The Pestalozzi family is a bourgeois Italian family originally based in Gravedona and Chiavenna who settled in Switzerland (Zurich) during the Counter-Reformation. It rose to prominence in commerce and politics despite only gaining access to the city's governing councils at the end of the 18th century. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Pestalozzi family distinguished itself in cantonal and national politics as well as in the economic sphere.
History
Origins and early commercial activities
The family's history in Zurich began with Johann Anton Pestalozzi (1537-1604), who left Chiavenna around 1550 for Zurich, where he trained as an iron merchant alongside Bernhard von Cham. Of noble origin, he was sometimes qualified as donzel, a title that later disappeared as it was only attributed to people engaged in non-lucrative activities. In 1562, Johann Anton Pestalozzi married Anna Gessner, granddaughter of his second employer Andreas Gessner (1482-1568), and became a burgher of Zurich in 1567.
He founded his first company with Laurenz Bebie. The partners initially engaged in trading linen, cotton goods, velvet, and silk, then specialized in 1579 in silk commerce and processing. At the end of the 16th century, Pestalozzi partnered with his brother-in-law Cornelius Toma to import silk and cotton and export fleuret. After Johann Anton Pestalozzi's death in 1604, the heirs Andreas (1581-1646), Caspar (1585-1650), and Johann Anton Pestalozzi (1589-1677), from Johann Anton Pestalozzi's third marriage with Magdalena von Muralt, continued their association with Toma.