Henri Guisan and the Réduit National

Looking forward to this pres progressing.

That's great too. I'm sure our resident German-speakers can help out

German, auto-translated by Google




21/10/1874 Mézières (VD), died04.07.1960 Pully, ref., Avenches and Mezieres. Son of Charles-Ernest, doctor and majors, and Louise-Jeanne born Bérengier ( died1875). ∞ 1897 Mary Doelker, daughter of Christian Charles, master baker. 1893 Klass. Matura in Lausanne, visit the Agricultural Schools in Ecully (near Lyon) and Hohenheim (Württemberg). Member of the cadet corps to Lausanne, Zofingen. From 1897 to G. farmed an estate in Chesalles-sur-Oron, until he settled in 1903 as a gentleman farmer on the estate Verte Rive in Pully. In the interwar period G. belonged to the conservative Federalist emphasizes anti socialist. Camp. G. was a member of the community executive in Chesalles and the local parliament of Pully.

The allocated land artillery, G. rose in 1894 to lieutenant, in 1904 to captain, 1908 to captain on the General Staff and 1911. Major on. At this time G. came about at the request of the Chief of Staff, Theophil Sprecher von Bernegg, in the infantry. In 1916 he was lieutenant colonel in the general staff in the surgery department in Bern, 1919 Chief of Staff of the 2nd Division and concurrently commander of the infantry regiment 9, with which he knew the stewards in Zurich the same year, and in 1921 Colonel-. Until his promotion to Oberstdivisionär 1927 G. remained militia officer. Thanks to his sociable temperament G. quickly became popular. 1932 supported Rudolf Minger, director of the Federal. Military Department, he was appointed colonel lieutenant general. G. was initially against the German 2nd Army Corps, then the French-speaking 1st Corps. On 08/30/1939 the Federal Assembly elected him with 204 of 231 votes to General; Maj Jules Borel received 21 votes, mainly from the Social Democrat. Warehouse. The appointment Gs was - apart from a few professional officers - well received. The adoption Gs as general found at the end of active service on 20.08.1945 place ( World War II ).

G. was not a great strategist, but he knew how to listen to advice, to make decisions and take risks and stand against contestation of polit. Authorities or his subordinates to a conceived decision. His sense of reality was "strateg. Movement War" in moving away from the principle of which was still in the Swiss Army in 1939, in favor of a fight against the aggressor from a back staggered position. The army was not fully operational in 1939, but starting in 1933 approved loans should make it possible to address the weaknesses in the course of time. With the 1936 deals initiated general staff meetings with the French G. went to the limits of a neutral state as possible to insure their support for the case of dt. Attack. The. After the French defeat in 1940 launched the concept Réduit , which provided for a withdrawal of the main forces of the army in the Alps, was not his. Its implementation took G. stages because more staff officers were opposed. In addition, the general wanted to facilitate the residents of the Central Plateau understanding of the new strategy ( "sustained struggle and delay").

His clinging to the status of the militia officer explained on the one hand the tension with some professional officers, especially the colonel lieutenant general Ulrich Wille and Jacob Labhart and the General Staff Colonel Gustav Däniker, and has on the other hand points to his ideas of leadership and his Able Hung up formalities. G., who often went to the field to his soldiers, put in the exercise of his command a high value on information and persuasion; he saw the man in the soldiers in a time in which the military leaders still kept their distance to the troops. The Rütli Rapport from 25.07.1940 is also important in this regard: He called on all forces commanders on the degree of the Major along upward, to set them on the withdrawal of the army into Réduit discretion.

G. animated army and people with a spirit of resistance and turned the Réduit a national symbol by creating a symbiosis of people and troops and reaching out to civilians and the team ranks used. In early May 1940, he ordered an investigation against 124 officers who were suspected Frontist. or national socialist. to sympathies. Throughout the war he had a good relationship with the Social Democrats. Parliamentarians. He frequently interfered in the jurisdiction of the Federal Council, which this did not appreciate.

Unlike Ulrich Wille, the General during the 1st World War, G. was undisputed in Switzerland. On 12/04/1960 lined 300,000 people, including many veterans of active service in uniform, the way his Begräbniszugs. In his history of Swiss neutrality Edgar Bonjour G. faced as soul of the resistance a Marcel Pilet-Golaz, the all too eager to New Europe andi duck itself. The recent hist. Working show a charismat. General, the less corresponded to a myth and was by no means infallible. Like many of his contemporaries felt G. sympathy for Mussolini and his regime, in which he saw as a bulwark against communism. After the Germans in La Charité-sur-Loire, the files on the Franz.-Switzerland. General Staff meetings had discovered, suggested G. the Federal unsuccessful appeasement measures against Germany before and agreed in March 1943 to a meeting with SS General Walter Schellenberg. These little retouching on image of General called indignant reactions from the active service generation.