Kalonder, Felix Louis

Felix-Louis Kalonder studied law in Zurich , Munich , Paris and Bern , where in 1889 he defended his doctoral dissertation in international law. After completing the training, Kalonder returned to Chur , where he worked as a court clerk, and then founded his own law firm. In 1892, he married Ursulina Walter, with whom he had three children.

In 1891, Kalonder was elected to the cantonal parliament of Graubunden , where he represented free democrats, and retained his mandate until 1913 . In 1893, he unsuccessfully fought for a place in the cantonal government. By the end of the 1890s, he had gained authority in the field of transport policy, his struggle for the Eastern Alpine Railway and lobbying for federal subsidies for the Rhetian Railway helped him to take one of two places from Graubünden in the Swiss Council of the Cantons in 1899 . During his tenure on the Council of Cantons, he was given the mandate to negotiate an agreement with the Grand Duchy of Baden regarding the use of the Rhine for shipping and hydropower. From December 4, 1911 to December 2, 1912, Kalonder was president of the Council of Cantons.

When federal adviser Adolf Deucher died in 1912 , Calonder was one of the candidates for a vacant seat on the Swiss Federal Council. On July 17, 1912, he lost the election to Edmund Schultes in the first ballot, partly due to the strong support given to Schultes by Catholic conservatives, farmer organizations, and the industrial lobby.

The next year, in May 1913, a member of the Federal Council, Louis Perrier , died, and the candidacy of Kalonder was more promising. This time, the Catholic conservatives supported him, and he easily won the election in the first round with 151 out of 199 votes.

• June 12, 1913 - February 12, 1920 - Member of the Federal Council of Switzerland.
• May 1913 - December 31, 1917 - Head of the Department (Minister) of the Interior.
• January 1 - December 31, 1917 - Vice President of Switzerland.
• January 1, 1918 - December 31, 1919 - head of the political department .
• January 1 - December 31, 1918 - President of Switzerland.

After his resignation in 1920 , Kalonder was appointed League of Nations mediator in the Åland crisis . In 1921, he held a conference in Geneva on the settlement of the Silesian Uprising. From 1922 to 1937 he lived in Katowice , where, as chairman of the mixed German-Polish commission, he controlled the implementation of the outcome of the Geneva Conference. In 1937 he moved to Zurich and worked as a lawyer. Felix-Louis Kalonder died on June 14, 1952 in Zurich.

• Kalonder on the website of the Swiss Federal Council
• Kalonder, Felix-Louis - article from the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (German) (French) (Italian)