Background
Edmund Schulthess was born in the family of Edmund Schulthess, a farmer, and Cornelia Brigitta Marth.
Edmund Schulthess was born in the family of Edmund Schulthess, a farmer, and Cornelia Brigitta Marth.
He studied law in Strasbourg, Munich, Leipzig, Paris and Bern.
In 1891 he opened his law office in Brugg, in 1900 worked as a legal adviser and an auditor, in 1904 for half a year advised the company Brown, Boveri & Cie on legal matters.
In 1905 the radical liberals supported by the Farmers’ Union and catholic conservatives came to power, Schulthess as a FDP representative was elected to the Council of States from the canton Aargau where he worked till 1912. After the death of Adolf Deucher, the member of the Federal Council, Schulthess was chosen to replace him on July 17, 1912. On this position he headed Department of Trade, Industry and Agriculture which was reorganized in 1915 into Department of Economic Affairs. He was four times President of Swiss Confederation and four times Vice-President. During World War I Schulthess took charge of overcoming the crisis. The following 1920s and 30s he tried to make economic and legislative measures, among them are such projects as 54 working hours ( also known as the Schulthess Law of 1924) and the Grain Monopoly of 1926. However, he couldn’t manage to rush them. He also supported the devaluation of the Swiss franc in 1936.
Tired of his office duties and exhausted by asthma, Schulthess resigned his position in the Federal Council in 1935. But the Federal Council chose him to be the first President of the Swiss Bank Commission which he headed till 1943.
Schulthess is considered to be a pragmatist oriented on problem-solving. During his career he sought to increase economic strength and to treat the working class fairly.
He married Marguerite Jeanne Disqué, (born c. 1880), and had a daughter Nelly Marguerite Jeanne Schulthess, born in Switzerland on 13 August 1903, who married as his first wife at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Bern on 30 November 1933 Portuguese Vasco Francisco Caetano de Castro Coutinho de Quevedo Pessanha, born in Lisbon, Coração de Jesus, on 3 July 1909), and had issue.