Ursula Koch

Ursula Koch (; née Pomeranz; born 1 July 1941) is a former Swiss politician and was the first woman president of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP). She served briefly on the National Council (Switzerland) from 1999 to 2000.

Early life Koch was born Ursula Pomeranz on 1 July 1941 in Zurich, Switzerland to a stateless Jewish father originally from Poland and Swiss-born Maria Elisabeth Pomeranz (née Hanhart; 1914-2004).

She grew up in Stäfa on Lake Zürich and graduated from the teacher training college there before spending a year on exchange at the University of Oregon in 1962. In 1963, Ursula Koch started to study natural sciences at the University of Zürich and graduated at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, where she worked as a research assistant from 1970 to 1976. Ursula Koch received her doctorate in 1976.

Political career Cantonal Council and City Council of Zurich As member of the Cantonal Council (Kantonsrat), the legislative assembly of the canton of Zürich, for the SP of the canton of Zürich, Ursula Koch refused, as dedicated woman's politician, the traditional male-oriented oath to the Vaterland and instead pledged allegiance on the Mutterland of office in 1979, but was re-elected until 1986. the parent organization of Swiss engineers and architects, became her best-known saying.

At the 1999 national Council elections, Ursula Koch reached with 122,846 votes the second best result in Switzerland. Despite the top result, the inner-party disputes not declined. even being the first women president of the national section of the Swiss social democratic party (SP).

After her election as president of the party, Ursula Koch encountered massive rejection of their person, according to own information, and the conflict took place increasingly via media reaching its first peak in March 1998, when the general secretary Barbara Häring resigned. Party colleagues of the so-called "Bodenmann-Clan" (named after the previous party president) criticized an increasing lack of concept and the absence of the SP in the Swiss political arena. The crisis culminated after a closed-door meeting of the SP executive board on 19 February 2000: the reconciliation within the party leadership did not materialise, and on 15 April Ursula Koch retired by the party leadership and from the parliament for health reasons.

As president of the political party SP, and therefore member of the so-called Elefantenrunde – meaning the presidents of the five most 'important' political parties in Switzerland – Ursula Koch participated at the first live stream broadcast from the Federal Palace of Switzerland (Bundeshaus) in late 1999.

Since 2000, she is no more charged in a political office, and in November 2000 Ursula Koch married her long-time life partner.

Publications Ursula Koch-Pomeranz: I. Photochemische Cyclisierung von Allyl-anisolen und C-Allyl-anilinen; II. Die durch Silberionen katalysierte Umlagerung von Propargyl-phenyläthern. Dissertation, 195 pages, Universität Zürich, 1976. Michael Kohn, Ursula Koch: Titanic oder Arche Noah. Gespräche zu Energie, Technik und Gesellschaft. Published by Patrizia N. Franchini and Suzanne Kappeler. Rauhreif-Verlag, Zürich 1987.