title: [Clarification of a political assassination in 1839: statesman Johannes Hegetschweiler shot during civil unrest in Zurich].
abstract: The death by violence of the scientist and statesman Johannes Hegetschweiler (1789-1839), M.D., constituted a double tragedy: just previously, at the instigation of his friends, he had withdrawn an already submitted petition to be relieved of all his public functions. And from the outset he declared himself an opponent to the appointment of the theologian Friedrich David Strauss to the Zurich Professorship for Dogmatics, an appointment leading to political unrest ('Züriputsch'). On September 6, 1839, Hegetschweiler dashed, as a member of the Cantonal Government, between the militia of the Government and the advancing insurrectionists with instructions to effect a cease-fire. While doing so, he was wounded in the head by a deliberately aimed discharge of a shot, succumbing after three days of suffering. The general turbulence occasioned by the Züriputsch, the unprecedented animosity among the political misdemeanors and felonies rendered any legal prosecution impossible. It is here proven that one of the insurrectionists from the Zurich Oberland is the only person who can be considered as the murderer of Hegetschweiler.
authors.affiliation: Medizinhistorisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mörgeli
mesh_terms: D049672:History, 19th Century; D006708:Homicide / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D013557:Switzerland
vernacular_title: Klärung eines politischen Mordes im Jahr 1839: Regierungsrat Dr. Med. Johannes Hegetschweiler, erschossen während des Züriputschs.