Gottlieb Ott (1832,

Worb Worb is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Worb is first mentioned around 1130-46 as ''Worw''. The oldest traces of settlements in the area include scattered neolith ...

– 4 December 1882) was a Swiss

building contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

. Ott and his company are credited with planning and constructing many buildings and structures in and around Bern, including the church field bridge. He also supervised the removal of the

Christoffelturm The Christoffelturm was a tower built between the years 1344 and 1346, which featured a prominently displayed statue of Saint Christopher. It was located in the old part of the Swiss city of Bern, in the upper section of Spitalgasse, near Holy ...

, a local tower built in the 14th century.

Life and family history

Ott's great grandfather had migrated from Swabia in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Jegenstorf Jegenstorf is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the former municipality of Ballmoos merged into Jegenstorf and on 1 January 2014 Münchringen and Scheunen mer ...

in 1782, and it was his grandfather who established the Otts in

. Ott's schooling was based in Bern, and he later studied at the polytechnic institute of

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

. After he finished his studies, he dabbled in several enterprises before opening a private

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...

company. In 1864, this company evolved into ''Ott & Cie'', which would become one of the best known and most successful manufacturing and construction outfits of its time, and visibly impacting the city. From there, Ott expanded and was taken into a tight fold of advice on Bern's infrastructure in 1866, a year after he removed the Christoffelturm. Within this group was

Jakob Stämpfli Jakob Stämpfli (23 February 1820 – 15 May 1879) was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1854–1863). He was elected to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 6 December 1854, and handed over office on 31 December 186 ...

, a well-known Swiss politician.

Ott in popular culture

A song or ode was written about Ott, inspired by his influence on Bern:

Suicide

In 1865, Ott entered politics by joining the Burgergemeinde Bern. In 1881 he suffered a great political defeat, having lost an election. Coupled with large financial stress, this loss caused Ott to become suicidal. He took his life on 4 December 1882. The suicide was described by the federation:

References

*Peter Lüthi-Ott: ''Gottlieb Ott (1832-1882) - Der Erbauer der Kirchenfeldbrücke'', in: Heinrich Richard Schmidt (Hg), ''Worber Geschichte'', Bern 2005, S. 604-607 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ott, Gottlieb 1832 births 1882 deaths People from Worb Suicides by drowning in Switzerland