Emil Frey

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Emil Frey

| termend = 31 December 1894

| termstart1 = 1891

| predecessor1 = Walter Hauser

| successor1 = Eduard Müller

| office1 = Head of the Military Department

| predecessor2 = Office created

| successor2 = Alfred de Claparède

| party = Free Democratic Party

| nationality = Swiss

| termend2 = 1888

| termstart2 = 1882

| office2 = Swiss ambassador to the United States

| office3 = Director International Telegraph Union

| termstart3 = 11 March 1897

| termend3 = 1 August 1921

| predecessor3 = Timotheus Rothen

| successor3 = Henri Etienne

| termstart = 1 January 1894

| office = President of Switzerland

| caption = Frey in 1890

| image = Emil Frey, 1890.jpg

| death_place = Arlesheim, Switzerland

| death_date = {{death date and age|1922|12|24|1838|10|24|df=y}}

| birth_place = Arlesheim, Switzerland

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1838|10|24|df=y}}

| battles = American Civil War

Battle of Gettysburg {{POW}}

| successor = Josef Zemp

| predecessor = Karl Schenk

| termend1 = 1897

}}

Emil Johann Rudolf Frey (24 October 1838 – 24 December 1922) was a Swiss politician, Union Army soldier in the American Civil War and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1890–1897). He served as President of the Swiss Confederation in 1894.

Early life

Frey was born in Arlesheim, in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft, to Emil Remigius Frey and Emma Kloss.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Emil Frey|encyclopedia=Historical Dictionary of Switzerland|author=Fritz Grieder|translator=Pierre-G. Martin|language=fr}} His father was a liberal separatist politician.

Frey's family provided refuge for Friedrich Hecker when he fled the repression following the revolution in Germany in 1848. After attending gymnasium in Basel, Frey went to study in an agronomical institute in Jena. In 1860 he emigrated to the United States, arriving in Belleville, Illinois, an area with many Forty-Eighters, veterans of the 1848 revolutions in Europe. For a while he worked for Hecker, but they had a falling-out.[http://www.burhop.net/24illinois/formation.htm II Formation and Enlistment] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119142802/http://www.burhop.net/24illinois/formation.htm |date=2008-11-19 }} by Ray W. Burhop, accessed December 10, 2007

Military career

= American Civil War =

File:Emil Frey 1862.jpg

Frey enlisted in the Union Army's 24th Illinois Infantry Regiment as a private.[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1882/11/20/102930696.pdf 'Receiving the Swiss Minister: Col. Frey receiving the congratulations of his countrymen'] The New York Times, November 20, 1882; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois, Civil War, vols. 2 and 5. He wrote in his essay "My American Experiences" that "on 17th of June [1861] I enlisted in the 24th at Chicago. On that same day I was appointed by Colonel Hecker to be the colorbearer of the regiment, and in the evening we left Chicago for Alton, Ill." Hecker was his commander, and they became friends again, with Frey sharing a tent with Hecker's son. Frey was later promoted to first lieutenant but resigned on 17 June 1862.

Frey raised the 82nd Illinois Infantry Regiment (known as "Second Hecker Regiment") and was the regiment's acting colonel at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. He was taken prisoner on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg,{{Cite web |last=Wüest |first=Markus |date=21 October 2022 |title=Amerikaner Emil Frey – Er schwor der Schweiz ab und wurde trotzdem Bundesrat |url=https://www.bazonline.ch/er-schwor-der-schweiz-ab-und-wurde-trotzdem-bundesrat-249151583556 |access-date=2022-10-24 |website=Basler Zeitung |language=de}} and following held in Libby Prison for eighteen months before being exchanged for Captain Gordon, a Confederate prisoner who had been sentenced to death. Frey held the rank of major at the end of the war . He rescinded his Swiss citizenship on 14 July 1864, and took on the American.

= Swiss Army =

He didn't count with the mandatory military service in Switzerland, but on his return from the United States, in view of his experience from the American civil war, he was made a major of the Swiss Army from the beginning. When he assumed as a Federal Councillor, he had the rank of a Colonel.

