Hermann Bleuler


Hermann Bleuler was a Swiss engineer and artillery officer in the Swiss army.
After attending the Gymnasium and Industrieschule in Zürich, Bleuler studied from 1855 to 1858 at the Zürich Polytechnikum with Diplom in civil engineering in 1858. He was from 1858 to 1861 an engineer at the AG Kriens, resigning in 1861 to join the Swiss army. He was from 1862 to 1870 the chief of the Federal Artillery Bureau in Aarau and from 1870 to 1888 the chief instructor of artillery. Bleuler was promoted to Hauptmann in 1864, to Major in 1868, to Oberstleutnant in 1869, and to Oberst in 1871. He invented a significantly improved field howitzer. From 1891 to 1904 he was the Kommandant of the 3rd Army Corps and member of the Landesverteidigungskommission.
Bleuler was a member from 1881 to 1907 of the Swiss Schulrat, serving as its president from 1888 to 1905. As president, he supported the construction of engineering laboratories at the Zürich Polytechnikum and the improvement of the quality of the teaching staff there. He was one of the organizers of the first International Congress of Mathematicians, which was held in Geneva in 1897.

Villa Bleuler

In 1887, Bleuler with his wife and son moved into a new house, the "Villa Bleuler", which was built for them. Today the building houses the Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft SIK-ISEA, a competence centre for art scholarship and art technology, founded in 1951. The building, constructed by the architect Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli, has been since 1990 under Swiss federal protection as a historical landmark.