brugg in 1858. The line was absorbed into the Swiss Federal Railways on its establishment in 1902. It is electrified at 15 kV 16.7 Hz and its eastern 16 km section from Zürich to Killwangen-Spreitenbach is now part of the Zürich–Olten trunkline and has four tracks.
Brunegg castle is a castle in the municipality of Brunegg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.
The Counts of Lenzburg were a comital family in the Duchy of Swabia in the 11th and 12th centuries, controlling substantial portions of the pagi of Aargau and Zürichgau.
Gottlieb Jäger was a Swiss politician, President of the Federal Supreme Court (1860) and President of the Swiss National Council (1864/1865).
Hans Schatzmann was a Swiss politician who served as the fifth Chancellor of Switzerland.
Michael Traugott Pfeiffer was a Swiss music pedagogue. Together with Hans Georg Nageli, they are considered pioneers of the Swiss choral movement at the beginning of the 19th century.
The Special Provisions were a series of articles introduced in the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation. Adopted during the Kulturkampf at the end of the 19th century, they were mainly intended to limit the influence of the Roman Catholic Church to the benefit of the Protestant radicalism then practiced by the majority of the population and cantons, but also took aim at Judaism. The articles unilaterally restricted freedom of faith and conscience by explicitly denying certain rights to certain religions.
The History of the Canton of Aargau is dedicated to Aargau in Switzerland, founded in 1803, and its various preceding territories.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
