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Jakob Robert Steiger

Swiss politician (1801-1862)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 9, 2025
Entity authorityQ1542665 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jakob Robert Steiger (7 June 1801, in Geuensee – 5 April 1862) was a Swiss politician and President of the Swiss National Council (1848/1849).

Early life and education

Steiger was born to peasants in Geuensee near Sursee. His father was from Büron. With the support of one of his teachers, he studied Latin in Sursee and later also attended high school in Lucerne. He began to study theology in 1823. Not satisfied with this choice, Steiger soon settled to Geneva, where he attended lectures of Jacques Denys Choisy, aiming for a career as a medic. Having studied medicine in Freiburg im Bresigau in Germany until 1826 he moved to Paris, where he then also graduated the same year.

Already in high school, he developed political interests, holding a speech remembering the victory at the Battle of Sempach or taking part in students protests against the expulsion of the Professor of Philosophy Iganz Paul Vital Troxler an influential figure in his life.

Professional career

After having obtained the license to work as a medic also by the Canton of Lucerne. He established himself as a medic in Büron.

Editorial summary

“Jakob Robert Steiger” enters the record as swiss politician (1801-1862). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jakob, Robert and Steiger can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1801, 1862, 1848, 1849—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1801-06-06, 1801-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Jakob, Robert and Steiger.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Jakob Robert Steiger” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Jakob, Robert and Steiger provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1542665. VIAF identifies the subject as 52481649. The Library of Congress control number is no2019136053. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1801, 1862, 1848 and 1849.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jakob Robert Steiger”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jakob Robert Steiger primary sources, Jakob Robert Steiger archive and Jakob research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jakob Robert Steiger”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jakob Robert Steiger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.