Pioneering environmentalist Franz Weber dies aged 91
Franz Weber looking over the Lavaux vineyards and Lake Geneva in 2014
Keystone
The Swiss environmentalist Franz Weber has died at the age of 91. The Basel activist was responsible for over 150 campaigns but is best known for his defence of the alpine landscape, in particular against the spread of secondary residences.
“The great lion has joined the stars. A pioneer, a visionary, he fought for more than 50 years to give a voice to those who did not have one,” his foundation said in a statementExternal link on Thursday. Weber died on Tuesday, April 2, in the Swiss capital Bern.
“From seal hunting in Canada to the rescue of the Lavaux vineyards, the preservation of the Greek site of Delphi, the protection of the Danube alluvial forest in Austria and the rescue of the Grand Hotel Giessbach, wherever he has been involved his influence has contributed to making the world a better place.”
Weber started out as a journalist before trying his luck as a poet and writer. His vocation for ecology began in the mid-1960s in Surlej in the Engadine valley, eastern Switzerland, where he defended the alpine landscape against the spread of secondary residences.
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Franz Weber, a quixotic and visionary campaigner
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It’s another amazing coup for the man with an extraordinarily youthful and visionary spirit. At the age of 84, Weber continues to surprise everyone – even his natural allies in the environmental lobby, who thought the initiative on secondary residences too radical and too legally complex. If it had been rejected, Weber’s proposal would likely…
Responsible for over 150 campaigns, Weber was one of the first Swiss environmentalists to use direct democracy intensively.
He launched numerous popular initiatives, including against the unrestricted construction of second homes – the 2012 national vote was perhaps his greatest victory – against the construction of buildings that are harmful to the environment or landscape and against the noise of fighter planes in tourist areas.
He also launched an initiative to save Swiss forests, campaigned to have the Lavaux winegrowing region on Lake Geneva given UNESCO World Heritage status and helped rescue the historic Grand Hotel Giessbach above Lake Brienz in the Bernese Oberland.
In 1977, he attracted international fame with his campaign against the slaughter of seals, in which he travelled to northern Canada with 70 journalists and the French film star Brigitte Bardot.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation tweeted on Thursday that it had been extremely sad to learn the news of Franz Weber’s death.
External Content
Immense tristesse en apprenant le décès de Franz Weber, celui auprès de qui Brigitte Bardot s'est engagée pour combattre le massacre des phoques. Nos pensées vont à ses proches, à sa fille notamment qui a repris avec talent la présidence de sa Fondation https://t.co/wCNrbdxyPuExternal link
Since 2014, Franz Weber’s daughter, Vera, has been in charge of his foundationExternal link and continued his environmental campaigning.
“My father was a great man. His combativeness and sincerity were impressive; he was driven by a strong sense of justice,” Vera Weber told Keystone SDA. “He was never afraid of anything. He taught me to be bold and fearless.”
A public ceremony in honour of Franz Weber is due to take place in summer at the Grand Hotel Giessbach in Brienz.
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Winemaker says initiative stops progress
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The area has been preserved in its original state thanks to the acceptance by Swiss voters of two initiatives launched by environmentalist Franz Weber. Now a third Weber initiative is going to the vote, calling for stricter planning regulations to deal with unrestrained property speculation which he says is slowly eating away at the region.…
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But the initiator of moves that led to the wine-growing Lavaux region in western Switzerland being given World Heritage status by Unesco, the United Nations cultural agency, has no thoughts about retirement. “We have to leave something behind for our young people and descendants,” Weber said in a recent radio interview, explaining his commitment to…
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