Walter Schaufelberger

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Walter Schaufelberger (2008)

Walter Schaufelberger (born January 5, 1926 in Schlieren , Canton of Zurich , † September 30, 2014 in Neerach ) was a Swiss military historian . Until 1991 he held the first Swiss double professorship for general and Swiss military history at the ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich . He was also editor-in-chief of the General Swiss Military Magazine (ASMZ) from 1968 to 1975 . In the militia army of the Swiss army , he held the rank of colonel in the general staff .

Life

Origin and family

Walter Schaufelberger was born in 1926 as the son of Paul Schaufelberger (Colonel of the Military Justice and Personnel Director of the Swiss Wagons and Elevator Factory AG in Schlieren) and his wife Helen, née. Koch, born. Walter Schaufelberger had four children with his wife Jeannine. He lived in Neerach from 1962 until his death in September 2014.

education

Schaufelberger attended the cantonal literary high school from 1938 to 1944 and, after graduating from type A in 1944, studied history and German (1946–1953) at the University of Zurich , where he spent a year at the Sorbonne in Paris and obtained the Diplôme de la Civilization française with the très bien award . In 1952 he completed his studies in Zurich with a doctorate (with Marcel Beck ) at the Philosophical Faculty I of the University of Zurich in the subjects of general history, Swiss history, palaeography and diplomatics with magna cum laude and the dissertation The Old Swiss and His War. Studies on warfare mainly in the 15th century with the assessment of servatis simul veritatis necessitate et patriae amore diligentissime et sagacissime conscripta . This was followed in 1953 by the state examination at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Zurich for the higher teaching post in the subjects of history, German, didactics, Latin and French, followed by an assistantship at the history department of this university.

Teaching and research

Schaufelberger initially worked as a high school teacher at the Rychenberg Cantonal School in Winterthur from 1955 to 1960, then as a main teacher of history at the cantonal literary high school in Zurich.

From 1963 he was appointed lecturer for general and Swiss war history at Departments XI (military science) and XII (humanities and social sciences) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich . During this time, Schaufelberger began working on his habilitation thesis on The Competition in the Old Confederation. On the cultural history of sport from the 13th to the 18th century , which led to the habilitation in 1969 at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Zurich (2 volumes, Bern 1972).

In 1974 Walter Schaufelberger was offered the position of a part-time associate professor for general and Swiss military history - it was the first such professorship in Switzerland. In connection with the 68 movement , a strong aversion of some of the students and professors to the new professorship became apparent. In 1978 Schaufelberger became a full-time lecturer, and in 1988 he received an additional appointment at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, so that he held a double professorship in military history at both Zurich universities.

In the course of his active activity, Schaufelberger traveled almost all over the world for research purposes in the field of causes of war, war avoidance and warfare. To do this he spent u. a. half a year in the ranks of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican to study and describe its history. There was a particularly close research connection with Walter Hubatsch at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn . However, for patriotic reasons , Schaufelberger refused an offer to a German university, in particular an invitation to take over the military history chair at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster .

In 1991 he retired and was appointed honorary professor at the University of Zurich. Since then he has worked on various projects. So he succeeded u. a. to deal with the history of a so-called "Hitler-Platz" - a place of execution for Swiss traitors - along with a localization of the square. His academic students include: a. Roland Beck , Hans Rudolf Fuhrer , Jürg Stüssi-Lauterburg , Bruno Lezzi , Rudolf Steiger and René Zeller . From 1990 to 1994 Schaufelberger was a consultant for military history at the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

As early as 1945, shortly after the end of the Second World War , Walter Schaufelberger was the first foreign historian to establish contact with the Military History Research Office (MGFA) in Germany. Later he was accepted as the first foreigner in the Clausewitz Society in Hamburg-Blankenese, of whose Switzerland section he was made an honorary member.

Military career

Walter Schaufelberger attended the infantry recruit school in 1944, then the non-commissioned officers and officers school, where he became the youngest lieutenant in the Swiss Army in 1945 . Continuous further training led to promotion to captain and commander of the Fusilier Company I / 65 in 1954 and from 1958 to preparation for the general staff . Until 1972, Schaufelberger continued - in addition to his professional obligations - in the General Staff and most recently as a Colonel in the General Staff in the position of Chief of Staff of the 7th Border Brigade . From 1968 to 1975 he also held the post of editor-in-chief of the General Swiss Military Magazine , the body of the Swiss Officers' Society.

Publications

Schaufelberger, who was co-editor (with Werner Hahlweg , Charles B. Burdick , Hans Bleckwenn , Dermot Bradley , Othmar Hackl and Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck ) of the studies on military history, military science and conflict research at Biblio Verlag , founded in 1973 , has a large number of books, Contributed to book chapters and other scientific publications in the course of his long research activity. In particular, the following monographs and editorships should be mentioned:

  • The competition in the Old Confederation. On the cultural history of sport from the 13th to the 18th century . Haupt, Bern 1972, ISBN 3-258-02063-9 .
  • Meeting with the Papal Swiss Guard in the Vatican . Huber, Frauenfeld 1984; 2nd edition: Information and Recruiting Office Switzerland, Neuhausen am Rhein 2000.
  • The old Swiss and his war. Studies of warfare mainly in the 15th century . 3rd edition, Huber, Frauenfeld 1987, ISBN 3-7193-0980-0 .
  • As editor: Shall we abolish the army? View of a threatening time (= publication series of the Swiss Society for Military History Study Trips (GMS). Issue 8). Huber, Frauenfeld 1988, ISBN 3-7193-1001-9 .
  • Marignano. Structural limits of federal military power between the Middle Ages and the modern age (= series of publications by the Swiss Society for Military History Study Tours (GMS). Issue 11). Edition ASMZ by Huber-Verlag, Frauenfeld 1993, ISBN 3-7193-1038-8 .
  • Sheets from Swiss military history (= publication series of the Swiss Society for Military History Study Tours (GMS). Issue 15). Huber, Frauenfeld 1995, ISBN 3-7193-1111-2 .

Many of Schaufelberger's contributions are summarized in an anthology that was published in 2006 in honor of his 80th birthday:

  • Walter Schaufelberger: Searching for clues. Seventeen essays on the military history of Switzerland. Edited by Claudia Miller. Merker im Effingerhof, Lenzburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-85648-082-0 .

Honors

Walter Schaufelberger has received a large number of honors and awards, such as honorary membership in the Swiss section of the Clausewitz Society and in the German Rotary Club Schrobenhausen-Aichach, for which he is - as well as his own Rotary Club in Dielsdorf, its founding president he was in 1978 - in the context of promoting mutual understanding. He was therefore also awarded a sapphire as a Paul Harris Fellow.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituaries , website of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , accessed on October 7, 2014.
  2. ^ Walter Schaufelberger: The old Swiss and his war. Studies of warfare mainly in the 15th century . Zurich 1952, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Jürg Stüssi-Lauterburg , Martin Pestalozzi-Schäfer, Hans Eberhart-Rogenmoser, Anton Künzi (eds.): Festschrift Walter Schaufelberger (= studies on military history and military science ). Sauerländer, Aarau 1986, ISBN 3-7941-2728-5 , p. 310.
personal data
SURNAME Schaufelberger, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss military historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Streaks
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 2014
Place of death Neerach