Charles Monnard

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Lithograph by Charles Monnard from “Galérie Nationale. Les Suisses célèbres (1867-1888). ” By Alfred Hartmann , 1888

Charles Monnard (born January 17, 1790 in Bern , † January 13, 1865 in Bonn ) was a Swiss historian , politician , Reformed pastor, writer and university professor . He worked as a liberal champion and enlightener of the French-speaking part of Switzerland .

family

Charles Monnard's mother came from Bern, his father from Vaud . He lost his father Pierre Monnard, who was the owner of a café there, at the age of 8. His mother Madeleine geb. Glaus was married again to a Vaudois in his second marriage. In 1816 Charles Monnard married Caroline von Scheibler, who came from the Scheibler family of German cloth manufacturers and was the daughter of Johann Christian from Montjoie (today Monschau , Eifel).

biography

Early years

Born in Bern as the son of a Vaudois who was married to a Bernese woman, Monnard had mastered both German and French from childhood . In 1798 his father died. In 1804 he moved to Lausanne with his mother, who had married a Vaudois again in her second marriage. There he was able to attend the higher education institutions. Monnard attended high school in Lausanne and then studied theology at the Académie de Lausanne . During his school days in Lausanne, he was a founding member of the Société d'Étudiants de Belles-Lettres in 1806 .

Working in Lausanne

From 1813 to 1816 he lived as a private tutor in Paris and in 1816 became professor of French literature at the Lausanne Academy. From 1834 to 1836 and from 1839 to 1841 he was rector of the university. In 1824 he worked as a correspondent for the French daily newspaper “Le Globe” and from 1824 to 1833 he was editor of the Vaudois newspaper Nouvelliste vaudois and from 1840 to 1845 of the liberal newspaper Le Courrier suisse .

He had been a member since 1828 and, after the liberal movement of 1830 , he was repeatedly President of the Grand Council (cantonal parliament) in 1835, 1837 and 1843 and, from 1832 to 1838, he was a member of the federal assembly of the canton of Vaud . Because of his positions in favor of freedom of instruction and worship in the polemical debate on religion, he was suspended from teaching for a year in 1829. After the victory of the radicals , he was relieved of his professorship in 1845 and became a pastor in Montreux . He played a leading role in the conflict between the Vaudois clergy and the Council of State, which led to the withdrawal of numerous parishes from the regional church and the establishment of a "free church".

The reason was the refusal of 40 pastors to read a proclamation of the new government in the referendum on the constitution, which resulted in their punishment with suspension. Thereupon 184 clergy submitted their resignation and founded under the direction of Alexandre Vinets and Charles Monnard a free national church separated from the state ( History of the Canton of Vaud # The foundation of the Église évangélique libre du Canton de Vaud ). Monnard also resigned from the pastoral office in November 1845 in solidarity with his colleagues.

Professorship in Bonn

In December 1846 he accepted the chair for Romance languages ​​and literature at the University of Bonn, offered to him by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia .

Monnard translated Des Schweizerlands Geschichte for the Swiss people by Heinrich Zschokke in 1823 and the multi-volume work The Histories of the Swiss Confederation by Johannes von Müller from 1837 to 1840 into French. This gave him an outstanding role among the Swiss historians, and he spread the national-historical movement of Switzerland, which was promoted by the German-speaking Swiss historians Johannes von Müller and Heinrich Zschokke, in French -speaking Switzerland . His work fitted into the context of Monnard's liberal politics in the controversies of the time, and he opposed the efforts of the old elites to re-establish themselves.

From 1842 to 1851 he continued Johannes von Müller's work in 5 volumes in French under the title Histoire de la Conféderation Suisse . In it, Monnard made freedom the fundamental principle of Swiss history. Together with Alexandre Vinet, he advocated the separation of church and state. He was also on friendly terms with Alexis de Tocqueville .

Memberships and honors

Monnard was a founding member of the Société d'Étudiants de Belles-Lettres during his school days . He was also a founding member of the Société d'histoire de la Suisse romande and a member of the Helvetic Society after it was re-established in 1819.

Rue Charles Monnard in the city center of Lausanne is named after him.

Publications

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Monnard, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Monnard, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss historian, politician, writer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1790
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1865
Place of death Bonn