Julie Bikle

Julie Bikle with a German holiday child, ca.1920.

Julie Bikle (born January 8, 1871 in Lucerne ; † May 11, 1962 in Kleinandelfingen ) was a German-Swiss philanthropist . She headed a missing person tracing service during the First World War and between 1919 and 1924 organized recreational stays for thousands of malnourished German children in Switzerland .

Life

Julie Biking's parents immigrated to Switzerland from southern Germany at a young age and were granted Swiss citizenship with their five children in 1888 . They built up an international trade in veneers , in which Julie Bikle worked as a partner for her entire career. She remained single and almost always lived in her hometown of Winterthur .

Founding and management of a private missing person tracing service 1914–1919

Right at the beginning of the First World War, Julie Bikle set up her "Investigation Center for Missing Persons" in Winterthur on her own initiative. She succeeded in finding a quarter of 3406 missing military and civilians. H. 850 cases to be solved. In addition, as part of her war victims' welfare service , she supported prisoners with food, clothing and books. She took over the mediation of correspondence for entire prison camps and, if necessary, campaigned for better prison conditions. As early as November 1914 she encouraged the exchange of seriously wounded people and later accompanied transports of the wounded between France and Germany via neutral Switzerland. She always observed the principles of neutrality, helped the war victims on both sides and earned a great deal of trust. She also made contact with the censorship authorities without prejudice and successfully. With the exception of China, their activities extended to the entire country. For German and Austrian ship crews interned in Brazil , she even became the official mediator of correspondence with the home country from 1917.

Enlightenment about the poor food situation of the Central Powers in 1918/19

During the First World War she was very well informed about the poor food situation of the Central Powers through her correspondence between prisoners of war and their families . In addition to the war-related failures in agricultural production and the poor distribution of food, it was the Allied sea blockade that had led to hunger and desperation in the German and Austrian civilian population. Julie Bikle informed Switzerland and other countries about the extent of the famine through newspaper advertisements and leaflets and looked for help. Since the Swiss side immediately started helping Austria in the form of donations in kind and recreational stays for malnourished children, they concentrated on supporting Germany.

Initiation of a children's aid organization in collaboration with Emil Abderhalden 1919–1923

In March 1919, she made contact with the Swiss doctor and professor Emil Abderhalden, who lived in Halle , and together with him set up a children's aid organization, through which 47,000 undernourished and health-endangered German children could be accommodated free of charge in Swiss families by the end of 1924 - initially for six, then eight weeks.

The organization of the relief organization ran from bottom to top. It was based on private individual initiatives, so-called relief campaigns, which came together to form “Swiss welfare for German children” and unanimously elected Julie Bikle to head their central office on October 16, 1920. In addition to her work in her local Winterthur relief campaign, she was also active on a nationwide level until March 1923. As Emil Abderhalden's most important employee , who had headed the German childcare center since October 1919, she made sure that special trains with at least 400 to about 800 children could come to Switzerland once or twice a month. By March 1923 there were a total of 35,000 children.

It was not so much the wealthy families who reported to take in a German child, but mainly craftsmen, “smaller” civil servants, farmers and workers - despite often modest incomes and cramped living conditions. It was primarily the task of the women to look after children on vacation and to accompany them on entry and exit via Basel . The women's associations and women's centers were particularly active in collecting donations and making the often necessary children's clothes. The parish priests played a key role as contact persons. They provided information about the registered foster families and kept an eye on the holiday children. They were the first point of contact for the fundraising, although teachers often set up the collection points in the villages.

Success of recreational stays for German children

The malnourished, stunted children who were prone to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, which was rampant at the time, recovered in several ways in the mostly rural areas of Switzerland. According to the minutes of the meeting of the Swiss Children's Aid Committee, they gained an average of 2.5–3 kg in weight, 3 cm in length, improved their blood values, strengthened their immune system and regained their children's joie de vivre. Julie Bikle described the stay in Switzerland as “life-saving” for “a large part” of the children. They came from almost all German industrial areas and larger cities, settled in well and developed a strong relationship with their Swiss host parents, whom they often invited a second time.

Head of the Eastern Switzerland office of the Swiss Children's Aid Committee 1923/24

In view of the relative improvement in the situation in Germany on the one hand and the Swiss export crisis on the other hand, the relief organization seemed to have come to an end in 1922, but was increasingly resumed by the events of 1923, the occupation of the Ruhr area and hyperinflation . The will to help Germany in this new so-called “famine” was so general that the Swiss Children's Aid Committee (SKK), under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Council , was able to bring together almost all of the existing aid initiatives and thus coordinate them effectively. From March 23, 1923, Julie Bikle was employed by the SKK and, as the head of the “Eastern Switzerland Office”, was responsible for the placement of around 100 to 300 German children per month at the regional level. (The head office was transferred to Bern.) Between March 1923 and the end of 1924 around 12,000 children were admitted.

Fundraising for the German population 1922–1924

Julie Bike's work also extended to another area, that of collecting donations in kind and cash for Germany. In the winter of 1922/23 she carried out a very successful collection on her own initiative under the name "Abderhalden-Hilfswerk", which was sent to Emil Abderhalden in Halle for distribution, while in the winter of 1923/24 it was part of the SKK for 84 collection points in the canton Zurich was responsible. Its principles were efficiency, good public relations, transparency and, if possible, establishing a relationship between donors and recipients.

