Fritz Schwarz (politician)

Fritz Schwarz (left) in conversation with Silvio Gesell (center) and Werner Zimmermann (1917)

Fritz Schwarz (born May 1, 1887 in Oberthal ; † November 17, 1958 ) was a Swiss life reformer, author and politician. He was known as a representative of free economics .

Life

After attending primary school (1894–1902), he attended the state teachers' seminars in Hofwil and Bern until 1906 . Together with the later life reformer Werner Zimmermann , as a student of Prof. Dr. Ernst Schneider (1878–1957), shaped by his ethical, life-reforming attitude. Schneider, Zimmermann and Schwarz have been linked by a lifelong community and close friendship since then.

Fritz Schwarz worked as a primary school teacher until 1909 . In 1910 he and Anna Zaugg married. The daughters Anny and Hedy emerged from this relationship. After acquiring the secondary teacher license, he was a secondary teacher in Schwarzenburg from 1912 to 1919 .

From 1917 he was also editor of the magazine Freistatt (later Freiwirtschaftliche Zeitung or Free People ). He edited the school reform and took over the management of the “Pestalozzi-Fellenberg-Haus” founded by Ernst Schneider , an educational center for educational and economic reforms. He was also head of the Pestalozzi-Fellenberg publishing house. Here he published u. a. Works by Carl Albert Loosli , Alfred Fankhauser as well as various publications on free economy. At the same time, Schwarz was secretary of the Swiss Free Trade Association .

In 1929 he married Elly Glaser. From this second marriage the daughter Ruth and the son Hans emerged. From 1934 to 1958 he was in the canton parliament of the canton of Bern as a representative of the Swiss Free Trade Association (from 1946 Liberal Socialist Party ). From 1954 to 1957 he was President of the International Free Economic Union. For a while he was also president of the town of Bernese abstainers' associations.

In 1925, four years before the outbreak of the Great Depression , Fritz Schwarz saw the dangers of economic crises in his two-volume work “Blessing and Curse of Money in the History of the Nations” and explained their causes from his point of view. In his 1924 work, "Morgan - the uncrowned king of the world", he addresses the causes of major economic crises since 1860.

Fritz Schwarz's written estate - including correspondence with Hermann Hesse , Meinrad Lienert , Jakob Bührer , Emil Schibli and Heinrich Federer - is in the Swiss Social Archives in Zurich .

Works

• The blessing and the curse of money in the history of nations . Vol. 1 and 2, 1925. (2nd edition, Bern, 1931, Pestalozzi-Fellenberg publishing house), new editions 2010 (Vol. 1, ISBN 978-3-940392-03-9 ), 2012 (Vol. 2, ISBN 978 -3-940392-04-6 ) Synergia
• What everyone should know about money today . Pestalozzi-Fellenberg-Haus Bern 1939.
• When I think of my youth: memories . GS-Verlag, 2nd edition 1985, ISBN 3-7185-3055-4
• Autosuggestion - the positive force . Revised New edition, Synergia 2007, ISBN 978-3-940392-06-0
• The Christian and the money . Revised New edition, Synergia 2008 (expanded to include the “Ballade vom Zins” by Franz Hohler ), ISBN 978-3-940392-00-8 . Online: The Christian and the Money .
• The Wörgl experiment . Revised New edition, Synergia, Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-9810894-5-5 (original: Bern 1951). Online: The Wörgl experiment .
• Forward to the fixed purchasing power of money and the interest-free economy . Revised New edition, Synergia 2007, ISBN 978-3-940392-01-5
• Morgan - the uncrowned king of the world . 1924, Pestalozzi-Fellenberg-Verlag, revision. New edition, Synergia 2008, ISBN 978-3-940392-06-0 . Online: Morgan the uncrowned king of the world (PDF of the 5th edition).
• Hundred objections and concerns against free land - free money , Bern 1933. Online: Hundred objections and concerns against free land - free money .

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Schwarz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website about Fritz Schwarz
• CV of Fritz Schwarz
• Money has to flow
• Christoph Zürcher: Schwarz, Fritz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Holdings: Schwarz, Fritz and Elly, private archive in the finding aids of the Swiss Social Archives

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ueli Mäder and Simon Mugier: Fritz Schwarz ( 1887-1958 ). Money must flow , in: weekly newspaper from January 7, 2010 ; accessed on January 7, 2010
2. ↑ Fritz Schwarz, Morgan, the uncrowned king of the Wet, 2008 edition
3. ↑ Manfred Papst : A courageous fighter for social justice. Fifty years ago, the Bernese teacher, publicist, publisher and politician Fritz Schwarz died. He was a stormy idealist and advocate of free economics . In: NZZ on Sunday , November 9th, 2008.