Albert Gobat

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Albert Gobat
A. Gobat's signature

Charles Albert Gobat (born May 21, 1843 in Tramelan , Canton of Bern , † March 16, 1914 in Bern ) was a Swiss politician and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize .

Life and work

His father was a Protestant pastor and his uncle Samuel Gobat was a Protestant bishop of Jerusalem . He attended primary school in Tramelan, the Moravian boarding school in Korntal near Stuttgart and the Progymnasium in La Neuveville . He then completed the pedagogy in Basel , where he passed the Matura in 1862. From 1862 to 1864 he studied law , history and literature at the University of Basel and received his doctorate in law from the University of Heidelberg in 1864 . He continued his legal studies in Paris . In 1866 he received his habilitation in Basel. From 1867 he worked in a law firm in Bern , where he also obtained an advocate license . In 1867/68 he taught French civil law as a private lecturer at the University of Bern . In 1868 he took over the law firm of Édouard Carlin in Delémont .

politics

Gobat started his political career in 1882 as the free-thinking Grand Councilor of the Canton of Bern. From 1882 to 1912 he was also a member of the government council , where he was the director of education until 1906 and then the director of the interior. His university policy and the grammar school reform not only gave him friends, he represented and promoted a Catholic theological faculty that was to conduct academic research independently of the papal teaching post. On the other hand, his services to the school reform ( Primary School Act of 1849), the reorganization of teacher training institutions, the material improvement of teachers and, above all, the abolition of corporal punishment were somewhat less controversial . In the period from 1886 to 1887 Gobat was chairman of the cantonal government of Bern and was elected to the constitutional council in 1883 . In 1884 the Bernese government elected him to the Swiss parliament as a councilor , after the parliamentary elections in 1890 he moved to the national council , where he stayed until his death in 1914. He is buried in the Bremgarten cemetery in Bern .

Guardian of Peace

In 1889 Gobat was one of the participants in the founding assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Paris . Their advocacy for peace through the establishment of arbitration tribunals in cases of international conflicts became the focus of his public work. Gobat organized the 4th Conference of the Interparliamentary Union in Bern in 1892. Here he was appointed head of the newly established central office of the Union. Gobat held this post until his death. After the death of Élie Ducommun in 1906, he also took over the management of the International Peace Bureau, making him the most influential European "trustee of peace". The Permanent International Peace Bureau ( Bureau International Permanent de la Paix ) received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910.

On December 10, 1902, Albert Gobat and Élie Ducommun received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in the Inter-Parliamentary Union. This award spurred him on to work even more intensively for peace. Gobat used the reputation that this award gave him and interfered in current conflicts. Before the First World War , he fought for the idea of ​​arbitration and disarmament at international congresses . At a reception in the White House in 1904, he made a corresponding approach to President Theodore Roosevelt . The reconciliation between France and the German Reich was particularly close to his heart , as his unsuccessful efforts to solve the Alsace-Lorraine question showed.

Works

  • La République de Berne et la France pendant les guerres de religion. Paris 1891.
  • L'Histoire de la Suisse racontée au peuple. Neuchâtel 1900.
  • The International Parliament. In: The Independent . 1903.
  • Croquis et impressions d'Amérique. Bern 1904.
  • Développement du Bureau international permanent de la paix. Bern 1910.
  • Le Cauchemar de l'Europe. Strasbourg 1911.

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Gobat, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gobat, Charles Albert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Tramelan
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1914
Place of death Bern