Hugo Remund

Obere Mühle: Residence of the Remund family in Lenzburg

Steinbrüchli: second residence in Lenzburg

Hugo Max Remund (born March 18, 1888 in Lenzburg , Switzerland ; † 1970 in Zurich ) was a Swiss doctor , chief physician of the Swiss Red Cross (SRK) and president of the executive committee of the children's aid of the Swiss Red Cross (SRK, Kh).

Life

Hugo Remund grew up in Lenzburg, where his father had bought the Obere Mühle. After graduating from high school in Aarau , he studied medicine in Rome, Munich, Vienna, Geneva and Zurich. He received his doctorate in 1915 with a dissertation on the medical significance of hazard legislation . He was a senior physician at the Forensic Medicine Institute of the University of Zurich and 1926–1957 district doctor. In 1931 he completed his habilitation with the work of forensic medical experience and problems with automobile accidents and was from 1931–1957 private lecturer (PD) at the University of Zurich.

As a militia officer, he was a colonel in the medical service of the Swiss Army. In April 1941 he was elected Chief Physician of the SRC by the Federal Council. In January 1942 he was appointed President of the newly created SRK Kinderhilfe . In the summer of 1946 he resigned from the presidium of Kinderhilfe (in June 1949 the semi-autonomous status of Kinderhilfe was abolished and it was integrated into the permanent structures of the SRK) and in 1950 he resigned as SRK chief physician.

Activity in children's aid

Remund led the negotiations that led to the merger of the organizations represented in the Swiss Working Group for War-Damaged Children (SAK) with the SRC in January 1942 . According to the main initiator Hugo Oltramare, with the SRK Kinderhilfe a large, Europe-wide aid organization was to be created under the auspices of the SRC, which would be supported by the whole of Switzerland and its authorities in accordance with its humanitarian tradition.

The SAK and the SRK, which was responsible for the entire activity, agreed on a cooperation agreement, the main condition of which was the unconditional maintenance of the principles of the Red Cross . The new SRC statutes approved by the Federal Council in January 1942 extended the previous activities of the sick and prisoner assistance to “civil” tasks, such as helping children, under the supervision of the medical service. For military questions, however, it remained subordinate to the army.

Like all national Red Cross societies, the SRC was subordinate to the government with a privileged relationship and, especially in times of war, was dependent on the political line in compliance with the Geneva Conventions . After the negative experiences in the League of Nations , the Conference of Évian , where no state was ready to accept Jewish refugees, the annexation of Austria and the excessive demands of its large neighbor France in the internment of over 450,000 refugees from the Spanish civil war , the Federal Council was back on the restrictive policy of neutrality returned from 1914. The Federal Council could not be indifferent if the SRC's activities went beyond the national framework, because they could have political implications for the security of the general population and the interests of the country.

The executive committee of the SRK Kinderhilfe, the so-called working committee , chaired by Hugo Remund , consisted of four representatives each from the SAK and the SRK as well as two representatives from the Federal Council with Edouard de Haller as a delegate for the international aid agencies. The central secretary was Rodolfo Olgiati . Because of the Federal Council's policy of neutrality, the Executive Committee and its President had to keep moving on “political ice” in their work, despite de Haller's help.

Thanks to the SRK Kinderhilfe, over 180,000 war-damaged children from Europe were able to spend a holiday in Switzerland from 1940 to 1955, millions of children in war-torn Europe received a daily meal and their families received thousands of tons of medicines, clothes and aid packages. Today (2014) the total value of the relief campaign financed by the Swiss population (since 1946 with the support of the Swiss donation ) was over one billion Swiss francs.

Publications

• About the medical significance of the hazard legislation . Seemann publishing house, Zurich 1916.
• Forensic medical experience and problems in automobile accidents . Schwabe Verlag, Basel 1931.
• with Bernhard Peyer: Medical from Martial: With additions from Juvenal and a natural history appendix , Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1928
• with S. Wehrli: Explosion during anesthesia with an oxygen-ether mixture, triggered by static electricity , Schwabe Verlag, Basel 1939
• Dr. med. Hans Martz. Dr. Martz in the memory of his employees in the Red Cross , 1954
• Prof. Fritz Schwarz on his 60th birthday (1898–1971). Forensic Medicine Festschrift, 1958.
• Prof. Heinrich Zangger, December 6, 1874 - March 15, 1957 , Forensic Medicine, 1958
• On the history of the blood donation service in Switzerland , Bern 1966

literature

• Serge Nessi: The Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross 1942–1945 and the role of the doctor Hugo Oltramare . Karolinger Verlag, Vienna / Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-85418-147-7 (French original edition: Éditions Slatkine , Genève 2011, ISBN 978-2-8321-0458-3 ).
• Heidi Keller: 100 years of Red Cross service: in the Swiss Army - women implement Henry Dunant's ideas . Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld 2003, ISBN 3-7193-1335-2
• Hugo Remund: Hugo Remund (1888–1970) , 1970

Web links

• Hugo Remund in the Dodis databaseof diplomatic documents in Switzerland

Individual evidence

1. ^ University of Zurich, matriculation edition : Remund Max HUGO
2. ^ Canton of Aargau: tunic for doctor Hugo Remund with a short biography
3. ^ From the negotiations of the Federal Council on April 17, 1941
4. ↑ Founding members: Swiss Charitable Society, Federation of Swiss Women's Organizations, Pro Juventute, Swiss Caritas Association, Swiss Workers' Aid, Swiss Aid for Emigrant Children, Mouvement de la Jeunesse Romande, Swiss Charitable Women's Association, Swiss Teachers' Association, Swiss Teachers' Association, Société Pédagogique de la Suisse Romande, Friends of Swiss Romande People's education centers, Service civil international (Switzerland section), Association of German-Swiss Youth Associations from the Blue Cross, Swiss Medical and Medical Aid, Swiss Section of the World Association for the Renewal of Education, Fédération du Christianisme Social de la Suisse Romande. Later came: the Catholic Women's Association, the Association of Catholic Women's Associations, Ligue pour l'Education nouvelle, Swiss annual meeting of friends (Quakers)
5. ↑ Serge Nessi: The Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross 1942–1945 and the role of the doctor Hugo Oltramare , Karolinger Verlag, Vienna / Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-85418-147-7 (French original edition: Éditions Slatkine, Genève 2011, ISBN 978-2-8321-0458-3 )