Political career

After the Civil War, Frey returned to Switzerland. From 1866 to 1872, he was a member of the cantonal government of Basel-Country. Not satisfied with the salary as politician he shortly was an editor for the journal Basler Nachrichten in 1872. The same year, Frey was elected to the Swiss National Council, council he presided in 1875/1876.

From 1882 to 1888, Frey was the first ambassador (Minister) of Switzerland to the United States in Washington. The US President Chester A. Arthur saw him as the representative for both states. During his tenure as ambassador, he always stayed the summers in Arlesheim, his hometown.

He was elected to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 11 December 1890 and handed over office on 31 March 1897. He was affiliated to the Free Democratic Party. During his office time he held the Military Department. During his tenure he tried to introduce a military reform, but in a referendum the people voted against it. He was confirmed as a Federal Councillor in December 1896, but he resigned from office in 1897.

He was President of the Confederation in 1894.

International Telegraph Union

In 1897, following his retirement from his second period as a member of Switzerland’s National Council, Frey was nominated as Director of the ITU Bureau at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference to replace Timotheus Rothen. He held the post for almost a quarter of a century and took part in the International Telegraph Conferences of 1903 in London and 1908 Lisbon. {{Cite web |url=http://www.itu.int/net/ITU-SG/former_sg.aspx |title=ITU: ITU's Former Secretaries-General |access-date=16 December 2007 |archive-date=18 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218234318/http://www.itu.int/net/ITU-SG/former_sg.aspx |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/ElectedOfficialBio.aspx?off=15 |title=Elected Official Biography - Emil Frey |website=International Telecommunication Union |language=en|access-date=2021-11-25}}

After leaving ITU in August 1921, Frey died, two months after his eighty-fifth birthday, on Christmas Eve 1922.

Personal life

In 1870, he married Emma Kloss (born 1848) from Liestal, with whom he had five children: Hans (1871–1913), Emil (1872–1913), Carl (1873–1934), Anna (1874–1893) and Helene (1876–1944). In 1877 Emma died from pulmonary tuberculosis, aged just 28 years.

Literary works

Aus den Erlebnissen eines Schweizers im Sezessionskriege, Bern 1893, (translated: "From the experiences of a Swiss in the War of Secession")
Die Kriegstaten der Schweizer, dem Volk erzählt, Neuchâtel 1905, (translated: "The Swiss Acts of War, told to the People")

References

External links

{{Swiss Federal Councillor|emil-frey}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20050427231632/http://www.baselland.ch/docs/archive/hist/bio/2/FREY_Emil-J.htm Personenlexikon des Kantons Basel-Landschaft] {{in lang|de}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060223185932/http://www.bl.ch/3/blgeschichte/506frey.html Emil Frey - der Baselbieter Bundesrat] {{in lang|de}}
{{HDS|3823|author=Fritz Grieder}}
[http://query.staatsarchiv.bs.ch/query/Detail.aspx?ID=121501 Archiv der Basler Familie Frey] - Family archives in Basel {{in lang|de}}
{{DNB portal|11883505X|TYP=}}

{{Succession box | before = Jakob Stämpfli | title =President of the Swiss National Council| years = 1875/1876 | after = Arnold Otto Aepli}}

{{Succession box | before = Bernhard Hammer | title = Member of the Swiss Federal Council | years = 1890–1897 | after = Ernst Brenner}}

{{Succession box | before = Timotheus Rothen | title = Director International Telegraph Union | years = 1897–1921| after = Henri Etienne}}

Category:1838 births

Category:1922 deaths

Category:People from Basel-Landschaft

Category:Swiss Calvinist and Reformed Christians

Category:Free Democratic Party of Switzerland politicians

Category:Members of the Federal Council (Switzerland)

Category:Presidents of the Swiss Confederation

Category:Defence ministers of Switzerland

Category:Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 1878–1881