Société d'Étudiants de Belles-Lettres

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Postcard of the Swiss student union Belles-Lettres, Lausanne section, from 1906 on the occasion of the centenary
Lithograph by co-founder Charles Monnards (1790–1865)

The Société d'Étudiants suisse de Belles-Lettres is the oldest student association in Switzerland . The colored student union exists in several university cities in Switzerland and was founded in Lausanne in 1806. The members are known as "Bellettriens" . Unlike the German fraternities Belles-Lettres is not resident in one study, but rather represents a Swiss student fraternity that in "sections" is divided (sections) at several study sites in Switzerland. The sections in Geneva , Lausanne and Neuchâtel deserve special mention. The latter two still exist today.

The connection is part of the student traditions of both the Swiss and German student associations, but has a strong Romance character. Furthermore, unlike other compounds, there is no distinction between boys and foxes . Unlike the Neuchâtel section, the Lausanne section now also has female students among its members.

Another special feature of the association is the performance of theater plays, the "théâtrales" , which have a long tradition there and are very important to them. The members of the Belles-Lettres de Lausanne regularly perform their “théâtrales” in their own theater , the Théâtre de Belles-Lettres , also known as the Théâtre du Lapin-Vert , near the old Académie de Lausanne above the Palais de Rumine .

The Belles-Lettres de Neuchâtel restaurant is located at 3 rue St-Honoré near the city's port on the Lac de Neuchâtel .

The fraternity Belles-Lettres is also the French-speaking area for the publication of the literary journal "Revue de Belles-Lettres" known (RBL), which poetry from the French-speaking Switzerland , of France and of from other countries. The connection is French-speaking and values ​​the culture of French-speaking Switzerland. No beer is served at the events, only wine from the Lavaux region in the canton of Vaud and the Lac de Neuchâtel .

Coat of arms and colors

Belles-Lettres Circle

The colors of the Belles-Lettres are green, red, green. The hat color is green. The coat of arms shows the mentioned colors at an angle from left to right and shows in the middle the circle of the connection, which represents the letter "B". The colors probably go back to the colors of the first Helvetic Republic (1798–1803), but are also supposed to be based on the French academic colors and the colors of the poets. The motto is: “Union, Étude et Persévérance” (unity, study and perseverance).

history

Members of the Société d'Étudiants de Belles-Lettres, Lausanne Section, 1898

The first Société académique de Belles-Lettres was founded in 1806 by some high school students in Lausanne who were later students of humanities at the Université de Lausanne and continued the connection as a student association. This makes it the oldest student association in Switzerland. The then student and later writer Charles Monnard (1790–1865) was one of the founders . Initially, the Belles-Lettres Lausanne was purely a literary circle, but its members increasingly took part in political debates.

In 1824 the Société de littérature was established in Geneva , which was later renamed Société académique de Belles-Lettres . In Neuchâtel, the Société des étudiants neuchâtelois, founded in 1832, became the Société littéraire des étudiants neuchâtelois in 1839 and renamed the Société académique de Belles-Lettres on September 5, 1848 . These three literary societies had the same colors and circles and were in regular contact with one another, but retained their independence.

Another section of the Belles-Lettres was established in Friborg in 1899 , and in 1920 a section at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) was founded by French-Swiss students .

Membership in the Belles-Lettres is for life and beyond. By 1900 it had a total of 1528 members who had joined it since its inception. By 2010, 2,660 "Bellettriens" had registered in the "Livre d'Or" (golden book), the membership directory of the Belles-Lettres.

In 1933, the performance of a dramatized version of the play " Les Caves du Vatican " ( "The dungeons of the Vatican" ) by the Belles-Lettres in Lausanne, the writer and Nobel Prize winner for literature André Gide , a close friend of her , caused a sensation. The critics from French- speaking Switzerland at the time - Pierre Beausire, Alfred Wild, Daniel Simond - were deeply impressed by Gide's work, which they passionately advocated.

Known members

Sorted by year of birth

See also

literature

  • Historical Lexicon of Switzerland , Volume 2: Basel (Canton) - Bümpliz. Schwabe AG , Basel 2003, ISBN 978-3-7965-1902-4 .
  • Deux siècles en rouge et vert, Lausanne: Éditions du Revenandray, 2006
  • Olivier Meuwly: Histoire des sociétés d'etudiants à Lausanne (= Études et documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'Université de Lausanne. Vol. 18, ZDB -ID 915557-0 ). Université de Lausanne, Lausanne 1987.
  • Belles-Lettres (Genève), Livre d'or , 2 vol., 1939–1950 (list of biographical members)
  • Belles-Lettres (Neuchâtel), Livre d'or , 1832–1960, 2 vol., 1962–1984 (list of biographical members)
  • Belles-Lettres (Lausanne), Livre d'or du 175e anniversaire , 1806–1981, 1981 (list of biographical members)
  • Belles-Lettres (Lausanne), Livre d'or du 200e anniversaire , 1806–2006 (list of biographical members)
  • Wyssbrod Adrien, Belles-Lettres Neuchâtel, un acteur social en Suisse romande (1918–1957), Neuchâtel: Éditions Alphil-Presses universitaires suisses, 2013.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ EH Eberhard: Handbook of the student liaison system. Leipzig, 1924/25, p. 194.

Web links