Veit Wyler

Lea Wyler, Akong Rinpoche and Veit Wyler: the Rokpa International founders

Veit Wyler (born August 28, 1908 in Baden AG ; died October 18, 2002 in Zurich ) was a Swiss lawyer and Zionist politician in Switzerland.

Life

Wyler was born the son of a businessman. He grew up partly with his grandfather Leo Liepmann Kahn, a Wiesbaden rabbi who had been a "teacher of three generations, leader of law-abiding Judaism" for 60 years. He studied 1926-1930 Jus at the Universities of Zurich , Vienna , Hamburg and Leipzig , where he received his doctorate 1930th In 1935 he opened a law firm in Zurich. That year he represented the communist Heinz Neumann , who had been expatriated by the Nazis and was staying illegally in Switzerland. In 1936 he and Eugen Curti took over the spectacular defense of David Frankfurter . Wyler did not accept any mandates from Germans, “so as not to unwittingly get into a position to represent a Nazi”.

As a “left-wing Zionist” he was involved in public Jewish and Zionist life in Switzerland and was president of the “Swiss Zionist Association” from 1941 to 1951. Wyler was married to the actress and translator Anna Katharina Salten (ad. Rehmann) (1904–1977) since 1944 . In 1939, her father Felix Salten , whose works had been on National Socialist lists of harmful and undesirable literature since 1935 , fled with his wife from Vienna to live with her in Zurich. Wyler joined the Saltens legacy after 1977 and litigated Bambi's copyright .

Wyler provided various types of assistance to host refugees in Switzerland and to help them leave for Palestine or South America. He was also involved in ransom for Dutch Jews.

After 1950 Wyler was active at the World Jewish Congress , 1960-1970 President of the Swiss Keren Hajessod (Fund for the Promotion of the Development of Israel), 1969 he was a member of the Commission for Structural Change of the Zionist World Organization and member of the Executive Council and the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science , of which he was made an honorary doctorate.

Together with his daughter Lea and the Tibetan doctor Akong Tulku Rinpoche , Wyler founded the Rokpa International aid organization in 1980 .

Wyler was friends with the second Jewish member of the Swiss National Council, David Farbstein , and with Friedrich Dürrenmatt . From 1948 to 1986 he was editor of the magazine Das neue Israel .

Fonts

• Over the years . Editorial by Dr. Veit Wyler from «The New Israel». Published by private publisher, 1968
• Compulsory admission, compulsory contract, power cut . Erfurt 1931, Zugl .: Leipzig, Jur.Diss. Http://d-nb.info/363125477
• Louis Wyler, October 19, 1872 - March 3, 1960 . By Veit Wyler, Josef Wyler, Berthold Wyler. Published by The Editors, 1972

literature

• Article Veit Wyler in: Heiko Haumann , Peter Haber , Patrick Kury and others (eds.): The First Zionist Congress of 1897 - causes, meaning, topicality . Karger, Basel et al. 1997, ISBN 978-3-8055-6491-5 , pp. 211-212.
• Lea Wyler: My grandfather (Felix Salten) . In: Felix Salten. Writer - journalist - exile . Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name for the Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna by Siegfried Mattl and Werner Michael Schwarz. Holzhausen, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-85493-128-7
• Ludwig Gantner: Contributions to the history of Zionism in Switzerland. With special consideration of the period from 1948–1956 . Licentiate thesis University of Basel 1999.
• Bettina Zeugin, Thomas Sandkühler : Switzerland and the German ransom extortion in the occupied Netherlands: deprivation of property, ransom, exchange 1940–1945: contribution to research . Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War. Chronos, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-0340-0624-1 .
• Stefan Mächler: Help and Powerlessness: The Swiss Association of Israelites and the National Socialist Persecution 1933–1945 . Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0727-2 .
• Michèle Fleury, Blaise Kropf, Valérie Boillat: Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War, Switzerland and the refugees at the time of National Socialism . Chronos, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-0340-0617-9 .
• Jacques Picard : Switzerland and the Jews 1933–1945: Swiss anti-Semitism, Jewish resistance and international migration and refugee policy. University thesis. Chronos, Zurich 1994, ISBN 978-3-905311-22-8 .
• Daniel Kampa : Diogenes. An illustrated publishing history 1952–2002 . With bibliography. Diogenes, Zurich 2003, ISBN 978-3-257-05600-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Veit Wyler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Veit Wyler , short biography at ETH Zurich, Archives for Contemporary History
• Felix Salten , short biography at Uni Graz
• Dr. Veit Wyler , at ROKPA Switzerland
• The new Israel , digitized on the website of the Archives for Contemporary History at ETH Zurich

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Jewish community celebrates a double anniversary . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of November 9, 2006
2. ↑ Mächler, p. 29
3. ↑ Witness, p. 92
4. ↑ Kampa, p. 352