Emil Lohner

Emil Lohner (15 April 1865 – 24 February 1959) was a Swiss politician (FDP / PRD) initially on a cantonal level and later nationally.

Biography Provenance and early years Karl Emil Lohner was born in Thun, a small town with a well-diversified economy in central Switzerland. Emil August Lohner (1840–1927), his father, worked as a physician. His great grandfather, Carl Friedrich Ludwig Lohner (1786-1863), had been a member of the Cantonal Executive Council of Bern, serving in 1835 as cantonal Landammann (head of government), also notable as a coin collector. The Lohner family was well-connected within and beyond the Canton of Bern, and moderately prosperous.

In 1883 Lohner successfully completed his schooling at Burgdorf and moved on to the University of Bern in order to obtain a degree in Jurisprudence in preparation for work as a lawyer. During the 1890s Emil Lohner also found time to become increasingly involved in politics. Like his father-in-law, he was drawn to the grouping that was relaunched in 1894 as the “Free Democratic Party” (FDP / “Freisinnig-Demokratische Partei”).

Cantonal politics Between 1898 and 1909 Lohner sat as a member of the Cantonal Parliament for Bern. He remained a member of the cantonal executive council between 1909 and 1928, responsible for Education for ten years, and thereafter responsible for Justice, Military Affairs and civil security. At the education directorate, from 1909 till 1918, he backed the reintroduction of the Matura (school final exams) and oversaw substantial salary increases for primary school teachers. At the justice directorate, between 1918 and 1928, his achievements included the simplification of district administration within the justice system, the introduction of a new Penal Process Code and a new Youth Justice system. Lohner nevertheless remained a Member of the national Parliament till the end of 1927, and remained an influential member of the leadership team within the FDP. As a parliamentarian he was a consistent advocate for the continuing development of the railway network in and around Bern, and for the further modernisation (which at the time was virtually synonymous with electrification) of the rail network across Switzerland.

He was also a director, and according to at least one source chairman, of Schweizerische Mobiliar, a major insurance company based in Bern.

In the aftermath of the war Lohner distinguished himself in the field of foreign affairs as member of the Swiss League of Nations commission. Between 1922 and 1924 he represented Switzerland in the Disarmament Commission. Then, in 1925, he represented his country at the Geneva Arms Trade Conference at which the important Geneva Protocol on wartime deployments of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and bacteriological methods of warfare", was agreed between the participating nations.

After parliament Emil Lohner was 62 when he resigned his membership of the national parliament at the end of 1927. In 1928 the Bundesrat appointed him to head up the Central Office for International Rail Transport. He served the organisation as its Managing Director between 1928 and 1935.

He was a few months short of his ninety-fourth birthday when he died in his home town early during 1959.