Gustav Däniker

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Gustav Däniker (born April 10, 1896 in Steinmaur ZH ; † September 14, 1947 in Kilchberg ZH ) was a Swiss general staff officer . He became famous for his memorandum written in 1941 and the subsequent dispute that ended with his involuntary resignation from the army.

biography

The son of pastor Albert Däniker and Anna Bertha geb. Stutz got enthusiastic about the military at an early age and graduated from the Swiss Army recruiting school at the age of 18. At 20 he was already an officer ( lieutenant ). He then made up his Matura and began studying law at the University of Zurich , where he received his doctorate in 1922.

Däniker then reported to the instruction service. He quickly made a career there, becoming a captain in 1924 , reassigned to the general staff in 1926, major in 1930 , lieutenant colonel in 1936 and finally colonel in 1939 .

In 1929, Däniker was posted to the Ecole supérieure de guerre in Paris for two years . In 1936 he was given a teaching position at the Department of Military Sciences at the ETH Zurich , and in 1937 he was commissioned to design the military exhibition at the 1939 National Exhibition . In 1938 he spent 10 days in the German infantry school Döberitz . From 1938 he was an honorary lecturer at the University of Basel and held the new chair for military science. Before leaving the service, Däniker was the commandant of the shooting school Walenstadt and Kdt ai Geb Inf Rgt 20. At the end of 1941 he was dismissed from the general staff as a result of his memorandum of May 1941 and left the federal service entirely in 1942 after he was not re-elected was.

Until his death in 1947, he was then employed as the head of the weapons technology department at the machine tool factory Oerlikon-Bührle & Cie in Zurich.

Däniker was a recognized expert in ballistics and a respected military journalist who wrote more than 300 books. He belonged to the group of officers friendly to Germany who, for the time of the Second World War , would have preferred to see Ulrich Wille junior from German-speaking Switzerland , the son of the general from the First World War , also named Ulrich Wille , instead of the Romand Henri Guisan . For Däniker and his like-minded people, the alternative in their relations with the German Reich was not adjustment or resistance , but rather adjustment or decline .

In 1925, Danish married Fanny Thekla Thurnheer. The marriage had a daughter, Adelheid Thekla, and a son, Gustav Jr. , who also became a general staff officer and military journalist.

Memorandum

In 1941, Däniker traveled to Germany on a private mission and then summarized his impressions in a memorandum. In it, Däniker pleaded for an extensive adjustment to the wishes of Germany, which should not be annoyed, and for a voluntary integration of Switzerland into the new Europe , which in his opinion Germany was in the process of building. He was particularly perturbed by what he believed to be one-sided press reports and calls for resistance, especially from Prof. Karl Barth and Colonel Oscar Frey . He was convinced that Switzerland would inevitably be heading for doom if this goings-on were not stopped. What became known - also in connection with the current discussion about Switzerland's relationship with the EU - was above all the sentence from the memorandum: “Strangely enough, we also pretend to be flying through a new Europe as a 'ricochet'. »

The memorandum was actually only intended for six like-minded recipients, but soon became known far beyond that due to a transmission error. It thus became a political issue and the subject of heated debates. In particular, Däniker was accused of placing the bulk of the blame for the undisputedly poor relations with Germany on Switzerland, and thus providing Germany with a pretext to attack Switzerland. The defense of the statehood of Switzerland expressly called for by Däniker, even if it ended in its downfall, could hardly mitigate the allegations.

General Guisan then launched an administrative investigation into breach of duty, which led to a 15-day arrest sentence. After serving his sentence, Däniker was informed that he had not been re-elected as an instruction officer by the Federal Council for the new term of office from March 1942.

literature

  • Franziska Keller: Colonel Gustav Däniker - rise and fall of a Swiss professional officer , dissertation. ars historica Thusis Verlag, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-908544-20-3
  • Alice Meyer: Adaptation or Resistance . Verlag Huber & Co., Frauenfeld 1965

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Franziska Keller: Colonel Gustav Däniker - Rise and fall of a Swiss professional officer , dissertation. ars historica Thusis Verlag, Zurich 1997
  2. ↑ a b c Alice Meyer: Adaptation or resistance . Verlag Huber & Co., Frauenfeld 1965
  3. ↑ a b c d e Gustav Däniker, memorandum of May 15, 1941. In: Franziska Keller: Colonel Gustav Däniker - Rise and fall of a Swiss professional officer , dissertation. ars historica Thusis Verlag, Zurich 1997
personal data
SURNAME Danish, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss general staff officer
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Steinmaur ZH
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1947
Place of death Kilchberg ZH