Hans Peter Tschudi was proud of his wife, whom he had married in spring 1952, and of her success as a scientist: “Towards the end of my time at the Trade Inspectorate, I had the good fortune to meet Irma Steiner, Dr. med. et phil. nat., a qualified lecturer and assistant at the pharmaceutical institute at the university.” He valued her certainty in factual and personal matters. As head of the Department of Home Affairs, her medical and scientific knowledge were especially valuable to him in managing the Federal Office of Public Health.
Irma Tschudi-Steiner not only stood out in terms of her career. She enjoyed smoking cigars and driving special sports cars. Her husband, on the other hand, didn’t even have a driving licence in spite of his portfolio including the national motorway network as head of the Department of Home Affairs.
Hans Peter Tschudi gained great popularity when he wrote a book on Swiss employee protection law for the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) following his retirement. Irma Tschudi offered her services as a lecturer to the third-age universities in Basel and Bern and successfully covered topics of interest to senior citizens.
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