About me personally

About me personally I was born in Zurich in 1961 and grew up there with my parents and my older brother. After primary school, I completed a commercial apprenticeship at Schweizerische Kreditanstalt. After working at Zürcher Kantonalbank for two years, I decided to absolve at the Cantonal Matura School for Adults (KME) in Zurich. I obtained my school-leaving certificate in 1985. My parents always supported my education.

From 1985 to 1991, I studied General History, German Studies and Philosophy at the University of Zurich as a working student. I completed my studies in 1992 with a licentiate and obtained a diploma for secondary school teaching in 1993. From 1992, I taught German and history at the Alpenquai grammar school in Lucerne, and later also at the Private University of Applied Sciences and Arts (PHW) in Zurich. Since 2003, I have been teaching history at the Gymnasium am Münsterplatz in Basel (formerly Humanistisches Gymnasium) and enjoy this intensive profession very much. Teaching is fascinating and it is a pleasure to get young people interested in history and civics. I have been happily married since 1998 and am glad that my wife fully supports me in my teaching and also in my academic work. During my studies, I got to know the Friedrich Liebling Psychological Training and Counselling Centre in Zurich. I attended individual courses as I was very interested in the psychological and political topics discussed there. I was also one of the founding members of the Association for the Promotion of Psychological Knowledge of Man (VPM), which was founded in 1986 and dissolved in 2002.

In 2000, together with Erika Vögeli, I became editor-in-chief of the monthly newspaper «Zeit-Fragen», which now appeared weekly. In 2001, I completed my dissertation under Prof Dr Carlo Moos. It is entitled «Bernhard Meyer and the liberal Catholicism of the Sonderbund era. Religion and Politics in Lucerne (1830-1848)» and is a political biography. From 2001 to 2005, I received a scholarship from the «Stiftung Psychologische Lehr- und Beratungsstelle» (Psychological Training and Counselling Centre Foundation) to carry out my habilitation project on the «Origin and Development of Swiss Direct Democracy». Thanks to the scholarship, I was able to lay the foundations for my research work in the field of the history of democracy. In 2005, I gave up my editorial work at «Zeit-Fragen», as the voters of my home municipality of Oberrohrdorf-Staretschwil (Canton Aargau) had elected me to the municipal council in the same year. I held this interesting and instructive militia office for four terms in office, 16 years in total (2015-2021 I was deputy mayor). I am still very attached to the «Zeit-Fragen» editorial team; I still write numerous articles for the newspaper and continue to support this cooperative. I also publish regularly in other newspapers and magazines. Furthermore, I was a freelance contributor to the «Historical Dictionary of Switzerland» (HLS), a fundamental work on Swiss history. In 2006, I founded the «Forum for the Study of Direct Democracy» and organized numerous conferences within this framework. With the «Forum» I built up a network of contacts in Switzerland and abroad in order to determine the state of research in the field of the history of democracy and to promote projects. In this context, I organized the academic conference «Paths to direct democracy in the Swiss cantons» in cooperation with the «Centre for Democracy» (ZDA) on 9/10 September 2010 in Aarau. In 2011, together with Prof Dr Andreas Auer, I published a conference volume with the same title. Finally, in 2012, I published another paper entitled «If popular sovereignty becomes a reality. Swiss direct democracy in theory and practice - the example of the canton of Lucerne». Since, I have developed the forum into the «Research Institute for Direct Democracy», which aims to initiate further research in the field of direct democracy and related topics (such as the co-operative system and natural law). In this context, I give lectures and organize academic conferences. For example, I have been organizing several academic conferences since 2014 and publish some conference volumes. I also act in an advisory capacity within my institute and actively participate in conferences and panel events.

Dr phil. René Roca