Alfred Waldis

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Alfred Waldis in 2000

Alfred Waldis (born September 7, 1919 in Lucerne ; † July 10, 2013 there ) was co-founder and director of the Swiss Museum of Transport .

Life

His parents were Josef (1880–1953) and Sophie Waldis (1883–1934), née Meier. His father was a helmsman at the shipping company for Lake Lucerne in Lucerne. On April 23, 1946, Waldis married his wife Lily Peyer. They had three children: Rolf (born 1949), Silvia (born 1952) and Peter (born 1958) and lived in Lucerne.

Alfred Waldis joined the SBB as a station apprentice in 1937 , moved to the Lucerne District Directorate in 1942 and was appointed director of the planned Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne at the beginning of 1957. After the museum opened on July 1, 1959, he dealt in detail with the expansion of the Museum of Transport, which had already become the most visited museum in Switzerland in the first year of operation. As initiator and implementer, the first Swiss Planetarium (July 1, 1969), the Aerospace Hall (July 1, 1972), the Hans Erni Museum (September 15, 1979), the second Rail Transport Hall ( July 1, 1982), the shipping, cable cars and tourism hall with the Swissorama (July 1, 1984) and the IMAX film theater, the planning of which he initiated as President in 1984 and which opened in July 1996. In addition, with numerous special exhibitions and a large number of lectures, publications and traffic studies study trips as well as President of Swiss and international museum associations, he has made a significant contribution to the high profile of the Verkehrshaus. After resigning as director in 1979, he was appointed delegate for the expansion for two years, and from 1981 to 1990 he was president of the Swiss Museum of Transport Association, since then honorary president. Alfred Waldis has received numerous awards for his work, including the Culture Prize of Central Switzerland in 1972, permanent guest of honor at ETH Zurich in 1976 , an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Gallen in 1977, the badge of honor in 1984 and an honorary citizen of the city in 2005 Lucerne. The Neue Luzerner Zeitung wrote about his death: “It doesn't matter how many more directors come. Alfred Waldis will always be Mister Verkehrshaus. "

biography

  • education and profession
  • Primary, secondary and traffic school in Lucerne (1926–1937)
  • Station teaching SBB (1937–1939)
  • Ward clerk at various locations (1939–1942)
  • District Directorate 2 SBB: Activities in several departments such as the timetable office, freight service
  • Personnel service, train control and 8 years in legal service (1942–1956)
  • Swiss Museum of Transport : Director (1957–1979), Delegate for the expansion (1979–1981)
  • President (1981–1990), Honorary President since 1990.

Participation in museum organizations

Museums in Switzerland

  • Comité Suisse des Conseil International des Musées: Secretary, Vice-President, President (1965–1971)
  • Association of Swiss Museums: Co-Founder, Secretary, Vice President, President (1966–1972)
  • Alimentarium Vevey: Board of Trustees, Vice President, Museum Commission, Advisor, Honorary Board of Trustees, since 1978.
  • Ballenberg Open Air Museum: Member of the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees (1974-2004)
  • Documenta Maritima Luzern: Member and Vice President of the Board of Trustees (1975–1990)
  • Agricultural Museum Burgrain: Museum Commission (1978–1983)
  • Hans Erni Foundation and Museum: Member of the Board of Trustees (from 1979)
  • National Gotthard Museum: Member of the team of experts (1982–1986)
  • Swiss Comb Museum, Mümliswil SO: Consultant (1995-2004)

Museums International

  • International Association of Transport Museums: Co-Founder, Secretary, Vice President, President (1959–1977)
  • Conseil International des Musées, Paris (ICOM): Member of the Comité Executif and Consultatif (1968–1977)
  • Deutsches Museum, Munich: Member of the Administrative Committee (1970–1978)
  • Museum of Transport and Technology, Berlin: Member of the expert team (1977–1979)
  • Association of Science and Technology Centers USA, Washington DC: Member of the Board of Directors (1977–1980)
  • German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven: Adviser on the extension (1986–1991)

Collaboration with other organizations

International

  • Board of Trustees «Mensch und Weltraum», Munich : Member (1976–1990)
  • Academia Cosmologica Nova, Munich: Board member (1976–1990)
  • Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, Paris (FAI): Member and Vice-President of the Astronautical Commission (1977–1989)

