Hans Ruesch

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Hans Ruesch, 1993

Hans Ruesch (born May 17, 1913 in Naples , Italy ; † August 27, 2007 in Massagno near Lugano , Switzerland ) was a Swiss racing driver , publicist and writer .

Life

Racing driver

Hans Ruesch, son of the German-speaking Swiss industrialist , archaeologist, philosopher Arnold Ruesch and the Italian-speaking Swiss Ginevra Ruesch, grew up in Naples, where his father owned a textile factory. At the age of 12 he attended a Swiss boarding school. He began to study law at the University of Zurich , first in French, then in German, but finally decided on a journalistic career. Even as a teenager he was so fascinated by motorsport that he bought a sports car with the money he earned from his first reports so that he could actively pursue his great passion.

As a 19-year-old Ruesch won the 1932 Klausen race on an MG Montlhéry Midget in the smallest sports car category. In the same year he took 3rd place in an Alfa Romeo at the Brno Grand Prix on the Masaryk Ring in Czechoslovakia . In 1934 he won two of the then popular ice races on the Titisee and the Eibsee on a Maserati 8CM . A year later he finished fourth in the Mille Miglia . With his co-driver Richard "Dick" Seaman , Ruesch won the Donington Grand Prix in 1936 at the age of 23. In 1937 he won three Grand Prix races: the Grand Prix of Finland , the Grand Prix of Bucharest and Grand Prix des Frontières . As in Donington, Ruesch also drove an Alfa Romeo 8C-35 here . In the same year he won the Mountain Championship in Brooklands, UK, and set two world records, including the "standing start" speed record at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry with an average speed of 88.33 miles per hour, previously set by John R. Cobb was held. After training for only three months, he also took part in the great St. Moritz world bobsleigh competition for Switzerland that same year.

Between 1932 and 1937, Hans Ruesch represented Switzerland in around 100 international car races, of which he won 26, including 13 mountain races . He measured himself against drivers such as Rudolf Caracciola , Bernd Rosemeyer , Manfred von Brauchitsch , Hans Stuck , Hermann Lang , Giuseppe Farina , Achille Varzi or Tazio Nuvolari , who was also known as the "Flying Mantuan".

When Hans Ruesch got back into European motorsport after his return from the USA, to which he had in the meantime emigrated during the Second World War, a tragic accident happened that also marked the end of his racing career. In August 1953, at the Senigallia race in Italy, he was involved in a rear-end collision with his Ferrari 340MM because of an oil spill on the track. One policeman died. Three spectators were injured.

writer

Hans Ruesch began working on his first novel while he was still active as a racing driver: he also used the waiting times in the pits to write. The book, which was based on Rudolf Caracciola , the most successful German automobile racing driver of the pre-war era, was published in Switzerland in 1937 under the title Gladiators . In 1939, with the outbreak of the Second World War, Hans Ruesch moved to Paris. From there he fled to Spain in 1940 - shortly before the Wehrmacht invaded. He was imprisoned in Madrid but, thanks to the support of a friend, was able to flee via Lisbon to New York, where he took courses in creative writing. In 1942 the women's magazine Redbook published its first short story written in English. Within a few months, Hans Ruesch made a name for himself as an exciting, realistic narrator with his stories, which were published in Anglo-American magazines such as Esquire , The Saturday Evening Post and Collier's Weekly . He also wrote in German, French and Italian for other well-known magazines in various countries.

In 1946 he returned to his native Naples, where part of his family lived. In 1949 he married Maria Luisa de la Feld († 2006). The marriage resulted in three children ( Vivian Ruesch Mellon, who was married to James Mellon , Hans Jr. Ruesch and Peter Ruesch) and five grandchildren (Diana Mellon, Angela Mellon, Sarah Mellon, Jessica Ruesch and Gina Ruesch). The couple split in the early 1970s.

His Eskimo novel Top of the World , published in New York in 1950, became the US “bestseller of the year” . The book, which sold 3 million copies, has been translated into almost all cultural languages. It made Hans Ruesch the most successful Swiss writer of his time. The Weltwoche (Zurich) highlighted the "documentary force" of the language out and drew a comparison with Hemingway. The writer Thomas Mann praised it as “a particularly gripping work that gives the reader an insight into a completely new world”.

