Jakob Annasohn

Jakob Annasohn (born October 22, 1901 in Romanshorn ; † March 10, 1983 in Bern , resident in Uttwil ) was a Swiss chief of staff .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1920, Annasohn studied for two semesters in Geneva at the Faculté des lettres and later in Zurich for four semesters the history of Switzerland , as well as literature , psychology and law .

In the Swiss Army , Annasohn became an instruction officer in 1929 and commander of a fusilier battalion in 1940 . Four years later, in 1944, he was chief of staff of the 7th Division and in 1945 regimental commander . From 1945 to 1949 he was in charge of the operations section of the General Staff Department and in 1950 was appointed Colonel Division. He then worked as Deputy Chief of the Front and as Commander of the General Staff courses until he became Commander of the 7th Division in 1952. In 1958 he was promoted to chief of staff and was thus high corps commander .

During his time as chief officer of the General Staff Department, Annasohn tried to create a uniform concept for national defense . After his election as Chief of Staff, he created a defense policy geared towards attack. He wanted to advance this policy with the procurement of nuclear weapons . For financial reasons and due to strong political resistance, however, he had to postpone his project. In 1961 he reached a compromise with the order of the troops and thus created an army which provided a defense that was also fully operational for counter-attacks. The Mirage affair , which arose under his responsibility as head of the working group for military aircraft procurement, was decisive for his resignation, which he submitted in 1964.

After his time as chief of staff, Annasohn worked from 1965 to 1966 as the Federal Council's representative for special studies. The basis for the federal law on the management organization and the council for total defense was his report Effective support of the Federal Council in the management of total national defense , which he published in December 1966.

Annasohn was seen as a convincing leader who could get carried away and worked precisely.

literature

• Big caliber . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 1995 ( online - with picture by Jakob Annasohn).

Web links

• Hans Senn: Annasohn, Jakob. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Jakob Annasohn in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland