Eugene Theodor Rimli

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Eugen Theodor Rimli (1961)

Eugen Theodor Rimli (born November 12, 1909 in Wattwil ; † November 22, 1973 in Zurich ), von Tägerschen (now Tobel-Tägerschen ) and Frauenfeld , was a Swiss journalist and publisher .

biography

Eugen Th. Rimli grew up in Romanshorn and Zug . He studied at the Universities of Zurich , Friborg , Lille , Bonn and Cologne law and was in Cologne 1935 doctorate . He was a member of the Sigfridia fraternity in Bonn and founded the Glanzenburg Catholic student association in Zurich in 1959 .

In 1933 he joined the National Front , but demanded that the movement avoid “any appearance of kinship with the NSDAP ”, and soon protested against “non-Swiss methods” of the front leadership. In 1937 there was a final break with the front, which Rimli accused of having written the appeal for the popular initiative she supported "for a ban on Freemasonry" in Germany. He resigned from the front before the referendum of November 28, 1937, when the initiative was very clearly rejected. The socialists who Rimli opposed accused him of being "an admirer of foreign fascist fellows". Up to 1942 he was impressed by Germany's successes in World War II and convinced that Germany would win the war and that Switzerland would then have to “join” the “new order in Europe”.

In 1938, after the annexation of Austria , he wrote a report for the Consulate General of the USA in Zurich on “The Situation in Switzerland”, in which he pointed out that, in contrast to the Swiss interpretation, neutrality also means neutrality of the press . Unlike Austria, Switzerland has the absolute will to maintain independence and will resolutely stand up to any attack on it.

After the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish War in 1939, Rimli, together with Arthur Mojonnier and other friends, initiated the successful "Swiss Relief Operation for Finland" as its president, which resulted in over CHF 2.5 million in Sweden (based on the population ) the world's second largest donation. In 1955, together with Gottlieb Duttweiler and the State Ring of Independents, he launched the anti-trust initiative (federal popular initiative “against the abuse of economic power”), which was rejected in a referendum in 1958.

Rimli was a member of the board of directors of various companies, such as Camelo Wasserdichtmittel AG (later renamed Consortium AG, trading and manufacturing company), Meteor AG (manufacture and trade in tools, machines, etc.), Akademiker-Haus AG (operation of Real estate in European educational centers) and the Schallplatten AG (production of records for the supply of record clubs in European countries) as well as President of the Aktiva Handels- & Gewerbe-Treuhand-Genossenschaft. He was also Vice President of the Foundation born Alan C. Harris and Harris Else Treumann. This led to a judicial dispute after Rimli, after the death of the artist Else Harris, whose asset manager he was and who had made him a universal heir, the foundation supervisory authority had not handed over a document she had requested several times. Rimli was therefore fined by the government council of the canton of Lucerne , which he demanded a judicial assessment. Thereupon he was officially removed from the board of trustees for negligence . Rimli's appeal was rejected. It was later found that he did not even have the document in question and he was fully rehabilitated.

Rimli had been with the German Käthe, born in 1937. Scherhag, married, who had to give up her German citizenship when she left Germany. He had three daughters and one son. He died of heart failure at the wheel of his car at the age of 64. He was considered a strong, but sometimes also a controversial personality.

career

From 1934 to 1936 Rimli worked as a Germany correspondent for various Swiss and Scandinavian newspapers, including Die Weltwoche , Tages-Anzeiger , Der Landbote and National-Zeitung . In 1936 he was expelled from Germany for "unobjective, hateful articles in Swiss newspapers" with which he had "significantly damaged the interests of the German Reich".

Eugen Theodor Rimli's expulsion from Germany on February 6, 1936

From 1937 to 1939 he was the editor in charge of the weekly newspaper Die Tat des Landesring der Independene . After leaving, he continued to write articles for the newspaper. From 1937 to 1938 he was also director of Verkehrsverlag AG (automobile and travel guide). In 1939 he founded the “Redaktionsdienst Junge Schweizer Journalisten”, which mainly offered smaller newspapers from the canton of Zurich, eastern Switzerland and the Bern area various domestic and foreign policy as well as entertaining columns. During this time, Rimli was also an editor at Wächter am Pilatus in Kriens , the St. Galler Schweizer Freie Volkszeitung , the Ostschweizer Volkszeitung in Wil and the Wochenanzeiger in Bazenheid (later renamed the Ostschweizerische Landeszeitung ).

In the mid-thirties, Rimli joined Praesens-Verlag, founded by Paul Grob in 1933, and took it over from Grob in 1936. In 1939 he renamed the publishing house to Fraumünster-Verlag after its new domicile on Zurich's Fraumünsterstrasse. As the editor of a Catholic Bible , he had to rename the publishing house again at the end of 1951 at the instigation of the reformed Fraumünster Church; he chose the name Stauffacher-Verlag, again after its new domicile on Stauffacherquai. There he published the prestigious three-volume illustrated world history and the five-volume illustrated world art history. Gradually he set up branches in Lausanne , Paris , Brussels and Innsbruck as well as a bookstore in Stuttgart .

