Fridolin Anderwert

Who was Fridolin Anderwert?

Fridolin Anderwert was a Swiss politician.

He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on December 10, 1875 and was member of the Council until December 25, 1880. He was affiliated to the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland.

During his office time he held the Department of Justice and Police and was Vice-President of the Swiss Confederation in 1880.

On 7 December 1880 he was elected President of the Swiss Confederation for the year 1881. Immediately after the election a nasty campaign against him broke out in the press, in particular about the eating habits of the obese bachelor, but also rumors that he was a regular visitor in gay brothels. Drawn by physical exhaustion and severe depression, Anderwert committed suicide on Christmas Day 1880 on the "Kleine Schanze", a small park next to the Houses of Parliament. The only published sentence of his farewell letter states: "They want a victim, they shall have it."