Théophile de Rutté

Théophile de Rutté 1881

De Rutté was a good draftsman: People in San Francisco, around 1850

Drawing of women in their traditional robes, around 1850

Théophile de Rutté (* 27. October 1826 in Sutz , Canton of Bern , † 8. November 1885 in Chardonne ), actually Gottlieb Rudolf von Rütte was a merchant and 1850-1854 the first Honorary Consul of Switzerland in California . He recorded his time in America in an extensive manuscript written in French.

Life

Trip to San Francisco

De Rutté was born Gottlieb Rudolf von Rütte in Sutz in 1826, the son of a pastor. In 1846 he emigrated to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as a clerk at the Swiss trading company Andrié, Kuenzi & Cie , where he arrived on his twentieth birthday. Three years later, when American merchant ships carried the news of fabulous gold discoveries in California to South America, he too followed this call and embarked for California with a cargo financed by his patron. The dangerous journey around Cape Horn to San Francisco lasted six months, the Panama Canal did not exist at that time.

On his 23rd birthday, the ship docked in San Francisco, where he quickly managed to open a trading branch, because the demand for colonial goods of all kinds also rose sharply with the rapid population increase due to the gold rush . The prices achieved were very high due to the high demand, which resulted in a high profit.

Soon after his arrival, de Rutté met his wealthy compatriot Johann August Sutter , who was campaigning for the post of first governor of California. It was not yet foreseeable that the gold rush that had started on the site of the Sutter's Mill near Sacramento would drive Sutter into ruin, because this is extremely popular when de Rutté arrived and threw his fortune around. The alcohol flowed freely.

Appointment as consul

In May 1849 a George H. Goundie, American consul in Basel, wrote a letter to Johann Jakob Stehlin , after which he considered it necessary to set up a Swiss consulate in the blossoming California in order to improve the situation of the immigrants there. Now it is astonishing that the newly founded Federal Council , which only took office in November 1848, immediately followed up on this demand and only a few days after the petition had arrived in Bern, drew up a corresponding letter. Since the importance of Johann August Sutter for California in Bern is known, the letter is addressed to him directly with the request to propose a suitable candidate or even to take over this office himself. There is not a single word to read about the dissatisfaction that existed between Bern and Sutter. The latter did not repay debts to the state, which ultimately led to its emigration. The letter arrived in California in November 1849, at a time when de Rutté was in Sacramento himself for a year to open a new branch.

Together with twenty Swiss also who happened to be in Sacramento, Sutter decided to recommend the young de Rutté to the Federal Council as honorary consul . In his letter of November 24, 1849, he emphasized that a Swiss consulate in California was urgently needed, as several compatriots had already found themselves in dire straits due to a lack of support. In February of the following year, the Federal Council confirmed the appointment of de Rutté, based in San Francisco, then the largest city in the West. On December 31, 1850, de Rutté founded the Swiss Charity Society, as he had no funds available as honorary consul. This organization, which still exists today, supports compatriots in need. From his later reports to the Federal Council it emerges that he mainly had to deal with inheritance matters, the payment of hospital bills and trade relations with Switzerland.

Other events

In the further course of his stay in California, de Rutté reports of several city fires that raged in San Francisco in the middle of the 19th century, each of which razed large parts of the city to the ground. De Rutté was then also a founding member of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance , which in 1851 and 1856 took jurisdiction in the city into their own hands for about three months each, because the corrupt politicians did not take adequate measures against the rampant crime and many arsonists and other rabble treated too accommodatingly. In the summer of 1851 the committee hanged several criminals after a brief and very one-sided trial. In the autumn, the committee dissolved again because it had largely achieved its goals: in the new elections, most of the politicians who were criticized by the committee had been replaced.

Return and further life

In the following years, de Rutté traveled at least twice to Europe, presumably to intensify his trade relations. In July 1854, for reasons not known in detail, he asked the Federal Council to dismiss him from his office and instead appoint his previous deputy, Rudolf Kellersberger, as consul. The request was granted. In 1856 he finally returned to Europe, married Sabine Marie Adelaïde Haller and moved with her to Bordeaux . He had a daughter with her. Sabine Marie dies in 1879. Théophile de Rutte moved in with Susanna Elisabeth Bischof. This relationship was initially under a bad star, because his new girlfriend was not accepted in the family of his daughter's husband. He kept the birth of his second daughter a secret for a long time. He did not marry Susanna until 1885.

De Rutté toured Europe several times and was believed to have become a very wealthy man. That can be deduced from the legacy. He died on November 8, 1885 in Chardonne.

Web links

• Swiss Benevolent Society of San Francisco (Swiss Charity Society)
• Consulate General in San Francisco
• History of San Francisco

literature

• Bernard R. Bachmann: Adventure gold rush - memories of Théophile de Rutté (1826–1885) merchant and first Swiss consul in California . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-03823-457-9 .