Theodor, Count von Scherer-Boccard (12 May 1816 at
Dornach in the
canton of Solothurn – 6 February 1885 at
Solothurn
Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissens ...
) was a
Swiss journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
and politician.
Life
Scherer belonged to a distinguished family of
Solothurn
Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissens ...
. He attended the
gymnasium there, took the philosophical course at the lyceum, and then studied law at the Athenäum conducted by the
Jesuits at
Fribourg
, neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne
, twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France)
, website = www.ville-fribourg.ch
, Location of , Location of ()
() ...
.
After this Scherer returned to Solothurn and devoted himself to
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
, founding the newspaper ''Die Schildwache am Jura'' (1836–41), in which he defended the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and the rights of the people. In addition to this he established in 1839 a bureau of correspondence with conservative tendencies.
From 1838 Scherer was also a member of the great council of the
canton. His political activity in this body brought him into conflict with the Government and obliged him in 1841 to live abroad for some time in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. At the close of 1841 he was called to
Lucerne where he founded and edited the ''Staatszeitung der katholischen Schweiz'', which became the chief organ of the Catholic-Conservative party.
In 1843 Scherer returned to Solothurn and served out a term of imprisonment to which he had been condemned on account of the events of 1841. In 1845 he was made secretary to Magistrate
Constantin Siegwart-Müller of Lucerne, who was the president of the
Sonderbund
The Sonderbund War (german: Sonderbundskrieg, fr , Guerre du Sonderbund, it , Guerra del Sonderbund) of November 1847 was a civil war in Switzerland, then still a relatively loose confederacy of cantons. It ensued after seven Catholic canton ...
. Scherer himself had a share also in the founding of the Sonderbund. After the Sonderbund War he returned to private life at Solothurn, where he devoted himself to labors on behalf of Catholic interests and of social subjects. He did much journalistic work, being a contributor to numerous Catholic journals of Switzerland and Germany. During a visit to Rome in 1852 he was made a
Roman count by
Pope Pius IX.
From 1855 Scherer lived in the small castle of Hünenberg in
Ebikon
Ebikon is a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland.
History
Ebikon was first mentioned during the late 9th Century as ''marcha Abinchova''.
Geography
Ebikon has an area of . Of this area, 38.4% is us ...
near Lucerne. In 1868 he married Marie Louise von Boccard, and after that used the double name Scherer-Boccard. In 1844 Scherer founded the Academy of St. Charles Borromeo, an association of the Catholic scholars of Switzerland, and edited as the organ of the association a journal called "Katholische Annalen" (Lucerne, 1847); the war of the "Sonderbund" put an end to this periodical and to the academy also. In 1857 he was one of the founders of the Swiss Pius Association (
Piusverein), and from the time the society was established until his death he was the president of the central organization; he was also the head of the Society for Home Missions, founded in 1863. He was in touch with the Catholics of Germany and spoke repeatedly at the German-Catholic congresses.
Works
Scherer-Boccard issued 35 separate publications, containing apologetic, biographical, or historical matter. They included:
*"Revolution und Restauration der Staatswissenschaft" (Augsburg and Lucerne, 1842, 2nd ed., 1845);
*"Die fünfzehnjahrige Fehde der Revolution gegen die katholische Schweiz 1830-45" (Lucerne, 1846);
*"Das Verhältniss zwischen Kirche und Staat" (Ratisbon, 1846, 2nd ed., 1854);
*"Die Reformbewegung unserer Zeit und das Christenthum" (Augsburg, 1848);
*"Der heilige Vater. Betrachtungen über die Mission und die Verdienste des Papstthums" (Munich, 1850), French tr., "Le Saint-Père. Considérations sur la mission et les mérites de la Papauté" (Paris, 1853);
*"Heidenthum und Christenthum betrachtet in den Monumenten des alten und neuen Roms" (Schaffhausen, 1853, 2nd ed., 1880)
*"Lebensbilder aus der Gesellschaft Jesu. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der katholischen Restauration" (Schaffhausen, 1854).
He was also one of the editors of the "Archiv für schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte" (3 vols., Fribourg, 1869–75).
References
;Attribution
* The entry cites:
**Mayer, ''Graf Theodor Scherer-Boccard. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der katholischen Bewegung in der Schweiz'' (Einsiedeln, 1900), with portrait.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scherer-Boccard, Theodor von
1816 births
1885 deaths
Papal counts
19th-century Swiss journalists
Male journalists