Eduard Wildbolz

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Eduard Wildbolz as commander of the 3rd Division (1912–1917)

Karl Ludwig Friedrich Eduard Wildbolz (born February 13, 1858 in Bern ; † December 6, 1932 there ) was a Swiss officer and during the national strike in November 1918, as corps commander, was in command of the troops in Bern.

Life

family

The Wildbolz family originally came from Markdorf (Germany) on Lake Constance . In 1613 she received citizenship of the city of Bern ; she became a member of the guild society of Schmieden .

Eduard grew up as the son of the pharmacist Karl Rudolf Alexander (1825–1879) and Julia Constantina geb. Marcuard (1832–1904) in Bern. From 1872 to 1875 he completed a commercial apprenticeship with stations in Lausanne , Basel and Paris . After his training he worked as a bank clerk in Basel. This was followed by his career as a career officer.

In 1892 he married Cäcilia Antoinette Margarita Marcuard (* 1872), daughter of the banker Georg Marcuard von Gonzenbach (1844–1928) and sister of Georges Marcuard, who later became the corps commander and head of training for the army. The marriage with Cäcilia had the children Georg Eduard (* 1893), Else (* 1894), Karl Ulrich (* 1896), Hélène Marguerite (* 1898), Reinhard Ernst (* 1904) and Constance Elisabeth (* 1905). From the marriage of Georg Eduard and Elisabeth Katharina Franziska Theodora geb. the children Hansjörg Eduard Wildbolz (* 1935), Klaus and Jost Wildbolz (twins, * 1937) come from Bourcy .

Military career

Career

Promoted to lieutenant in 1878 , Wildbolz joined the cavalry instruction corps in 1881 . As a staff member, he and his superior, later General Ulrich Wille, influenced their reorganization in the cavalry regulations of 1894. From 1896 he worked in the rank of colonel as the cavalry superintendent, whereupon in 1908 he became chief of arms as a division officer . From 1889 to 1908 Wildbolz was an officer in the General Staff of the Swiss Army . In 1908 he was given command of the 2nd division. From 1910 to 1917 he was in command of the 3rd Division and from 1917 - in the middle of the First World War - he took over command of Army Corps 2 as corps commander.

Commander in Bern during the state strike in 1918

Wildbolz reports his troops to General Ulrich Wille in Bern
Troops in front of the Federal Palace during the state strike

The long period of service during the occupation of the border from 1914 to 1918 without loss of earnings compensation , the high inflation and unemployment led to the impoverishment of large parts of the Swiss population. In addition, the shortage of raw materials as a result of the war led to bottlenecks in the food supply. Against this background, the Olten Action Committee called a nationwide strike in November 1918.

The national strike of November 11-14, 1918 was preceded by protest strikes in several industrial centers. The Federal Council was forced to mobilize order troops for Zurich on November 7th and for Bern on November 8th. The troops for Zurich were under the command of the division general and later frontist Emil Sonderegger . General Ulrich Wille provided for the command of the Bern security service division general Fritz Gertsch . However, this was unpopular with the Federal Council because he was considered a "representative of relentless Prussian harassment". The command of the troops for Bern was finally transferred against the will of General Eduard Wildbolz.

For the Federal City of Bern, the Federal Council attached great importance to the fact that the troop presence did not provoke any excesses. In view of the protest strike announced for November 9, he decided that “the military must refrain from any intervention against a demonstration or against a gathering” and - should intervention be necessary - nothing should happen “without special instructions from the Federal Council”.

If Sonderegger had his troops march into Zurich demonstratively and with great pomp, Wildbolz first stationed the soldiers in the vicinity of the city with the declared aim of carrying out the operation without causing a stir. On November 10th, he gave his officers the instruction "not to be provocative in their posture, suit and facial expression" and initially forbade them to " show mitrailleuses in the streets ". Wildbolz saw the use of the troops not as a fight against social democracy , but merely to prevent riots in the city.

