Adhémar Schwitzguébel

Adhémar Schwitzguébel
Adhémar Schwitzguébel (1875)
Born	(1844-08-15)15 August 1844 Sonvilier, Bern, Switzerland
Died	23 July 1895(1895-07-23) (aged 50) Evilard, Bern, Switzerland
Occupation(s)	Engraver, watchmaker
Years active	1866–1895
Era	Second Industrial Revolution
Organizations	International Workingmen's Association (1866–1872) Anti-Authoritarian International (1872–1877)
Other political affiliations	International Alliance of Socialist Democracy (1868–1869) Jura Federation (1869–1880)
Movement	Libertarian socialism Trade unionism

Adhémar Schwitzguébel (1844–1895) was a Swiss anarchist and trade unionist. Associated with the libertarian socialist faction of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), he co-founded its Jura Federation and participated in the splinter organisation that became the Anti-Authoritarian International. Schwitzguébel became active in the establishment of workers' organisations in Switzerland, establishing the first trade union of watchmakers in the country before his death from stomach cancer.

Biography[edit]

Adhémar Schwitzguébel was born in Sonvilier, in the Bernese Jura,^[1] on 15 August 1844. He was the son of Auguste Schwitzguébel and Rosalie Pécaut.^[2] His father was a liberal activist and owner of an engraving workshop, which Schwitzguébel worked in as an apprentice.^[1]

When the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) was established, Schwitzguébel founded the organisation's section in Sonvilier and represented it at the Geneva Congress of 1866.^[1] In 1869, he established the IWA's Romandy federation and was delegate to its Basel Congress.^[2] He also became a key opponent to the influence of the "bourgeois socialist" Pierre Coullery [fr] in the Romandy federation.^[1]

Along with fellow Swiss internationalists James Guillaume and Auguste Spichiger [fr], Schwitzguébel became a supporter of Mikhail Bakunin's libertarian socialism and began to champion his collectivist programme for a free association of producers.^[2] Together they joined Bakunin's International Alliance of Socialist Democracy^[3] and founded the Jura Federation, in order to counter the influence of reformism within the wider Romandy federation.^[2] After the suppression of the Paris Commune, Schwitzguébel travelled to the French capital and provided Communards with fake passports to aid their escape to Switzerland.^[3]

Schwitzguébel served as a delegate in every IWA congress until the Hague Congress of 1872, when Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the organisation.^[3] He then participated in the St. Imier Congress, which established the Anti-Authoritarian International.^[2] He remained active as one of the main leaders and theoreticians of the Jura Federation,^[1] editing its bulletin. At the Jura Federation's final congress in 1880, while he continued to uphold a programme for establishing an anarchist society, he also began to argue for the formation of a socialist political party to participate in elections.^[3]

During this time, he had married Catherine Marguerite Miellet,^[2] with whom he had eight children. By 1879, Schwitzguébel's father had died and his family fell into poverty.^[3] Having already taken over management of the engraving workshop, Schwitzguébel was forced to close it in 1889.^[2] While looking for work, he moved to Bienne, where he became an assistant to the Swiss Workers' Secretariat in 1891. There he also established a number of workers' organisations, including the country's first trade union for watchmakers.^[1]

He died from stomach cancer,^[3] in Evilard, in the Bienne district of the canton of Bern, on 23 July 1895.^[1] His trade unionist activities were continued by his son, Adhémar junior, until his own death in 1947.^[3]

Works[edit]

• Schwitzguébel, Adhemar:Quelques écrits. Paris 1906th Edited by James Guillaume. (fr. edition of 1908)

References[edit]

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Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Media related to Adhémar Schwitzguébel at Wikimedia Commons