In the early 1950s, Ian Ballantine , an American publicist, was looking for the best racing novel in Europe. But his agents didn't find a single one - with the exception of Hans Ruesch's gladiators . He offered Ballantine his story for sale, but only on the condition that he, as the author, also take on the translation into English. On the occasion, Ruesch rewrote his first work. The new version of the novel was published in the USA in 1953 under the title The Racer . In 1955, The Racer was translated back into German by Arno Schmidt . In the same year came a film version with Kirk Douglas (director: Henry Hathaway ) entitled The Racers (German distribution title: The Favorite ) in the cinemas.

In 1959 Nicholas Ray filmed the bestseller Top of the World under the title The Savage Innocents (German distribution title: In the Land of Long Shadows ). The main actors were Peter O'Toole and Anthony Quinn . The film, on whose screenplay Hans Ruesch also co-wrote, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1960 .

52 years later, a third of Ruesch's books served as a template for a feature film with an international star cast: In winter / spring 2012, the 130-minute epic Black Gold opened in cinemas worldwide. It is based on the novel The Great Thirst (1957), in which Ruesch describes the turning point in the Middle East, which broke out in the region at the beginning of the 20th century with the discovery of large oil deposits. Jean-Jacques Annaud , the director of Black Gold , said in an interview in 2012 that Hans Ruesch "in the 50s showed almost visionary foresight in describing this struggle between tradition and modernity in the Arab world and anticipated the collapse of the old social order" . While working on the script, Annaud said, no one had any idea that a short time later the entire region would be hit by the Arab Spring . "The revolution rolled over us so quickly that no one on the set - from the cook to the camel driver - initially realized what had actually happened."

Opponents of animal experiments

In the 1960s, Hans Ruesch dealt with zoological and sociological studies and edited a series of medical books for an Italian publisher. It was there that he first became aware of animal experiments , against which he was intensively involved from the early 1970s. Estimates or official censuses (England) assume that at that time between 10 and 14 million animals annually in Germany, 5,607,400 in England (1971) and approx. 42,625,000 (including 57,000 primates) in the USA (1971) Research laboratories have been sacrificed. In 1974 Ruesch founded an information center for vivisection called CIVIS (Latin: "Citizen") in Klosters, Switzerland .

"Naked ruler"

For five years, Hans Ruesch worked on a comprehensive, critical presentation of animal research and its history. The basis for this work, in which Ruesch examined the scientific method of animal experimentation from a medical, sociological and philosophical perspective, was formed by press articles, medical journals (e.g. The Lancet or British Medical Journal ) and textbooks (e.g. Experimental Surgery or Methods in Animal Experimentation ) as well as biographies and medical history works (e.g. Beginnings of Medicine by Henry Ernest Sigerist or Clinical Medical Discoveries by Maurice Beddow Bayly ). In doing so, Ruesch covered researchers such as Christiaan Barnard , Harry Harlow , Hans Selye , Lawson Tait , Claude Bernard , Peter Wilhelm Lund , François Magendie , Charles Bell and William Harvey as far back as Andreas Vesalius and Galen . When researching English, Italian, French and German sources, Ruesch was able to benefit from his multilingualism. One of the main focuses of his work was to quote from the animal experimenters' own publications in order to draw attention to the brutality which, in his opinion, has found its way into “contemporary medical science with its mechanistic concept of health” and “with the help of the mass media as a sign of intelligence and philanthropy "is silently accepted".

Hans Ruesch's Manifesto against Animal Experiments was first published in Italy in January 1976 under the title Imperatrice Nuda . The book swam against the current of the times: In Germany and the USA, numerous publishers had rejected publication - among them Econ Verlag on the grounds that “it is not our job to spread extreme and dangerous opinions”. Even publishing houses that had previously published Ruesch's novels showed no interest: Rowohlt and Bertelsmann were not ready to examine the manuscript that Ruesch had offered them. In 1978 the Imperatrice Nuda finally appeared in the USA ( Slaughter of the Innocent ), with Hans Ruesch doing the translation himself. A translation from English into German by Ursula von Wiese and again by Ruesch himself was published in 1978 under the title Nackte Herrscherin. Undressing medical science .

Since in the 1970s initiatives in favor of the interests of farm animals hardly found any public response, ´Animal experimentation was advocated by a large part of the population and Ruesch had attacked established science, his “vivisection shocker” was sometimes heavily criticized after its publication.

