Thurgau
Obituary for one of the most important people in the canton, who himself never held a political office
Robert Fürer, a native of Thurgau, died on August 3. The lawyer from Frauenfeld was committed to numerous projects in his homeland throughout his life. He has now died at the age of 74.
Robert Fürer (8 June 1950 – 3 August 2024).
Bild: Donato Caspari (2012)
The importance of people is not measured by what they once intended, but by what they do: On August 3, Robert Fürer passed away, a subtle, self-confident personality who left his mark far beyond Thurgau. A doer who brought a powerful network of relationships to bear at the key points of politics, business, society and culture and who advanced them over four decades.
Robert Fürer first came to the fore in the mid-1970s, when the Christian Democrat Felix Rosenberg made the leap from departmental secretary to government councilor in 1974 and appointed Robert Fürer as his successor as secretary in what was then known as the “Finance, Forestry and Military Department”. Throughout his career, Rosenberg remained an influential mentor and friend to the lawyer and attorney Fürer.
Rosenberg and his successors found in Fürer a talented, reliable and versatile person who was able to implement well-known projects in politics, culture and society. It is certainly thanks to the first “Procurator” Robert Fürer that the Charterhouse of Ittingen now spreads its splendour far beyond our region.
Throughout his life, culture was a matter of the heart. Fürer founded the Thurgau Cultural Foundation, laid the foundation stone for the “generations” jazz festival, served as vice president of the Turmhof Foundation, as president of the Bodmanhaus and as founder of the reading society.
The party, which had merged in the 1970s amid ideological and denominational upheavals to form the “Christian Democratic People’s Party” (CVP), also benefited from Fürer’s assertiveness. In 1977, he seconded the newly elected party president Dieter Meile as party secretary – with identical leadership principles that they had internalized in their military careers. There, Fürer was commander of the Thurgau Infantry Regiment 31.
His talent for dealing with difficult issues came in handy for the canton when, at the end of the 1990s, he was appointed by government councillor Philipp Stähelin to head a special commission for the legal independence of the four cantonal hospitals. The “Fürer Commission” completed the task brilliantly, the Grand Council approved the plan almost unanimously, and for 25 years Spital Thurgau AG, including “thurmed AG”, has been thriving. As a side note, it may be interesting to note that Fürer was also managing director of the Thurgau Medical Association at the time.
Fürer also showed a keen sense for social change as president of the “Pressverein Frauenfeld” cooperative, where he worked from the sidelines to radically shape the Thurgau media landscape towards the future and pushed forward the creation of the “Thurgauer Zeitung” as the only daily newspaper with subscriptions, out of a dozen non-viable newspaper titles.
It may be seen as an irony of history that Robert Fürer never ran for political office. A prominent Thurgau chronicler suspected, with a hint of irony, that Robert Fürer did not want to become a government councillor because he would have lost influence. Three years ago, Thurgau honoured the versatile doer. Government councillor Urs Martin concluded his laudation with the statement: “Robert Fürer is Thurgau. And Thurgau is Robert Fürer.” On August 3, Robert Fürer died at the age of 74 after a long illness. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
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