Swiss Eastern Institute

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The Swiss Eastern Institute (SOI) was a documentation and specialist information center in Switzerland about the communist countries, especially the Eastern Bloc countries, which existed from 1959 to 1994 .

prehistory

According to Peter Sager , he was politically mobilized by two events: on the one hand by the communist seizure of power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, on the other hand by the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 . As a reaction to the events in Czechoslovakia, he organized a protest as a student, began to build up a literature documentation on communism and published, among other things, the "Free Correspondence Service" to provide information about the events in the communist-ruled part of Europe. The suppression of the Hungarian uprising and the so-called Sputnik shock in 1957 gave Sager a tailwind for the establishment of the Swiss East Institute (SOI), which was legally separate from the Swiss Eastern European Library institutionalized in the same year in early August 1959 . The institute and library had their domicile at Jubiläumsstrasse 43 in Bern's embassy district Kirchenfeld .

Goals and activity

The SOI set itself the goal “as a private organization to observe the economic and political development in the Eastern Bloc and to make the results of the research accessible to a group of interested parties. This has to be done in a scientific manner. But any factual work in connection with communism is necessarily an explanation of the nature of this movement and therefore has a political character. "

The main focus of the SOI's activities was on the processing, evaluation and compilation of information about what was going on in the communist-ruled part of the world. Sager himself described the SOI as a "middle thing" between popularizing and scientific education.

In order to make the "educational work" accessible to a wide audience, the SOI was active as a journalist and, in addition to a series of publications, published various magazines, the most successful and most important publication for the SOI being the magazine Der Klare Blick: Kampfblatt für Freiheit, Gerechtigkeit und ein strong Europe was. The clear gaze was renamed Zeitbild in 1969 . The purpose of the weekly newspaper was the “specialized education of public opinion in Switzerland”. Thanks to the income from Klaren Blick , which had over 10,000 subscribers in its most successful times, through private donations and financial contributions from the public sector, the SOI was able to survive the initial financial difficulties. The supporters and sponsors of the SOI included parliamentarians, leading representatives from business, science and culture, as well as a total of seven temporary members of the Federal Council .

In addition to the journalistic activities, the up to 30 employees of the SOI, including Peter Dolder and László Révész, had numerous other tasks. This included, for example, giving presentations and the like. a. before representatives of the intelligence service of the Federal Military Department in Bern.

criticism

Initially, the SOI enjoyed broad social support - representatives of all important political parties were initially represented in the advisory committee - the institute came under increasing criticism. In particular, the rebellion of the post-war generation and the identity crisis in Swiss society in 1968 as well as the relaxation of global politics in the 1970s were turning points. In the public perception, the threat posed by the Soviet Union decreased, and the SOI, too, increasingly aimed at the threat from the 'inside'. The SOI saw groups of the New Left controlled by Moscow and Beijing as a threat to the open society. According to the SOI, danger threatened in particular from the peace movement, the anti-nuclear movement and the allegedly Soviet-communist infiltrated media, which were among the “new Soviet lines of attack”. Sager himself was a strong advocate of nuclear power plants, which exposed him to further criticism in the 1980s. The SOI became an increasingly controversial institution and increasingly lost social support. In 1975 the last Social Democratic member resigned from the advisory committee of the SOI. Critics repeatedly portrayed Sager as a puppet of Washington. In fact, according to plans by the director of the Dutch secret service Louis Einthoven, the SOI was supposed to become a central component of the anti-communist interdoc network and to receive money from the CIA , which Sager refused because he did I didn't want to lose control of the institute.

In the 1980s, the SOI was particularly noticeable when Peter Sager and his colleagues tried to use 'media analyzes' to prove the alleged communist infiltration of the Swiss media system. In particular, the Swiss Radio and Television Company (SRG) came into the SOI's line of fire.

Dissolution and successor organizations

In the wake of Mikhail Gorbachev's reform movements and the collapse of the Soviet state system, the number of Zeitbild subscribers fell and the number of members in the friends' association also dwindled. According to his own statements, Peter Sager already considered closing the SOI in 1989. Together with the board of directors, however, he first decided to turn to the new tasks that arose as a result of the changed situation in East and West. In 1991 the share capital of the SOI was transferred to the newly established Foundation for Democracy (SFD). The East-West Forum (FOW), which still exists today, developed from the foundation's activities in the area of ​​organizing a West-East exchange of knowledge. The Swiss East European Library, founded by Sager at the same time as the SOI , was connected as a branch of the City and University Library of Bern in 1997 and is now part of the University Library of Bern .

