Emil Walter

Emil Walter (29 January 1872 – 19 January 1939) was a Swiss Grütli leader and Social Democratic Party politician.

Life Emil Walter was born to a Protestant couple in Winterthur, already becoming a centre for the burgeoning Swiss railway industry, and a major industrial town more generally. Emil's father, Albert Walter, was a secondary school teacher originally from Munich, who as a young man had participated actively in the uprisings of 1848. The boy grew up in an orphanage in the town, and went on to attend the teacher-training academy at nearby Küsnacht between 1887 and 1891. After a further period of study in Zürich, between 1895 and 1903 he worked as a secondary school teacher in Winterthur.

In 1896 Walter married the trades union and feminist activist Marie Hüni. Between 1898 and 1903 Emil Walter served as a town councillor in Winterthur, and from 1902 till 1920 he served as a councillor at the cantonal level. He worked as a part-time council employee between 1903 and 1910 with responsibilities involving the police service. Emil Walter's second marriage, in 1911, was to the primary school teacher Anna Schumacher. His third marriage, in 1930, was to Fanny Arnold.