Elisabeth Kopp

Through her grandfather Adolph Iklé (1852–1923), she was of Jewish descent from Hamburg, Germany.

Her first cousin, Fred Iklé, served as under secretary of defense for policy during the Reagan Administration.

She grew up in Bern with two sisters Marianne (1935–2019) and Beatrix (b. 1944).

Anna Elisabeth Kopp (16 December 1936 – 7 April 2023) was a Swiss politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

She was the first woman to serve in the Swiss government, the Federal Council.

Kopp was born 16 December 1936 in Zürich, Switzerland, to Max and Beatrix (née Heberlein) Iklé.

Her father was a director of the Federal Department of Finance and a member of the board of the Swiss National Bank.

She hailed from textile manufacturing families from St. Gallen on both her paternal and maternal sides.

Kopp attended high school Bern before in 1956 she began to study law at the University of Zurich graduating with a Licentiate in 1960.

During her studies, she joined the (SDSU) in 1956 which was founded due to the Hungarian Revolution.

Except for the leadership of the SDSU was composed of students from well established families.

The SDSU leadership held meetings at the Villa of Kopps parents and they also spent vacations together in an estate of the Heberlein family in Malcesine at the Lake Garda.

The SDSU assisted Hungarian refugees in Switzerland and Hungary.

The SDSU was dissolved in April 1957 shortly after she entered the Women Support Group of the Swiss Army and the women's branch of the Free Democratic Party.

During a student excursion to Berlin in 1959, she was presented to her future husband, Hans W. Kopp.

In 1960, she completed her studies with a licentiate.

The same year, she married Hans Kopp with who she moved to Zumikon.

In 1963 Kopp gave birth to a daughter and until 1970, she was a housewife.

In 1970, Elisabeth Kopp became a municipal councilor (Gemeinderat) of Zumikon, and in 1974 the first female president of a municipality in the canton of Zurich.

In February 1971, just days ahead of the national women's suffrage referendum, she took part in a panel in the casino in Wohlen for the yes campaign.

Between 1972 and 1979, she served on the executive council of the canton of Zürich as a representative for the FDP.

For the FDP, Kopp was a candidate to the National Council in the Federal Elections of 1975 supported from the Women Central of Zurich and even though she was not elected, received an encouraging result.

She previously served as a member of the National Council from 1979 to 1984.

For the Federal Election of 1979, she campaigned focusing on her experience as the president of Zumikon.

She would be elected with 52,113 votes.

As a member of the FDP, she served in the National Council of Switzerland from 1979 to 1984.

For the first seven sessions she mainly observed and only introduced one motion demanding from the Federal Council to examine the possibilities for encouraging saving.

In a press conference in 1981, shortly after it was reported that the Federal Council would leave it with the status quo and not enforce tougher measurements, she demanded that the Federal Council fulfill Kurt Furgler's promise from 1977 to enforce tougher measurements for combustion engines in automobiles.

This step was lauded by the media and she became known as an environmental politician.

In fact, the press conference was organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The result was that a few days later the Federal Council decided not to impose the softer regulations and supported the installation of a catalytic converter.

From 1981 onwards until her election to the Federal Council she would focus on environmental politics.

She joined the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature, the predecessor of Pro Natura.

In environmental politics she chose to find her political positions independently, but usually with the support from prominent figures of her party.

In other political questions she followed the party line.

She defended nuclear energy as a clean energy, campaigned for the expansion of the airport in Zurich or opposed federal scholarships and a 42-hour week for the federal services.

She held that office from 2 October 1984 to 12 January 1989, when she resigned following a scandal over an alleged breach of official secrecy.

In 1984, Federal Councillor Rudolf Friedrich resigned from his office for health reasons.

The Free Democratic Party then nominated Elisabeth Kopp and Bruno Hunziker as Friedrich's successor.

On 2 October 1984, Kopp was elected to the Federal Council as the first woman ever in that office.