Louis-Emil Eyer

Louis-Emil Eyer (born November 17, 1865 in Bex (citizen of Homberg BE ), Switzerland ; † September 2, 1916 near Dojran , then Bulgaria , now North Macedonia ) was a Swiss sports teacher who worked in Bulgaria. He is considered one of the founders of the Bulgarian sports movement.

Life

Louis-Emil Eyer was born in the canton of Vaud in 1865 . He studied in Lausanne , Geneva and Neuchâtel and then taught sports in Vevey . In 1893 the then Bulgarian Minister of Culture Georgi Schiwkow invited Eyer and ten other Swiss people to Bulgaria to teach physical culture and to develop sport in the country. On May 13, 1894, the ten Swiss reached Sofia and were distributed across the Bulgarian country. Eyer taught physical culture at the schools in Lom (from 1894), Silistra (from 1903) and Russe (from 1909). In addition, he was the head coach of the sports clubs Junak (bulg. Юнак), which were scattered across the country. He introduced athletics , weightlifting , boxing , wrestling and other sports into Bulgarian teaching classes.

With the outbreak of the First Balkan War , Eyer wanted to enroll in the Bulgarian army as a volunteer . However, since he was a foreigner, he could not fight in the regular troops. On the day of the mobilization he formed the Junak Legion in Russe with which he joined the Macedonia-Adrianople Volunteer Corps . In the Second Balkan War he led the 1st Company of the Twelfth Losengrad Battalion of the Corps, which had previously been formed in Burgas from refugees from Eastern Thrace . He fought in Macedonia in the major battles at Sultan tepe and Dram teke .

For the bravery he showed in front of the enemy, Eyer was appointed lieutenant in the Bulgarian army and was awarded the medal of bravery twice.

The book Pro Bulgaria, published in Vevey in 1913

After the defeat of Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War in 1913, he published the book Pro Bulgaria in French in his Swiss homeland . He donated the proceeds from the book to the Bulgarian veterans.

With the outbreak of World War I , Eyer enrolled again as a volunteer in the Bulgarian army. The army command wanted to order him in the supply , which he refused. He was then entrusted with the 33rd Schwishtow Regiment . On September 2, 1916, he was killed in the Battle of Dojran . He was buried in Čaušli (now North Macedonia ).

Honor

In 1991 the Bulgarian-Swiss association Louis Eyer was founded in the Danube city of Russe . The Louis Eyer football stadium in Silistra, a street in Sofia and the 3,358 m high Eyer Peak in the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica are named after him.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Encyclopedia Bulgaria (Bulgarian Енциклопедия България), Volume 1, Sofia, 1978, p. 43
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Karajotow / Rajtschewski / Iwanow
3. ↑ The Macedonia-Adrianople Volunteer Corps (from the Bulgarian: Македоно-одринското опълчение 1912–1913 г. Личен състав , Bulgarian State Archives, 2006, p. 15).

literature

• Marc Lettau: Louis Eyer, national ideal hero. In: Der kleine Bund of November 26, 2005, pp. 2–3 full text (PDF; 396 kB)
• Louis-Emil Eyer. in Iwan Karajotow , Stojan Rajtschewski, Mitko Iwanow: История на Бургас. От древността до средата на ХХ век. (on German, for example, history of the city of Burgas. From antiquity to the middle of the 20th century. ) Verlag Tafprint OOD, Plovdiv, 2011, ISBN 978-954-92689-1-1 , p. 256