Corps Helvetia Zurich (WSC)

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Black Helvetia coat of arms

The Corps Helvetia Zurich was a student union at the Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum . The corps was one of the founders of the Weinheim Seniors' Convent (WSC). To distinguish it from corps of the same name at the University of Zurich , the designation black-Helvetia was also common (in view of the original color of the hat) .

Color and motto

The Helvetians wore a ribbon with the colors black-white-red and silver percussion as well as a black student hat, and from the winter semester 1864/65 a white hat. Foxes wore a silver-edged ribbon with the colors white and red.

The motto was Amico pectus, hosti frontem!

history

Tears on the Limmat (1864)

In February 1861, the Corps Rhenania and the Landsmannschaft Teutonia (later the Corps Frisia Karlsruhe ) - both polytechnic corporations - founded a senior citizens' convention with the Tigurinia University Corps . After the SC had been dissolved again in July 1861 due to disagreements, six Zurich Rhenans founded the Corps Helvetia on November 29, 1861. Both corps founded the Zurich Seniors' Convent at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School . After lengthy negotiations, Rhenania and Helvetia came together with Tigurinia to form a joint SC.

On April 7, 1863 in Frankfurt am Main, Helvetia was one of the ten founding corps of the General Seniors 'Convent (ASC), which later became the Weinheim Seniors' Convent .

While corporations at the cantonal university were able to develop freely according to the German model, the corps and country teams at the “Poly” were suppressed by the school administration. Disputes between the student body and the director led to the polytechnic students moving to Rapperswil in July 1864 . Tigurinia followed. 325 out of a total of around 500 students at the Polytechnic at the time submitted their de-registration. Among other things, a caricature that appeared in the satirical magazine Der Postheiri , published by Alfred Hartmann in Solothurn , testifies to the great public sympathy : “Pallas Athene on the Limmat sees, crying, her polytechnic sons departing in anger.” As a result, it happened massive expulsions of students and total suppression of corporations. Helvetia, like Rhenania, had to suspend in March 1865. While Rhenania was reconstituted in Aachen in 1871 (and moved to Braunschweig in 1892), Helvetia was not opened again. Although Helvetia only existed as an active corps for three years and four months, it occupies a special position in the history of the ETH and corps students through the establishment of the Zurich Senior Citizens 'Convent and the Weinheim Senior Citizens' Convent as well as by participating in the move to Rapperswil .

Color song

Semester picture from Helvetia Zurich WS 1864/65

Red as love be the sign of our covenant ,
pure as white is the spirit that glows through us .
And that we are faithful, not giving way in death itself ,
Be the black ribbon that runs through our chests .
Whether rock and oak splinter ,
We will not tremble .

Members

  • Arnold Bachofen (1840–1894), Basel architect, Swiss lieutenant colonel, founder of the Corps
  • Wilhelm Bachofen (1841–1922), Basel building contractor and councilor, founder of the Corps
  • Hermann Dingler (1846–1935), botanist, professor at the Aschaffenburg Forest Academy
  • Eugen Fahrländer (1844–1917), Corps Commander of the Swiss Army
  • Jules Folly (1846–1906), Swiss engineer and colonel, head of the fortress construction department at the Federal Office of Genius
  • Hermann Freuler (1841–1903), Swiss politician, member of the Swiss Council of States
  • Rudolf Gallati (1845–1904), Swiss politician, President of the Swiss National Council
  • Fritz Lotz (1842–1894), Swiss architect and lieutenant colonel genius, commander of the Basel fire department and Basel Grand Councilor, founder of the Corps
  • Arnold Ringier (1845–1923), Swiss politician, forester and officer, councilor of the canton of Aargau
  • Hieronimus Seeli (1838–1912), first chief forester in Glarus, founder of the corps
  • Jakob Johann von Weyrauch (1845–1917), mathematician, rector of the TH Stuttgart

literature

  • Hans Schüler: Weinheimer SC-Chronik , Darmstadt 1927.
  • Paulgerhard Gladen : History of the student corporation associations , Volume 1, pp. 49–51, Würzburg 1981.
  • Paulgerhard Gladen: The Kösener and Weinheimer Corps: Your representation in individual chronicles . 1st edition. WJK-Verlag, Hilden 2007, ISBN 978-3-933892-24-9 , pp. 238 .
  • Samuel Mühlberg: The Corps Helvetia Zurich (so-called Schwarz-Helvetia), co-founder of the WSC . Once and Now, Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research, Vol. 50 (2005), pp. 471–493.
  • Peter Hauser : On the Pauk-Comment of the Zurich Corporations from 1861–63 . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 59 (2014), pp. 383–395.

Web links

Commons : Corps Helvetia Zurich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lars Leemann, Daniel Speich Chassé : Number of students at ETH Zurich 1855–2002, Statistical overview No. 3 , p. 8 ( digitized version )
  2. ↑ Professional security or personal development? " Freedom of study" in the 19th century at www.ethistory.ethz.ch
  3. ↑ Thomas Gürber: The Postheiri. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . September 29, 2010 , accessed June 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Der Postheiri 20 (1864), 34, 134.