Political commitment

In addition to her organizational skills, Julie Bikle also stood out for her political vision. Regardless of prevailing opinion, for example, in 1921 in the occupied Rhineland , she informed herself about alleged atrocities by black occupation soldiers from a French commanding officer. In the heated mood after the murder of Walther Rathenau in 1922, she asked his mother to make a gesture to reconcile the opposing political camps in Germany. In April 1938 she clearly recognized the mortal danger that the German and Austrian Jews were facing and, albeit unsuccessfully, encouraged a sympathy rally in Winterthur. Their plan to temporarily house Jews in Swiss homes or in Swiss families to save them was also not met with any response. On July 13, 1944, she finally turned directly to Adolf Hitler , asking him to immediately stop all acts of violence “against Jews and other civilians” and called the German guilt “huge”.

Proposal for the Nobel Peace Prize

During the economic crisis of the 1930s, her family business was in dire financial straits and therefore asked the National Councilor Otto Pfister to propose her for the Nobel Prize. In 1935, 1936 and 1937 he nominated them, but unsuccessfully.

Honors

In 2008, a street in the Dättnau district of Winterthur was named after Julie Bikle.

motivation

Julie Biker's motivation to work for the victims of the war and the post-war period for ten years, from 1914 to 1924, sprang not only from her high sense of duty and responsibility as well as her democratic convictions, but also from her enjoyment of social work, her philanthropy and her vision of a just, fraternal society that reconciles opposites.

Works

• How do we look for the missing? Images from an investigation agency , The Samaritan Service of Switzerland; 2, Zurich 1916.
• Pictures from the activities of the investigation center for missing persons, Winterthur 1914-1919 (64th New Year's sheet of the Hülfsgesellschaft Winterthur), 2nd edition, Winterthur 1929.

literature

• Dorothea Steiner: "Set a little place for the strange little guest". Julie Bikle and the accommodation of German children in Switzerland, 1919–1924. With a foreword by Bernd Haunfelder . Chronos, Zurich 2016.
• Roberto Bernhard: Driven by conscience: Julie Bikle (1871-1962) and her “Investigation Center for Missing Persons, Winterthur” , which was active from 1914 to 1919 ; in: Zürcher Taschenbuch 2018, new series vol. 138; Cube media publishing house, Zurich 2017, ISSN  1661-8173 , pp. 159–194, ill.

Web links

• Bikle Julie, businesswoman and humanitarian worker, 1871–1962 in the Winterthur glossary.
• Euses Blättli, issue no. 87, December 2008, report on Julie Bikle pages 6–9 ( daettnau.ch PDF, 6.4 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to the family certificate of her father, Julius Otto Wilhelm Bikle, issued on November 18, 1905 in Winterthur.
2. ↑ Winterthurer Jahrbuch 1963, p. 190.
3. ↑ Renato Esseiva: A Winterthur philanthropist: Julie Bikle (1871–1962) and her investigation center for missing persons (1914–1919). In: Erika Hebeisen, Peter Niederhäuser, Regula Schmid (Ed.): War and crisis time. Zurich during the First World War (= communications from the Antiquarian Society in Zurich. Volume 81), Zurich 2014, pp. 99–108.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Julie Bikle: Overview of our ten years of social work due to the World War, compiled by the founder and head of the first three organizations plus secretary of the last two organizations in Winterthur (investigation center for missing persons, Winterthur / Swiss welfare for German children, Winterthur / Abderhalden Aid Organization, Winterthur / Swiss Aid Action for German Need, Zurich-Land Section, Winterthur / Swiss Children's Aid Committee, Eastern Switzerland Bureau, Winterthur). Winterthur, August 1924.
5. ↑ Dorothea Steiner: "Set a little place for the strange little guest". Julie Bikle and the accommodation of German children in Switzerland, 1919–1924. With a foreword by Bernd Haunfelder . Chronos, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-0340-1320-8 . (See also Bernd Haunfelder: "Swiss Aid for Germany. Appeals - Reports - Letters - Memories - Speeches: 1917 to 1933 and 1944 to 1957", Münster 2010.)
6. ^ Emil Abderhalden: Swiss welfare for German children. Your organization in Switzerland and Germany. Halle, undated [early December 1920].
7. ^ Julie Bikles' estate, Winterthur libraries, study library.
8. ^ Presentation by Emil Abderhalden, printed in the minutes of the meeting of the Swiss Children's Aid Committee on March 23, 1923 in Bern.
9. ^ Swiss Children's Aid Committee Bern (ed.): The Swiss Aid Action for Germany 1923–1925. Bern 1928.
10. ↑ Dorothea Steiner: "Set a little place for the strange little guest". Julie Bikle and the accommodation of German children in Switzerland, 1919–1924. With a foreword by Bernd Haunfelder. Chronos, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-0340-1320-8 .
11. ↑ Julie Bikle's letter to Adolf Hitler of July 13, 1944 is reprinted by Renato Esseiva: Julie Bikle - a Winterthur philanthropist. In: Winterthurer yearbook. 2005, pp. 150-155, p. 151.
12. ↑ Julie Bikle to Norway. Nobel Institute, Oslo, May 20, 1934: « I am at the end of my strength. My question to you today is to be understood as an expression of despair. »
13. ↑ nobelprize.org : Cf. also: Julie Bikle to Government Councilor Otto Pfister, January 28, 1936: “ The reason why I would be very happy if this year's entry were given even a partial amount is not primarily my own future, […], but the desire to be able to compensate at least partially retrospectively the private creditors who have lost the estate of my unhappy brother as a result of the catastrophic property devaluation in the bankruptcy of my unfortunate brother. »
14. ↑ Julie-Bikle-Strasse
15. ^ Julie Bikles' estate, Winterthur libraries, study library.