Max Daetwyler

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Max Daetwyler at his wedding to Klara Brechbühl, 1918
Max Daetwyler as “Apostle of Peace” in Lausanne, 1969
Portrait of Daetwyler by Theo Dannecker, exhibition Peace Creating , Zurich 2008

Max Daetwyler (born September 7, 1886 in Arbon TG ; † January 26, 1976 in Zumikon ) was a Swiss conscientious objector and pacifist . It is considered to be one of the great Swiss originals of the 20th century.

Life

Max Daetwyler grew up in Arbon on Lake Constance as the youngest of twelve children of a hotelier. After school in Arbon and a commercial apprenticeship in Wattwil , he worked as a waiter in Rome , Paris and London before becoming a gerant in Bern . During the Swiss mobilization in 1914, he refused to obey the flag on the barracks square in Frauenfeld in protest against the war . He was therefore admitted to a psychiatric ward and expelled from the army . The authorities tried to incapacitate him several times based on the psychiatric report . Thanks to the refusal of his home parish Zumikon, however, it never came to that. After his release, he founded the Peace Army Association in Bern in 1915 .

On November 15, 1917, he and Max Rotter organized a rally to end the war. The workers at two munitions factories were persuaded to stop working. Daetwyler was arrested and re-admitted to a mental hospital. After his release, he married and moved to Zumikon. There he made a living for his family with a chicken farm, knitwear, growing vegetables and flowers and keeping bees.

In 1932, after meeting Mahatma Gandhi in Romain Rolland's house on Lake Geneva, he began global pacifist campaigns and peace marches. From the Second World War, the white flag was his constant companion. He traveled to the centers of power and trouble spots in the world and stood up for world peace and disarmament. Although he was rarely received by government representatives, he became a world-famous symbol of pacifism as the "peace apostle with the white flag".

plant

Daetwyler's pacifism was based on the Christian message of charity and the reconciliation of peoples after a war. He fought for the resolution of contradictions and the double standards of the state, which could only exist if it were allowed to use violence , while Christianity forbids all violence. This double standard was the trigger for the First World War. He was an advocate of consistent nonviolence along the lines of Gandhi. In this spirit, he called for a non-violent way of life in Europe, to which each individual could contribute through passive resistance, for the establishment of the "fatherland of all people", a unity in political, economic, religious relationships through a life in spiritual harmony.

Quote

“Like everything else, war does not begin when it appears externally, through the manufacture of weapons, through the militarization of the people, but it has its origins in people's attitudes , which must be corrupted before war can be prepared . "

- Max Daetwyler : 1916

Honors

  • Exhibition in the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern from October 16–22. December 1996. Subsequently taken over by the Museumgesellschaft Arbon in 1997 and the City of Zurich with the municipality of Zumikon in 1999.
  • In 2004, his community, Zumikon, erected a memorial to commemorate the hero of peace .
  • For EURO 2008 was Max Daetwyler-Platz at the train station of Stade de Suisse completed in Bern.

factories

  • How can the peace treaty be promoted? Lecture, Association of Peace Army, Arbeitsstelle (Bern), H. Jent, Bern 1915, OCLC 81594236 .
  • The Army of Peace, a program to eradicate war. 1916
  • Schweizerische Friedens-Zeitung: Organ of the Swiss Peace Army. Journal, Daetwyler, Zurich January 1915 - April 1917, DNB 587184256 .
  • The Christian principle as the basis for ending the war and for reconciling the peoples after the war. Peace sermon. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Zurich 1916 OCLC 699528628
  • Daetwyler as a conscientious objector. Trösch, Olten 1919, DNB 572659458
  • Experiences in the insane asylum. International Peace Army, Zumikon 1919, OCLC 79815561 .
  • So Daetwyler speaks. International Peace Army, Zumikon 1930, OCLC 77981289

literature

Woodcuts by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner from the book Beside the Heerstrasse , story The Apostle of Peace by Jakob Bosshart

Various Swiss writers erected a monument to Daetwyler: Jakob Bosshart drew him in 1918 as "Werner Gütikofer" in the novella The Apostle of Peace , Meinrad Inglin in the novel Schweizerspiegel and Kurt Guggenheim in his novel All in all .

Web links

Commons : Max Daetwyler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Markus Bürgi: Max Daetwyler. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 16, 2011 , accessed January 17, 2018 .
  2. ^ Ruedi Brassel-Moser : Max Daetwyler. ETH Zurich, E-Periodica , accessed on September 2, 2019 .
  3. ^ At the Hotel Baer au lac; The Hotel Metropol has been located there since 1965. See Hans Geisser: Stories tell stories. A journey through Arbon's past. Museumsgesellschaft Arbon, Arbon 2005, ISBN 978-3-033-00580-8 , p. 181
  4. ↑ Four people died in the Zurich “youth riots” a hundred years ago. Neue Zürcher Zeitung . September 30, 2017
  5. ^ Monument on the village square in Zumikon for Max Daetwiler
  6. ↑ Quoted from: Wilhelm Kosch (Ed.): German Literature Lexicon of the 20th Century , Volume 5, Butenschön - Deko. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston MA 2003, ISBN 3-908255-05-8 , p. 495.
  7. ^ Gustav Huonker: Literaturszene Zürich. Unionsverlag, Zurich 1985.
personal data
SURNAME Daetwyler, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first Swiss conscientious objector in 1914
BIRTH DATE September 7, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Arbon
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1976
PLACE OF DEATH Zumikon