Alfred Heinrich Ilg

Alfred Heinrich Ilg (30 March 1854 – 7 January 1916) was a Swiss engineer and First Minister of State to Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II. He was born in Frauenfeld, Switzerland and died in Zurich.

Early life Share of the Compagnie Impériale des Chemins de Fer Éthiopiens, issued 14. December 1899, signed by Alfred Ilg; The share shows emperor Menelik II, waiting together with his royal suit for the arrival of the first train. In 1854, Ilg was born into a poor household in Frauenfeld. After his stepfather died, he began to train as a mechanic. He built houses and waterworks or was involved in the construction of Addis Ababa. However, a slight distinction was made, in which Art. 17 of the Amharic version ensured Ethiopian sovereignty, while the Italian one made Ethiopia into an Italian protectorate. Ilg was leading in the construction of several public buildings and worked as chef de protocole and secretary for the emperor, receiving the highest medal available, the Star of Ethiopia. Ilg married twice in Ethiopia, first to a Ethiopian woman named Walatta Maryam from Bulga, with whom he had four children before she died. After her death, he married a Swiss woman named Fanny Gattiker from Zurich in 1895, with whom he had four more children including a son named Menelik.

Further achievements worth mentioning are the creation of a unified national currency system and the erection of a postal system. When Friedrich Rosen, an orientalist and leader of an official German delegation established several treaties between Ethiopia and Germany on 7 March 1905, Ilg's influence at court began to dwindle. He could not (or did not want to) do anything against several intrigues at court; which led to his resignation in 1907.

Later life Alfred Ilg returned to Switzerland and settled in Zürich where he died at the age of 61.

Ilg was a contemporary of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and was a frequent correspondent of him. In 2003 it was again exhibited in the Ethnographic Museum in Zürich.