Jakob Labhardt

Jakob Labhardt (born January 28, 1881 in Steckborn , † August 6, 1949 in Sigriswil ) was a Swiss officer. From 1936 to 1940 he was Chief of Staff of the Swiss Army .

Labhardt was trained at the technical universities in Charlottenburg and Munich.

Labhardt was an artillery instruction officer from 1905 to 1916, during which time he completed training in the Prussian land artillery regiment in Altona in 1907 and 1908. In 1916 he became a general staff officer. Labhardt was from 1916 to 1921 head of the payroll office at Bally and from 1921 to 1924 vice director of the Federal Employment Office.

From a military point of view, he appeared as the commander of an artillery regiment from 1923 to 1924. He became a colonel in 1930 and from 1930 to 1931 commander of Artillery Brigade 4. In 1932 he became Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Corps and was in command of Infantry Brigade 13 from 1932 to 1934.

As head of the Transport Section in the General Staff between 1925 and 1934, he headed the rail, stage and motor vehicle service and achieved motorization as part of the troop organization in 1924. Labhardt played a key role in preparing the merger of the mobile troops into the light troops .

In May 1936 Labhardt was deputy chief of staff. Only three months later he took over the post of chief of staff with the rank of corps commander. Three years later he was appointed Chief of the Army Staff (the general staff in active service).

Not least because of his admiration for the methods of the German Wehrmacht, tensions arose with Henri Guisan , who finally appointed him in early 1940 as commander of the new 4th Army Corps and replaced Labhardt on the army staff. Labhardt held this position until 1947.

Labhardt was married to Anna Maria Wecker.

Web links

• Hervé de Weck / GL: Jakob Labhardt. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Jakob Labhardt in the archive database of the Swiss Federal Archives