Switzerland

  • Federal Commission for a Swiss Overall Transport Concept GVK: Member (1972–1978)
  • Swiss Traffic Center, Zurich: Board member
  • Swiss Transport Science Society: Board member
  • Swiss Commission for the Protection of Cultural Property: Board member
  • Swiss Association for Space Technology: Board member
  • Cultural Property Protection Commission of the Canton of Lucerne: Member
  • Central Switzerland Traffic School Lucerne: Member of the supervisory commission
  • Efficiency Club Luzern-Zentralschweiz: co-founder, secretary, vice-president, president
  • Skal Club Luzern-Zentralschweiz: Secretary, Vice-President, President
  • Europa-Union, Lucerne-Central Switzerland Section: Vice-President
  • Aero Club of Switzerland, Lucerne section: Board member
  • Lucerne Tourist Office: Board member and President of the Timetable Commission
  • Lucerne City Radio and Television Company: Board member

Activities Swiss Museum of Transport

Offices

  • 1957–1979: Director, construction (opening July 1, 1959) and expansion
  • 1979–1981: Delegate for the expansion
  • 1981–1990: President of the Swiss Museum of Transport Association
  • from 1990: Honorary President

Initiator and implementer

New exhibition halls or buildings

  • July 1, 1969: planetarium, office building and restaurant
  • July 1, 1972: Aerospace hall with Cosmorama
  • September 15, 1979: Hans Erni Museum
  • July 1, 1982: Second rail transport hall
  • July 2, 1984: Shipping hall and Swissorama
  • April 15, 1985: Cable cars and tourism department
  • July 1st, 1996: IMAX (idea and decision Wa, realization by F. Rey)

Renewal of collections

  • 1972: Redesign of the small hall for rail transport
  • Redesign of the post office hall
  • 1974: Redesign of the shipping department (in the aerospace basement)

Fundraising for expansion (à fonds perdu)

  • Planetarium: (1969) 1 million Longines, 0.5 million planetarium medal and token
  • Aerospace hall: (1972) 1 million Swissair, 2 million federal government, 0.3 million medal
  • Hans Erni Museum: (1979) 6 million Hans Erni Foundation and various donors
  • Second rail transport hall: (1982) 1 million SBB, 2 million coin minting profit, 2 million “Save the ancestors of our railways” campaign, 1 million Africa commemorative flight, 1 million bank association
  • Halle shipping, cable cars, tourism and Swissorama: (1984) 6 million inheritance from Philipp Keller, 2.6 million Migros ( Pierre Arnold ), plus several larger donations such as Kreditanstalt, Karl Steiner, Bankgesellschaft, Nestlé etc.

Activities for major events in Switzerland

  • Expo 64 Lausanne: President of the Aviation Department and member of the Transport Sector Committee (1962–1964)
  • Zentenarfeier + National Exhibition 1991: Delegate of the Canton of Lucerne (1978–1983)
  • 600 years of the battle of Sempach and 800 years of the city of Lucerne, Board of Trustees (1984–1986)

More significant collectibles

  • Steamship Rigi, machine system and saloon DS Pilatus
  • Aircraft: DC-3, Nieuport, Lockheed Orion, Convair Coronado,
  • Original space objects: rocket engine, lunar suit, moon rocks, etc.
  • Automobiles: Austin 7, Weber, Fischer, Tatra 77 and 87
  • Gutersohn poster collection (from which the poster mirror emerged)

Study trips

Planning, organization and management of 120 traffic-related and technical study trips, including the USA (1979), around the world (1973), Siberia (1976), Africa, 50 years of Mittelholzer-Flug (1977), South America (1981), China ( 1983), USA Queen Elizabeth and Concorde (1989)