Almost at the same time there were other publications in Germany that, together with Ruesch's polemic, laid the basis for an emotional, fierce debate about the pros and cons of animal experiments, as had already happened in Germany 100 years earlier - from around 1877 to 1885 was conducted. This included the books by the physicians Margot and Herbert Stiller (1977, 1979) and an essay by the philosopher Robert Spaemann (1979). As well as the three-part television documentary Die Stellvertreter - Tiere in der Pharmaforschung (1978) by Horst Stern , whose intention to objectify the discussion was turned into the opposite by the images shown. Growing public protests (which were featured in the cover stories of high-circulation magazines such as stern and Der Spiegel ) and the flare-up of the anti-animal experimentation movement in the late 1970s were the result. From 1981 onwards, there was a significant increase in animal exemptions from scientific institutions by autonomous animal rights activists.

“If you read through old newspapers, you can see that at regular intervals the final solution to the various anxieties that weigh on people like a nightmare is within reach; Usually the good news begins with the words: “Animal experiments have shown that. . "Announcements of miracle cures looming on the horizon are the manna of experimenters, even if these miracle cures never materialize - the various cancer cures are the best example - or even wreak havoc."

- Hans Ruesch : Naked Ruler (1978)

In 1980 Hans Ruesch, Max Thürkauf and other Swiss personalities took part in a federal popular initiative initiated by Franz Weber for the abolition of vivisection. At a press conference, Weber and Ruesch announced June 17, 1980 as the start date for a nationwide collection of signatures.

In 1981 a French edition of Imperatrice Nuda appeared under the title Ces bêtes qu'on torture inutilement (translation: Hans Ruesch). In 1984 a special edition of Nackte Herrscherin was published in Germany , which contains a preface by Barbara Rütting and the story Nachruhm by Manfred Kyber . A part of the publisher's proceeds was used to support the organizations Bürger gegen Tierversuche (Hamburg) and Initiative gegen Tierversuche (Kirchheim near Munich).

In 1979 and 1984, Hans Ruesch, who had meanwhile become a symbol of the international anti-animal experimentation movement, accompanied the large-scale demonstrations to the universities of Oxford , Cambridge and Los Angeles , where he appeared as a speaker. The International League of Doctors Against Vivisection (ILDAV) named him their honorary president . As a patron, he also supported the activities of the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society Incorporated (NZAVS) founded by Bette Overell in 1978 .

Today the Naked Ruler is one of the best-known works of literature critical of animal experiments, alongside Victims of Science ( Richard Ryder ), Die Vivisektion ( Gennaro Ciaburri ) and The Torture Chambers of Science ( Ernst von Weber ). The Italian microbiologist Pietro Croce gave Naked Empress as a decisive impetus for that he gave up his animal experimental activity.

At the end of August 2007, Hans Ruesch died of cancer at the age of 94 in Massagno near Lugano. He was the last surviving Grand Prix winner of the golden interwar era of auto racing. In his home country Switzerland, Hans Ruesch remained rather unknown.

Works

Novels

  • Gladiators. Hallwag, Bern 1937.
  • Top of the World. Harper, 1950, ISBN 99975-5602-X .
    • German edition: In the land of long shadows. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1953.
  • The Racer. Ballantine Books, 1953.
    • German edition: racing driver. Translation by Arno Schmidt . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1955.
  • The sun in your eyes. A picaresque novel. Steinberg Verlag, Zurich 1955.
  • The Great Thirst. Hutchinson, London 1957.
    • German edition: The black thirst. Ullstein, Berlin 1959.
  • The stealers. 1962.
    • German edition: The little thieves. Diana Verlag, Zurich 1964.
  • The rivals. Diana Verlag, Zurich 1965.
  • Make a fortune. 1967.
  • Back to the Top of the World. 1973, ISBN 0-450-02108-4 .
    • German edition: Igloos in the night. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1974.

