Former Zürich Councillor Monika Stocker Dies Aged 77
Monika Stocker, the first Green Party member to serve on Zürich's city council and the woman who transformed the city's social welfare system, passed away on 21 April.
Monika Stocker, former head of Zürich's social affairs department and a pioneering figure in Swiss urban politics, died on 21 April at the age of 77. No public memorial service will be held, in accordance with her wishes.
Born in Aarau in 1948, Stocker studied social sciences at the University of Fribourg before joining the Green Party in 1986. She was elected to the Zürich Stadtrat in 1994, becoming the first Green politician to hold a seat on the city's executive — a position she held for fourteen years until ill health forced her resignation in 2008.
Her tenure is remembered above all for two things: her role in the closure of the open drug scene at the Letten in 1995, and her sweeping reform of the city's social infrastructure. Under her leadership, Zürich significantly expanded childcare provision and outreach work with vulnerable people on the streets.
Stocker spoke candidly in later years about the scale of the crisis she had inherited. The open drug scene beside the main railway station had become impossible to ignore, she recalled, with addicts drawn to Zürich from cantons across Switzerland that preferred to send their most vulnerable residents elsewhere rather than support them. The Platzspitz park had become a hub for dealers and users alike — well connected to the rail network, awash with cash, and linked to wider criminal activity in the city.
In her death notice, Stocker reflected on her life with characteristic warmth. She described having lived intensely and happily, grateful for the many people she had met and the stories — difficult and joyful alike — she had been trusted to share. She said she wished to leave quietly.
