Walter Günthart

Walter Günthart

Walter Günthart , also Walter Günthard , his own spelling always Walter Günthardt (born June 1, 1911 in Zurich ; † August 3, 1971 there ), was a Swiss trade unionist and politician .

Life

Günthart was born the son of a bricklayer in the city of Zurich. After the early death of his mother during the flu epidemic in 1918 ( Spanish flu ), he grew up in the Schillingsrain reformatory ( Liestal , Baselland) and from 1925, after the intervention of the Zurich official guardian Heinrich Meili, with a foster family in Winterthur . 1927-30 he made an apprenticeship as a carpenter in Pratteln (Baselland). Then he returned to Zurich and soon after graduated from the medical recruit school in Basel .

Back in Zurich, he got by with odd jobs. The attempt to establish a private security company in 1933/34 failed, as did the later plan to emigrate to Corsica .

In 1936 Günthardt granted the writer and later Spain fighter Ludwig Renn, who had fled Nazi Germany to Switzerland, shelter in his apartment for a few weeks. In mid-August 1936, the unemployed Günthardt tried to get to Paris with a group of other people from Zurich as volunteers in Spain to support the democratically elected republican government in its fight against the fascists, but was intercepted at the border in Basel. During the Second World War he served as a medical soldier and completed additional training as a parquet layer.

Günthart became involved in the anti-fascist labor movement early on . From 1936 he was a member of the Association of Trade, Transport and Food Workers ( VHTL ) before joining the Swiss Construction and Woodworkers Association SBHV (today Unia ), Zurich Woodworkers Section , in 1944 . In 1946 he became head of the section and two years later he became president of the section. He held this office from 1948 to 1953. Günthart was a member of the Communist Party of Zurich even before the Second World War . In 1944 he was one of the founding members of the Labor Party (PdA), as its representative from 1947 to 1954 as a councilor in Zurich. At the turn of the year 1950/51 he went on a trip to the Soviet Union with a delegation from the “ Society Switzerland-Soviet Union ” group . The trip, which was under the direction of Konrad Farner , sparked violent reactions in Switzerland. After the "Hungarian Uprising" and the invasion of the Soviet Army , he resigned from the party on November 4, 1956, but was still active in trade unions.

From 1956 to 1958 Günthart was again the section chairman of the SBHV, two years of which as vice-president, from 1956 to 1960 group director for the parquet layer professional group, including two years as its chairman and one year as vice chairman. From 1953 to 1959 its activities were observed and accounted for by the Swiss State Security.

From 1958 he was an active member of the Schwyzerhüsli yodelling club. One of the highlights of his eleven-year tenure as President was a three-week concert tour of California, USA in 1969.

Economic crises and political commitment meant that Günthart did not find a long-term secure job for his entire life. In addition, there were always health problems to which he finally succumbed at the age of 60.

Shaped by the experiences of his own childhood and youth, Walter Günthart's primary commitment was to promote young people. The main focus of his socio-political engagement was the struggle for social security, access to education for all and fair wages.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Social files of the Zurich City Archives, VKc30.
2. ↑ Günthart, Erich; Günthart, Romy: Spanish opening 1936. Red Zurich, German emigrants and the fight against Franco . Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-0340-1375-8 .
3. ↑ Swiss Federal Archives, State Security File C.8.4687.
4. ↑ Konrad Farner. Moscow in the middle of the century. Diary of a Swiss man, December 26, 1950 to January 16, 1951. Verlag der Gesellschaft Schweiz-Sovietunion, 1952.
5. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 16, 1951, evening edition No. 104.
6. ↑ Swiss Federal Archives, State Security File C.8.4687.