Elmar Mäder

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Elmar Theodor Mäder is the thirty-third and current Commandant of the Pontifical Swiss Guards. He holds the rank of colonel in the Guards.

Mäder was born July 28, 1963 in Niederuzwil, but grew up in Zuzwil in the canton of St. Gallen, one of five children of Theo and Katharina Mäder. He studied at the Hochschule in St. Gallen and at the University of Freiburg before entering the Swiss Army where he attained the rank of First Lieutenant in the Air Defense Troops. He entered the Papal Swiss Guards in 1998 and was named commandante in 2002, succeeding Pius Segmüller.

Mäder made headlines when he said that there was no plan to allow women into the Swiss Guards. His reason was that the Guard's quarters were too small and the entry of women would lead to discipline problems.^[1]

He was walking along the Popemobile on June 6, 2007 when a German man jumped over the security cordons and tried to jump into the Popemobile.^[2]

Mäder is married to Theresia Blöchliger and they have four children.

[edit] Honors

• Order of St. Gregory the Great (Commander)
• Order of St. Sylvester (Commander)
• Sacro Militare Ordine di San Giorgio (Knight Commander)
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Grand Officer with Swords pro Merito Melitensi)
• Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Commander)
• Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (Knight)

[edit] References