Background
The son of Charles Ernest Guisan, a doctor from Avenches, and Louise-Jeanne Guisan, he attended school in Lausanne and Fribourg, and initially studied agricultural medicine.
The son of Charles Ernest Guisan, a doctor from Avenches, and Louise-Jeanne Guisan, he attended school in Lausanne and Fribourg, and initially studied agricultural medicine.
He attended school in Lausanne and Fribourg, and initially studied agricultural medicine.
From his promotion to colonel divisionnaire in 1926 Guisan devoted himself exclusively to military affairs. On 30 Aug 1939, two days before Hitler invaded Poland, he was elected general and CinC of the Swiss Army. By the summer of 1940 he had a force of more than 800.000 men and women. The Swiss already had an abundance of secret installations in the Alps, but Guisan developed the national redoubt concept. To support this, extensive preparations were made in the most rugged area of SE Switzerland.
Unlike his overly cautious predecessor, Ulrich Wille. in 1914-18, Henri Guisan was not afraid to run risks in being more neutral toward Germany than toward her enemies. So, while careful to preserve deniability, the Swiss army chief went along with establishment of what evolved into the spy ring headed by Rusolf Roseller (aka Lucy).
He also negotiated the secret Guisan- Gamclin military convention. This provided for Franco-Swiss military coordination on their flanks. Records of this incriminating deed were found with abandoned French military archives in a train at Charitd-sur-Loire (19 June 1940), and Swiss security chief Masson learned that Schellenberg had the documents filed under “Switzerland." Their release to the public would be an excuse for “preventive occupation” by Germany. This remained a sword over Guisan’s head.
Exceptionally vigorous for a man who was 71 years old in 1945. sleeping no more than five hours a night, Guisan was highly acclaimed by Swiss crowds in his extensive travels. Army headquarters initially were in Berne, so as to be near the Federal Palace. But, unlike Ulrich Wille (above), who had stayed there, Guisan had his headquarters, successively, at Spciz, Gumligen, Interlaken, and finally at Jegenstorf. He published Rapport a VAssemblee snr le sendee actif, then retired in 1947. Guisan died in Pully, near Lausanne. (Larousse.)
In his life, Guisan heavily propagandized his public image, banning 5600 images of himself from being printed from 1939-1945. Guisan also held several symbolic actions, such as the Rütli Report. In Switzerland, Guisan was an extremely popular figure. He has been criticized for admiring Benito Mussolini and Philippe Pétain as well as having a secret meeting with Walter Schellenberg in March 1943.
Upon completing his studies, in 1897, he moved to and became a gentleman farmer in the Broye Valley. That same year, he married Mary Doelker, with whom he would have two children, Henry and Myriam. Soon after marring Mary, he moved to Verte-Rive on Lake Geneva.