Works

As an author

  • 1955 Bridge renovation on the Gotthard line, special print from Werkzeitung der Schweizerischen Industrie , No. 23, Zurich 1955, OCLC 611101010 , ISSN  0043-2830 .
  • 1957 Swiss travel guide . Association printing company Bern (5 editions until 1970).
    • 1965 Switzerland . The Traveller's Illustrated Guide. Association printing company Bern English .
  • 1965 Small economics of Switzerland . Sauerländer, Aarau (5 issues up to 1969).
  • 1973 The Swiss Museum of Transport - a history of transport and communication . Silva Verlag, Zurich.
  • 1994 On water, on land, in the air - reports from 5 decades . Verkehrshaus, Lucerne
  • 1999 host Museum of Transport . Maihof, Lucerne
  • 2001 It all began on the Gotthard - a transport history with pioneering achievements (= culture in central Switzerland, volume 5). Maihof, Luzern, ISBN 3-9522033-5-1 (2nd edition 2002).
  • 2003 strange things on water, on land and in the air. From two centuries of traffic history . NZZ, Zurich, ISBN 3-03823-042-1 .

As initiator, implementer and co-author

  • 1959 series of publications by the Swiss Museum of Transport (until 1984: 30 publications)
  • 1994 Six Swiss aviation pioneers. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich
  • 1998 Swiss pioneer in aviation. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich
  • 2000 Six alpine railway engineers. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich
  • 2003 Pioneers of railway electrification. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich
  • 2004 mountain railway pioneers. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich
  • 2007 Five pioneers in aircraft construction. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich

As a co-author

  • 1987: 150 years of steamship travel on Lake Lucerne. SGV Lucerne
  • 1995: How the railroad came to Lucerne. Comenius Verlag, Hitzkirch
  • 2001: Aviation pioneers in and about Lucerne. Comenius Verlag, Hitzkirch

Reports and lectures

Since 1944 around 900 reports in newspapers and magazines as well as 1200 lectures on traffic and traffic history, communication, museums and alpinism.

Awards

Alfred Waldis has received numerous awards for his work, including the Central Switzerland Culture Prize , the Badge of Honor from the City of Lucerne, an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Gallen, the Council of Europe special award for exceptional museum management and the Paul Tissandier diploma from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale FAI in Paris , as a permanent guest of honor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; In 2005 he became an honorary citizen of the city of Lucerne.

Numerous institutions have awarded him honorary membership, including the Aero Club of Switzerland, the Swiss Association for Space Technology, the Skal Club Lucerne and Central Switzerland, Efficiency Club Lucerne as well as the Central Swiss Press Association and the International Association of Transport Museums IATM; Honorary Board of Trustees Alimentarium (Nestlé, Vevey).

  • 1972: Central Switzerland Culture Prize
  • 1973: Nicolaus Copernicus Medal of the Board of Trustees “Man and Space”, Munich, together with Jacques Piccard
  • 1973: Paul Tissandier diploma from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Paris
  • 1975: “Centro Europeo” award from the International Institution for Economic Development, Schaan
  • 1976: Permanent guest of honor at ETH Zurich
  • 1977: Honorary doctorate (Dr. oec. Hc) from the University of St. Gallen
  • 1980: Special prize from the Council of Europe for a special museum tour
  • 1984: Badge of Honor of the City of Lucerne
  • 2005: Honorary Citizen of the City of Lucerne
  • 2007: Tourism Award from the Lucerne Tourism Forum
  • 2016: Admission to the Logistics Hall of Fame Switzerland (posthumous)

Honorary memberships

  • International Association of Transport Museums IATM
  • Central Swiss Association of Media Professionals
  • Efficiency Club Lucerne and Central Switzerland
  • Skal Club Lucerne and Central Switzerland
  • Aero Club of Switzerland
  • Lucerne Tourist Office (Lucerne Tourism)
  • Swiss Association for Space Technology
  • Swiss Transport Science Society
  • Steamer friends Lake Lucerne
  • Radio company Lucerne
  • RIO Impulse (environmental organization)
  • Swiss Museum of Transport (Honorary President)
  • Honorary Board of Trustees, Alimentarium Foundation, Vevey
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Lucerne

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Verkehrshaus founder Alfred Waldis has died. In: Neue Luzerner Zeitung of July 11, 2013.
  2. ↑ A phenomenon is no longer , Neue Luzerner Zeitung, July 12, 2013, p. 2.
  3. ↑ Entry in the Logistics Hall of Fame Switzerland . Retrieved May 14, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Waldis, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss museum director
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 2013
Place of death Lucerne