Non-fiction

  • Slaughter of the Innocent. Bantam Books, New York 1978, ISBN 0-553-11151-5 .
    • German edition: Naked ruler. Undressing medical science. Edition Hirthammer Tier- und Naturschutz, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-921288-44-4 .
      • German special edition with the subtitle Das Manifest gegen Tierversuche. Nymphenburger, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-485-00481-2 .
  • The counterfeiters of science. Technical report. Hirthammer Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-921288-53-3 .
  • Naked Empress. Or the Great Medical Fraud. Civis, 1982, ISBN 0-686-40233-2 .
    • German edition: The Pharma Story. The big dizziness. Hirthammer, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-88721-027-1 .
  • 1000 doctors against animal experiments. With an introduction by Hans Ruesch and a facsimile of the book 1000 Doctors Against Vivisection (1935) by Ludwig Fliegel . Civis, Klosters 1986, ISBN 3-905280-03-7 .
  • 1000 doctors against vivisection. New edition of the work by Ludwig Fliegel from 1935, Civis, Klosters 1986.

Film adaptations

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Ruesch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludwig Pollak : Arnold Ruesch (January 11, 1882 - July 10 , 1929 ) , Heidelberg 1929
  2. ↑ Richard Nisley: Interview: Hans Ruesch. In: Vintage Racecar. Volume 8, Issue 1, January 2005, p. 18.
  3. ↑ a b Richard Nisley: Interview: Hans Ruesch. In: Vintage Racecar. Volume 8, Issue 1, January 2005, p. 53.
  4. ↑ a b c d Richard Williams: Hans Ruesch - Interwar motor racing ace-turned-author who became an animal rights champion. In: The Guardian. September 15, 2007.
  5. ↑ a b Richard Nisley: Interview: Hans Ruesch. In: Vintage Racecar. Volume 8, Issue 1, January 2005, p. 19.
  6. ^ A b Daniel Hirsch: "Black Gold" - a film about oil, religion, tradition and modernity Kultur-Port.De, January 27, 2012.
  7. ↑ Answer of the Federal Government to the small question of the MPs Dr. Schmidt (Gellersen), Peters (Poppenbüll), Müller (Schweinfurt), Paintner and the parliamentary groups of the SPD and FDP (November 14, 1978, printed matter 8/2194, point 2.2).
  8. ↑ Horst Stern: Tierversuche. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH. Reinbek near Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-499-17406-5 , p. 170.
  9. ↑ Hans Ruesch: Naked ruler. The undressing of medical science. Edition Hirthammer Tier- und Naturschutz-GmbH, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-921288-44-4 , p. 405.
  10. ↑ a b Hans Ruesch: The forgers of science. Technical report. 4th edition. Edition Hirthammer, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-921288-53-3 , p. 45.
  11. ↑ In 1981, according to the EMNID survey, around 80 percent of German animal experiments were positive. Representative population survey by the EMNID institute on behalf of the Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry in February 1981. In: Hans-Joachim Cramer: Animals in drug research. Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 26.
  12. ^ Hubert Bretschneider: The dispute about vivisection in the 19th century. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1962.
  13. ↑ Horst Stern: Tierversuche. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-499-17406-5 , pp. 146-160 (Stiller and the consequences).
  14. ^ Robert Spaemann: Bestial torments day after day. In: German newspaper. 33, 1979. Also published under: Welt des Horens. In: Critique of Animal Experiments. Kübler Verlag, Lampertheim 1980, ISBN 3-921265-24-X , pp. 27-31.
  15. ↑ Horst Stern: Tierversuche. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-499-17406-5 , p. 3, introduction.
  16. ↑ Horst Stern: I will not allow myself to be labeled an animal enemy! In: Listen. 48/1978, The Current Discussion, pp. 17-22.
  17. ↑ Animal rights activists - Breaking into the torture chamber. In: stern. No. 17. April 18, 1984, Title, pp. 60-65.
  18. ↑ Animal experiments - torture for progress. In: Der Spiegel. No. 14 April 1, 1985, Title, pp. 36-53.
  19. ↑ Edmund Haferbeck, Frank Wieding: Operation animal liberation. Echo Verlag, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-926914-31-9 , pp. 245-266.
  20. ↑ Hans Ruesch: Naked ruler. The undressing of medical science. Edition Hirthammer Tier- und Naturschutz-GmbH, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-921288-44-4 , p. 270.
  21. ^ Franz Weber starts an initiative against vivisection. In: Basler Zeitung. June 10, 1980.
  22. ↑ Pietro Croce: Animal Experimentation or Science: A Choice. Book publisher CIVIS Publications, Massagno 1988, ISBN 3-905280-05-7 , p. 7.
personal data
SURNAME Ruesch, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss racing driver, publicist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 2007
Place of death Massagno