The phone note in the laundry basket

class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>

Once Elisabeth Kopp came out of her basement with a laundry basket full of papers: personal documents from her time in the Bundesrat. It contained a shorthand note made by her husband Hans W. Kopp – a lawyer’s habit. It was dated October 27, 1988 and related to the phone call that the head of the FDJP had with him that morning, which would eventually lead to the resignation of the Federal Councilor. Here’s how it was reconstructed: At 8:20 a.m., she called her husband’s law firm Kopp & Partner on Kurhausstrasse in Zurich. The conversation lasted barely five minutes. Elisabeth Kopp got straight to the point: there were rumors that Shakarchi Trading, which trades notes and gold and on whose board Hans W. Kopp sat, was involved in a money laundering case, while she herself was working as Attorney General on a law against this abuse. The man tried to appease his wife by saying that he was “on his way” from this board anyway and that he had already announced his resignation. “Thank God,” said the woman, he should do it immediately so that no more “political front” arises. And he should quickly call her personal assistant Katharina Schoop, who knows more about the rumors because she had also informed her boss about it. Hans W. Kopp also promised to do this, it was he who recommended this lawyer to his wife for a job as a personal assistant.

Hans W. Kopp was the first Federal Councilor of the Swiss Confederation. How would he fill this role? Elisabeth Kopp told this story with a smile on her face: At one of the first receptions as the new Federal Councilor, Hans W. Kopp naturally acted as host. He packed wine bottles and jars full of Spanish nuts and entertained the guests. Until an eager weibel showed up and stole the nuts from him saying, he shouldn’t do that, they were idiots from the Federal Council!

The husband, who died in 2009, was always present in our conversations. It was his books on the shelves, the pictures on the chests of drawers, the subtle words of affection the former federal councilor repeatedly threw into her stream of speech. And also the aphorisms or shocking verses about politics and history from the pen of Hans W. Kopp, who sometimes read them. About this:

«With fury burst the Vogt, who had had enough.
When Tell sat down on his plate.
The model of this tell choice
Always help the Swiss in the valley of the waves.”

After the dismissal, there was still a short period of hope for a professional life for Elisabeth Kopp after the fall. She told me about the president of a large Swiss company who called her because he finally wanted a woman on his board of directors and had elected Elisabeth Kopp. Elisabeth Kopp would have liked to have done that. When she was later charged with a possible breach of professional secrecy, the president called again. It was with great regret, he said, that he had to withdraw his offer. The first female board member in the history of this company became a party member and Elisabeth Kopp was acquitted in court. She never got paid work again.

*René Lüchinger, former editor-in-chief of Blick, is the author of the book “Elisabeth Kopp. Two lives – one destiny. The rise and fall of Switzerland’s first female federal councillor. It was published by Stämpfli Verlag in 2014.

Source:Blick