Herbert Constam

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Herbert Constam (born December 15, 1885 in Zurich Enge ; † June 11, 1973 in Zurich ) was a Swiss lawyer and officer ( Oberstkorpsommandant ).

Origin and life

Herbert Constam's father, Emil Joseph Kohnstamm, was born as the son of a Jewish paint dealer in New York City and moved to Switzerland with his mother. In 1880 the name was changed to Constam and probably also the conversion to the Protestant faith. Emil Joseph Constam was Professor of Chemistry at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich from 1899 until his death in 1917 . Herbert's younger brothers were the cable car designer Ernst and the medical doctor Georg.

Constam grew up in what is now the Zurich-Enge district and studied law in Zurich and Göttingen . He received his doctorate in 1909 and was admitted to the Zurich bar in 1910. From 1912 to 1918 he was an instruction officer at the Walenstadt shooting school and at the Aarau arsenal . Until his appointment as commander of the 6th division in 1938, he was chief of staff of the 4th division ( Lucerne ) from 1925 , then commander of the Walenstadt shooting school and later commander of the Central School II in Lucerne. In 1922 and 1935 he was assigned to the French army for training and during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 as an observer with the troops of Francisco Franco . Promoted to Colonel Corps Commander by General Guisan , he led the 3rd Army Corps from 1943 to 1951 . At the time, Constam was the highest ranking officer of Jewish origin in the Swiss Army.

From 1935 to 1955 he was a lecturer in tactics and mountain warfare at the military science department of the ETH Zurich . After retiring from military service, he worked as a lawyer in Küsnacht ZH .

Contemporary witnesses and in the literature describe Constam as an outstanding leader. As the commander of the 6th Division, he was responsible for the Uetliberg Fortress and developed a modern, dynamic defense concept for the time. From the summer of 1940, his 6th division had the task of closing the access to the Schwyz basin as part of the redoubt . Constam played a key role in the operational conception and planning of the redoubt and as a personal advisor to General Guisan.

literature

  • Robert Gubler: Field Division 6 (Volume 1) . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2003, ISBN 978-3-03823-062-5 .
  • Hans Senn : The Swiss General Staff, Volume 7 . Verlag Hier und Jetzt, Baden 2002, ISBN 978-3-906419-58-9 .
  • Rudolf Jaun : The Swiss General Staff Corps 1875–1945. A collective biographical study (= The Swiss General Staff , Volume 8). Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basel a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-7190-1144-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mona Zeitoun: Constam, Emil Joseph. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
personal data
SURNAME Constam, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss officer and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich Enge , Canton of Zurich, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1973
Place of death Zurich