Hans Schwarz (Author)

Hans Schwarz (actually Karl Rudolf Johannes Waldemar Schwarz , born September 19, 1895 in Bern , † June 29, 1965 ibid) was a Swiss author , officer , publisher and rider .

In the mid-1930s he became known to the public primarily for his rides, which took him for weeks through large parts of Europe and, among other things, were intended to highlight the skills of the Freiberg horse . Through his personal commitment, he became one of the most famous Swiss riders of the time between the world wars.

Before and during the Second World War, he took a public position against German and Italian fascism in the SZ am Sonntag , which he co- edited, and in the weekly newspaper Die Nation , of which he was a co-founder.

His book Der Schimmel von Perbal , published in 1938, was banned in Germany by the National Socialists in the same year.
From 1953 to 1965 he published the monthly black on white - the newspaper for the free citizen .

In 1958 he established the foundation “La Fondation pour le Cheval”, which has since been based in Le Roselet near Les Breuleux .

Life

Schwarz grew up in Bern. His father ran a specialty shop and kept five horses for the wagon. Hans Schwarz came into contact with horses at an early age and got to know other horse lovers and cavalrymen who decisively shaped his love for horses. After attending the Free Gymnasium , he completed an apprenticeship as a businessman, but decided on a military career in which he rose to first lieutenant in the train .

On June 1, 1923, he married Lucia Clara Elvira Pezolt from Bern. The marriage resulted in two daughters.

Between 1933 and 1938 he and his comrades undertook various long-distance rides to France , Italy , the Czech Republic and Poland . On the longest and at the same time most famous ride, he led a column via Austria , Hungary and Romania to Istanbul and from there via Greece back to Switzerland, which earned him a high reputation among comrades and also in the public. In autumn 1938 he bought the Hunter mare For ever in Dublin and rode her through Ireland in the following weeks , then via Scotland to London , from where he could only import her to Switzerland in the spring of 1939 because of the threat of war that was already imminent. His last big ride took the more than fifty-year-old Schwarz to Waterloo in 1947 . Schwarz published his riding experiences and observations about the people and culture of the respective regions in his books.

After the seizure of power in 1933, Schwarz ran a press service in Germany called "Democracy in Attack" .

When the Second World War broke out, he was denied participation in the military contingent to defend the Swiss borders because of Article 18 of the military organization at the time. Schwarz then turned to his journalistic work, which had already begun in the mid-1930s, and wrote numerous political articles in order to at least be able to support the Confederates spiritually, and from then on he devoted himself to the end of his life with vehemence political, social and equally hippological issues. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung described him as the enfant terrible of Swiss journalism .

Hans Schwarz was a passionate horse lover all his life and was strongly committed to improving the way horses are kept and used. Early on he complained about the handling of sport horses and even made a front against the Swiss Army when they had their horses liquidated. He set an example and in 1958 founded the Fondation pour le Cheval in the Bernese Jura , a care home for old and battered horses, which today has three farms. To mark its 50th anniversary, the Swiss Post issued three special stamps.

Works

• Riding through France. Zurich 1934.
• Ride to Rome. Zurich 1935.
• Four horses, a dog and three soldiers. The ride to Stambul and Athens. Zurich 1937. (New edition: The Long Riders' Guild Press, 2001, ISBN 1-59048-068-6 .)
• The white horse from Perbal . A ride through Czechoslovakia. Zurich 1938.
• For ever. A ride across the British Isles. Zurich 1939.
• Riding through Europe. Bern 1944.
• Chüeri's wandering years and his Tusculum. A true dog story. Zurich 1945.
• Journey through Helvetia. Bern 1946.
• Ride to Waterloo . Bern 1948.
• Vendée. Historical fragments from the French Revolution. Affoltern 1950.
• Humor behind the rusty curtain. Koeniz 1951.
• Let's hear from old times. Bern 1952.
• Timeless towns. Riquewihr, Landeron, Vaucouleurs, Sempach, Meersburg, Gruyères, Regensberg, St. Ursanne. Koeniz 1955.
• The horse book. Texts by Heinrich I Prince Reuss. Bayreuth 1955.
• Horses, horses ...! Koeniz 1955.
• Militia Helvetica. Cheerful memories of an old soldier. 3 volumes. Köniz 1955–1956.
• Little horse stories. Parts 1 - 5, Foundation for the Horse. Köniz / Les Breuleux 1960–1965.

Web links

• Hans Schwarz website
• Website of the "Foundation for the Horse" / "Fondation pour le cheval"
• Franziska Schönauer: Black, Hans. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry in the German Biographical Encyclopedia (DBE), p. 326.
2. ↑ Switzerland in the Resistance , article in the NZZ of July 17, 2005
3. ↑ DBE, p. 326.
4. ↑ Obituary for H. Schwarz ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Radio Bern on June 30, 1965  
5. ↑ Blog entry by Walter Hess on textatelier.com on September 9, 2009
6. ↑ See bravely to the last heartbeat ( memento of the original from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Eugen Hug in the last issue of "Black on White"  
7. ^ Website of the Free Gymnasium Bern
8. ↑ Short biography about Hans Schwarz by D. Bernasconi ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ DBE, p. 326.
10. ↑ See memories by Kaspar Freuler ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Death by my side. ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ See critical look into the world of sport ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Katyn for horses DER SPIEGEL, January 7, 1953
14. ↑ News article on Swiss television  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.