Publications (selection) of the SOI

  • "Free Correspondence Service", published from 1948 to 1950 and from 1958 to 1978.
  • “Wirtschaftsdienst”, published 1959–1976.
  • "Information Service" appeared for various countries between 1958 and 1983.
  • "Swiss Press Review and News Report": appeared from 1959 to 1994, the French edition "Revue de la presse suisse" from 1962 to 1991 and the Spanish "Revista de la prensa suiza" with interruptions from 1962 to 1991.

literature

  • Peter Haber: The paper appeal . In: Basler Magazin . No. 42 , October 18, 2003, p. 3 .
  • Memorandum on the Swiss East Institute . In: Heiner Hasler and Carl Holenstein (eds.): Swiss East Institute AG: a documentation, Part B: The Swiss East Institute . Rorschach 1963.
  • Peter Sager: Life in the Twentieth Century. Facts and opinions . Haupt, Bern 1994, ISBN 3-258-05021-X .
  • Peter Sager: Life in the Twentieth Century 2. Facts and Opinions . Haupt, Bern 1996, ISBN 3-258-05317-0 .
  • Christoph Von Werdt: "Anti-communism as anti-totalitarianism" - the Swiss East Institute . In: Peter Martig (ed.): Berns modern times. The 19th and 20th centuries rediscovered (= Bernese times) . Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7272-1199-7 , pp. 41-45 .
  • Christophe Von Werdt: Peter Sager and East Research in Switzerland . In: Religion and Society in East and West . tape 42 , no. 3 , 2014, p. 22-23 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Von Werdt: Peter Sager and East Research in Switzerland. In: Religion and Society in East and West. No. 3, 2014, p. 23.
  2. ↑ Quoted from: Documentation Swiss East Institute AG, Part B1, No. 3, "Memorandum on the Swiss East Institute", p. 3.
  3. ↑ Christoph von Werdt: The Swiss East European Library and East European Research in Switzerland
  4. ^ Documentation Swiss East Institute AG, Part B1, No. 3, "Memorandum on the Swiss East Institute", p. 3.
  5. ↑ Peter Sager: Life in the Twentieth Century. Facts and opinions. Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern, 1994, p. 193
  6. ↑ Christophe von Werdt: "Anti-communism as anti-totalitarianism" - the Swiss East Institute. In: Peter Martig (ed.): Berns modern times. The 19th and 20th centuries rediscovered (= Bernese times). Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern, 2011, p. 44.
  7. ↑ Christophe von Werdt: "Anti-communism as anti-totalitarianism" - the Swiss East Institute. In: Peter Martig (ed.): Berns modern times. The 19th and 20th centuries rediscovered (= Bernese times). Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern, 2011, p. 44.
  8. ↑ Peter Sager: Life in the Twentieth Century 2. Facts and opinions. Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern, 1996, p. 13
  9. ↑ Peter Sager: Life in the Twentieth Century 2. Facts and opinions. Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern, 1996, p. 142
  10. ↑ Quoted from: Christophe von Werdt: "Anti-communism as anti-totalitarianism" - the Swiss East Institute. In: Peter Martig (ed.): Berns modern times. The 19th and 20th centuries rediscovered (= Bernese times). Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern, 2011, p. 44.
  11. ↑ Christophe von Werdt: "Anti-communism as anti-totalitarianism" - the Swiss East Institute. In: Peter Martig (ed.): Berns modern times. The 19th and 20th centuries rediscovered (= Bernese times). Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern, 2011, pp. 44–45
  12. ↑ Christoph Von Werdt: Peter Sager and East Research in Switzerland. In: Religion and Society in East and West. No. 3, 2014, p. 23.
  13. ↑ Christoph Von Werdt: Peter Sager and East Research in Switzerland. In: Religion and Society in East and West. No. 3, 2014, p. 23.
  14. ↑ Peter Haber: The paper stimulus , in: Basler Magazin , No. 42, October 18, 2003, p. 3.
  15. ↑ Peter Sager: Life in the Twentieth Century 2. Facts and opinions. Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern, 1996, pp. 230-233.
  16. ↑ Christoph von Werdt:: "Anti-communism as anti-totalitarianism" - the Swiss East Institute. In: Peter Martig (ed.): Berns modern times. The 19th and 20th centuries rediscovered (= Bernese times). Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern, 2011, p. 45.
  17. ↑ Peter Sager: Life in the Twentieth Century 2. Facts and opinions. Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern, 1996, p. 338.
  18. ↑ Christoph Von Werdt: Peter Sager and East Research in Switzerland. In: Religion and Society in East and West. No. 3, 2014, p. 23.
  19. ↑ Bern University Library: History of the Swiss East European Library SOB