At the beginning of the national strike, Wildbolz was subject to 12,000 men for Bern and Sonderegger to 20,000 for Zurich.

social commitment

As the chief editor of the General Swiss Military Magazine ASMZ (1917–1919), Eduard Wildbolz clearly criticized the operations during the border occupation and warned against excessive drill in the army.

Wildbolz was known and loved for his social open-mindedness. In his “Thoughts on Pacifism”, published in 1919 in the socialist-religious monthly magazine “ Neue Ways ”, the military clearly supported the militia army . At the same time he stated that the soldiers “today are disgusted with what happened and before they were burned and poisoned and drowned and spilled and suffocated”. Wildbolz names "renunciation, social thinking, striving for social equilibrium" as the basis for pacifism .

After the national strike, he saw the most urgent task in normalizing relations between the social classes . In the “Swiss Confederation for Reforms of the Transitional Period” he was committed to this goal together with the theologian Karl Barth , the peasant secretary Ernst Laur , the social democrat Emil Klöti and Emil Sonderegger.

In 1920 he directed the exchange of prisoners of war between Germany and Russia on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross and in 1923, according to the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne , those of Turkish and Greek prisoners of war.

Publications

  • The use of our cavalry. J. Huber, Frauenfeld 1902.
  • To my officers. The commander of the III. Division: Oberstdivisionär Wildbolz. G. Iseli, Bern 1915.
  • People and army of Switzerland in the light of the present war. Rosius-Verlag, Biel 1915.

literature

  • Biographical lexicon of deceased Swiss people . Vol. 2, p. 10.
  • Rudolf Jaun : The Swiss General Staff Corps 1875–1945. A collective biographical study. (= The Swiss General Staff , Volume 8). Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basel et al. 1991, ISBN 3-7190-1144-5 .
  • Willi Gautschi : The national strike in 1918. Benziger, Zurich 1968.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Burgerbuch Bern (1876), pp. 251-252.
  2. ↑ Burgerbuch Bern (1914), p. 377.
  3. ↑ Burgerbuch Bern (1940), p. 401.
  4. ^ A b Gerhard Wyss: Oberstkorpsommandant Eduard Wildbolz as editor of the ASMZ from 1917-1919. In: ASMZ 150 (1984), p. 129. doi : 10.5169 / seals-55614
  5. ^ Rudolf Jaun: The Swiss General Staff Corps 1875-1945. A collective biographical study. (= The Swiss General Staff , Volume 8). Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basel et al. 1991, ISBN 3-7190-1144-5 .
  6. ^ Willi Gautschi: Der Landesstreik 1918. Benziger, Zurich 1968, p. 242.
  7. ↑ Minutes of the Federal Council of November 8, 1918 (digitized official publications of the Swiss Federal Archives ).
  8. ^ Willi Gautschi: Der Landesstreik 1918. Benziger, Zurich 1968, pp. 240, 242.
  9. ^ Willi Gautschi: Der Landesstreik 1918. Benziger, Zurich 1968, p. 242.
  10. ^ Willi Gautschi: Der Landesstreik 1918. Benziger, Zurich 1968, p. 245.
  11. ↑ Eduard Wildbolz: Thoughts on Pacifism . In: Neuewege 13 (1919), p. 70. doi : 10.5169 / seals-134474
  12. ↑ Eduard Wildbolz: Thoughts on Pacifism. In: Neue Ways , 13 (1919), p. 72. doi : 10.5169 / seals-134474
  13. ^ Willi Gautschi: Der Landesstreik 1918. Benziger, Zurich 1968, p. 373.
  14. ^ Biographical lexicon of deceased Swiss. Vol. 2, p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Wildbolz, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wildbolz, Karl Ludwig Friedrich Eduard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss officer, as corps commander, chief of the troops in Bern during the national strike in November 1918
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1932
Place of death Bern