New Helvetic Society

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The New Helvetian Society (NHG) is a non-partisan Swiss association founded in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, which was founded with the aim of overcoming the inner-Helvetic differences between German and French-speaking Switzerland, promoting national independence and internal peace and to fight against materialism in general. In the 1930s, she campaigned for national renewal. Since the local chapter of Grisons after the year 2011 was inactive, are within the NHG eight regional groups in the German- and French-speaking Switzerland actively which the Coscienza Svizzera in Italian-speaking Switzerland are associated.

history

In 1912 Robert de Traz , Alexis François and Gonzague de Reynold called for the formation of the society, which was founded in Bern in 1914, with the Manifest Pro helvetica dignitate ac securitate . As a result, numerous groups emerged in Lausanne, Neuchâtel, Zurich and in many other places in Switzerland and abroad, such as Berlin, Paris and London.

The name of the company was deliberately linked to the Helvetic Society , which it saw itself as its successor. The Helvetic Society contributed to the strengthening of the Confederation from 1761 to 1858 and to the formation of the federal state from 1848.

The society had set itself several goals since its inception, such as promoting multilingualism, preserving the national heritage and the uniqueness of the parts of the country. It was supported above all by writers, journalists and academics, mainly from French-speaking Switzerland, as well as by German-speaking Swiss entrepreneurs and politicians, and became known nationwide through a speech by the poet Carl Spitteler in 1914 entitled Our Swiss Viewpoint . From 1918 women could also become members of society.

In 1920 the society launched a campaign for Switzerland to join the League of Nations . She had a positive attitude towards the New Front at the beginning of the 1930s. In 1952 she supported a popular initiative of the Swiss Confederation for nature conservation under the name Protection of the river landscape and awarding Rheinau for the preservation of the Rhine Falls (and prevention of the Rheinau power plant) under the leadership of Emil Egli , the 49 respected Swiss citizens, including Hermann Hesse and Carl Jacob Burckhardt , signed, but was rejected by the electorate with 68.8% no votes.

The New Helvetian Society merged with Rencontres Suisses-Treffpunkt Schweiz (RS-TS) in 2007 and has been called the Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft-Treffpunkt Schweiz (NHG-TS) ever since . Rencontres Suisses (RS) was founded in 1945 after the Second World War with the aim of strengthening the cohesion of the country in a troubled time for Europe. In 1999 RS merged with the younger organization “Agir pour demain” to form Rencontres Suisses - Meeting Point Switzerland (RS-TS) .

The NHG-TS has awarded the Democracy Prize since the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Helvetic Society . In doing so, "at least every two years [...] special merits, innovative contributions to the functioning of the rule of law democracy" should be recognized.

Spin-offs

Project ideas emerged from the New Helvetic Society and led, among other things, to the establishment of the Campus for Democracy or, just two years after the establishment of the NHG, in 1916 to the establishment of the Organization for the Swiss Abroad .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NHG Graubünden wants to rejuvenate , Southeastern Switzerland, September 22, 2011
  2. ^ Beat Glaus: The national front: Benziger Verlag, Zurich, p. 67 ff.
  3. ↑ Moritz Leuenberger sees the values ​​of the Enlightenment in question. Aargauer Zeitung , February 18, 2012, accessed on February 18, 2012.
  4. ^ Campus Democracy - History , accessed on October 1, 2019
  5. ↑ ASO story on the OSA homepage, accessed on October 1, 2019