At the end of 1940 Rimli became editor-in-chief of the illustrated daily Actualis , which is considered the first tabloid in Switzerland. In March 1941, after it had published a report that the German tank general Guderian was abusing French prisoners as human shields , it was banned by the APF war censorship agency for 10 days . As early as January 1941, the APF had formally banned the Actualis from what it called a campaign against Federal Councilor Marcel Pilet-Golaz because of the consent to the Franco-German treaty on the delivery of army material to Germany of the 43,000 interned in Switzerland in 1940/1941 French and Polish soldiers of the 45th French Army Corps , and issued a public warning in February 1941 for "sensational dissemination of uncontrollable reports and promotion of rumors". At the beginning of May Rimli and the second drawing editor, Max Barthell, resigned from the editorial office in protest because the Chairman of the Board of Directors Walter Stucki had hired an employee as his delegate who did not like them. The events finally led to the closure of the newspaper at the end of May 1941. In the farewell issue of May 31, 1941, Stucki distanced himself from criticism of Pilet-Golaz.

From 1946 Rimli president was the interest group of Swiss publisher. In 1967 he published the weekly 2 × 2 , the editor-in-chief of which was Paul O. Pfister. In April 1967 he became delegate of the board of directors of the Zürcher Woche (from 1969 the Sonntags-Journal , discontinued in October 1972), but left again at the end of 1967 following differences of opinion with the editor-in-chief, Werner Wollenberger .

The Stauffacher publishing house was liquidated in 1984.

Works

  • War on Swiss soil? National defense seen from an emergency. Verlag der Tat, Zurich 1938.
  • The golden book of the national exhibition in 1939. Verkehrsverlag, Zurich 1939 (with Julius Wagner).
  • Defense and weapons. The Swiss Army's readiness for war. Verkehrsverlag, Zurich 1940 (with Julius Wagner).
  • Soldiers, comrades. Memory book of mobilization and active service in 1939/41. Fraumünster, Zurich 1941.
  • Such is the loyalty of this people. The Swiss in the service of the Vatican. Fraumünster, Zurich 1942 (with Gaston Castella).
  • The Book of the Red Cross. Fraumünster, Zurich 1944.
  • New world atlas. Country and economy of all states. Fraumünster, Zurich 1949.
  • Switzerland (= Fraumünster travel guide ). Fraumünster, Zurich 1950.
  • Illustrated world history. 3 vols. Stauffacher, Zurich 1954 (with Eduard von Tunk, Albert Renner, Arthur Mojonnier, Gaston Castella, Reno Klages).
  • Switzerland. Illustrated tourist handbook for traveling and vacationing in Switzerland (= Globetrotter-Guides , Vol. 1). Stauffacher, Zurich 1955.
  • Spain. Illustrated tourist guide for travel and vacation. Stauffacher, Zurich 1957 (with Max Barthell).
  • New world atlas. Country and economy of all states. Stauffacher, Zurich 1958 (with Ludwig Visintin).
  • Illustrated world art history. 5 vols. Stauffacher, Zurich 1959 (with Karl Fischer).
as editor:
  • Arthur Mojonnier: 650 years of the Swiss Confederation. Verlag der Tat, Zurich 1938.
  • Der, die, das. Small lexicon for everyday use. Fraumünster, Zurich 1951.
  • Eduard von Tunk, Arthur Mojonnier, Gaston Castella: The 20th Century (= Goldmanns Illustrierte Weltgeschichte , Vol. 8). Goldmann, Munich 1964.
  • Arthur Mojonnier, Eduard A. Gessler: History of the Confederates in words and pictures. Stauffacher, Zurich 1967.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Infame choice lies of "front" to "People's right." In: Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich . March 17, 1938 (full-page advertisement by the regional executive committee of the regional ring of the independents ).
  2. ↑ a b The man of "action". In: People's Law . March 16, 1938, p. 1.
  3. ^ A b Rolf Soiron : Swiss Cross and Christian Cross. In: Jahrbuch z'Rieche 1978.
  4. ↑ Switzerland. Aid organization for Finland. In: The deed. September 3, 1940, p. 6.
  5. ↑ A dark chapter on Guardianship and Foundation Policy. In: The deed . August 18, 1950, p. 3.
  6. ^ An acquittal in the Harris case. In: The deed. April 20, 1951, p. 3.
  7. ↑ a b On the passing of Eugen Theodor Rimli. In: Tages-Anzeiger . November 26, 1973, p. 19.
  8. ^ Ernst Bollinger: Actualis. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  9. ^ Refugees as a topic of public political communication in Switzerland 1938–1947. (PDF; 978 kB) Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War. Supplement to Switzerland and the refugees at the time of National Socialism. Chronos, Zurich 2001, p. 40 f.
  10. ↑ The "campaign" against Mr. Pilet must be stopped! In: Actualis. January 20, 1941, p. 1.
  11. ↑ What is going on in the Actualis? In: National newspaper . May 2, 1941, p. 4.
  12. ↑ With swearing or cursing. In: plain text. July 9, 2007.
  13. ↑ Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce. September 7, 1984, p. 3205.
personal data
SURNAME Rimli, Eugene Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss journalist and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Wattwil
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1973
Place of death Zurich