Conradi affair

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The Conradi affair was a diplomatic-political affair between Switzerland and the Soviet Union , which was not yet recognized by Switzerland at the time , which, as a result of an act of revenge by a private person, contributed to resentment between the two states.

background

As a result of the Russian October Revolution of 1917 and the Swiss general strike of 1918, a decidedly anti-communist mood prevailed in the political climate in bourgeois Switzerland.

Act and perpetrator

On May 10, 1923, Moritz Conradi (* 1896 in Saint Petersburg ; † 1947 in Chur ) , who was at least drunk, shot and killed the Soviet diplomat Wazlaw Worowski ( Russian Вацлав Вацлавович Воровский ) in the Hotel Cécil in Lausanne .

Conradi came from the wealthy family of a Graubünden chocolate manufacturer with 500 employees (see also Engadin confectioners ) and grew up in Saint Petersburg in the third generation. He served in the Russian Army from 1914 to 1921 during the First World War and then in the White Guards . In 1921 he fled to Switzerland. The attack was an act of revenge as a result of the disenfranchisement of the family, the nationalization of family property and the subsequent death of his father from starvation and disease. His uncle and aunt had been shot.

process

Since the killed diplomat had no official accreditation at the Straits Conference , the murder case was judged as a normal criminal case by the judiciary of the canton of Vaud . In 1923, the Geneva lawyer Théodore Aubert pleaded as defense lawyer for an acquittal of his client by converting the climate in Switzerland, which was shaped by Russian emigrants and repatriated Russian-Swiss, into a conviction of the Bolsheviks as perpetrators. As a result, Moritz Conradi was acquitted by the jury with the approval of the public .

consequences

Although the Federal Council criticized the judgment, it damaged Switzerland as the seat of the League of Nations and as the host of various international conferences. In addition, Switzerland's relations with the Soviet Union continued to deteriorate, as the Soviet Union made the Swiss government directly responsible immediately after the crime.

The defender Théodore Aubert founded the right-wing "Entente internationale contre la IIIe Internationale", also known as the Liga Aubert . Wazlaw Worowski was buried with great sympathy in the form of a state ceremony at the necropolis on the Kremlin wall in Moscow. Switzerland apologized in 1945 and established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1946.

literature

  • Annetta Gattiker: L'affaire Conradi . Herbert Lang, Bern 1975.
  • Alfred Erich Senn: Assassination in Switzerland: The murder of Vatslav Vorovsky . Madison, 1981, ISBN 0-299-08550-3 .
  • Georges Capol: The Conradi Affair, 1923 . Bündner Jahrbuch, Chur 2002, p. 159-171 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Urs P. Engeler: Big Brother Switzerland , 1990
  2. ↑ a b c The Conradi Affair , BAZ, March 29, 2017
  3. ↑ Thomas Widmer: He believed that he was Wilhelm Tell. In: Tages-Anzeiger of March 21, 2017.
  4. ↑ Simon Hehli: Conradi Affair. Seven bullets against Bolshevism. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from May 9, 2016.
  5. ^ The Conradi Affair - The Assassin, Russia and Switzerland , SRF, March 29, 2017
  6. ^ Marie Bron: Théodore Aubert. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 26, 2001 , accessed January 2, 2010 .
  7. ^ The false tell from Petersburg , NZZ, March 29, 2017
  8. ↑ Urs P. Engeler: Big Brother Switzerland , 1990