Centre Général Guisan

The General Guisan Center is located in Pully near Lausanne, in a one-hectare park on the shores of Lake Geneva. It is a privileged place for meetings, studies, and remembrance.

Known as Verte Rive, the property was the home of General Guisan, commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army during World War II (1939-1945), until his death in 1960.

Owned by the Swiss Confederation since 1971, Verte Rive is now a center managed by a private association.

General Guisan Center - history

History of General

Origins

The Guisan family can be traced back to the 15th century in the canton of Vaud. The Guisans, lords of Avenches and lords of Donatyre and Oleyres, had to cede their property and offices to Their Excellencies of Bern at the time of the occupation of the Pays de Vaud. Through his mother, Henri Guisan was descended from the lords of Beaufort in France, a Huguenot family who emigrated to Switzerland following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The motto of the family of Henri Guisan, a citizen of Avenches, was "It recte nihil timet" (The righteous have nothing to fear).

 

Youth

Henri Guisan was born on October 21, 1874, in Mézières, Vaud, where his father worked as a country doctor.

In 1893, he obtained his baccalaureate in literature after attending the cantonal classical college and gymnasium in Lausanne. A member of the Zofingue Student Society, he began studying medicine but soon abandoned it to pursue agronomy. In 1897, he began farming an estate in Chesalles sur Oron and started a family by marrying Mary Doelker.

 

Military career

1894 Recruit school in Bière in the horse-drawn artillery (a branch of the military in which he could indulge his passion for horses).

1894 Lieutenant

1898 First lieutenant

1904 Captain, commander of Field Battery 6.

1908 Captain in the General Staff (EMG)

1909 Major, GSH

1913 Infantry Major, Commander of Rifle Battalion 2

1916 Lieutenant Colonel GSO, then

1919 Interim commander of the 9th Infantry Regiment

1920 Colonel of Infantry, Commander of the 5th Infantry Brigade

1926 Divisional Colonel*, Commander of the 2nd Division, then

1931 Division Colonel, Commander of the 1st Division

1932 Colonel Commander of Army Corps, Commander of the 2nd Army Corps then

1933 Colonel, Commander of the 1st Army Corps

1939 General, elected by the Federal Assembly on August 30, commander-in-chief of the army.

Until his appointment to the rank of divisional colonel, Henri Guisan retained his status as a militia officer while performing numerous duties as a volunteer training officer.

* General officers at that time held the ranks of brigadier colonel, divisional colonel, and corps commander colonel. The title "colonel" was abolished in the 1960s.

The mission given to the army and its commander for the period of World War II (1939-1945) can be summed up in one sentence: "Safeguard the independence of the country and maintain the integrity of its territory."

This mission led General Guisan to take strategic decisions dictated by the situation and its evolution throughout his time in command. From a waiting position dictated by the country's neutral status after mobilization, the army moved to a combat position in the Alpine sector while Switzerland was surrounded by the Axis forces, before returning, in the final phase of the war, to a position covering the borders.

On August 20, 1945, General Henri Guisan was able to leave his command with the feeling that he had fulfilled the mission entrusted to him.

Until his death on April 7, 1960, General Henri Guisan was able to gauge his popularity through the countless expressions of gratitude from the Swiss people.

 

The General Guisan Center

Known as Verte Rive, the property that now houses the CENTRE GENERAL GUISAN was the home of General Henri Guisan, commander-in-chief of the Swiss army from 1939 to 1945. The buildings, constructed by the father of the general's future wife, Mary Doelker, between 1867 and 1874, were intended for residential and agricultural use in an environment then devoted to farming and wine production. Henri Guisan moved there in 1902 and remained there until his death in 1960.

Purchased by the Swiss Confederation in 1971, the Verte Rive property became the headquarters of the CENTRE D'HISTOIRE ET DE PROSPECTIVE MILITAIRES (Center for Military History and Forecasting) thanks to the SOCIETE VAUDOISE DES OFFICIERS (SVO), to which the Confederation granted a building lease on one of the pavilions. Since 1974, this renovated pavilion has been used as a meeting place for numerous societies, particularly military ones. The general's son, Colonel Henry Guisan, occupied the villa until his death in 1990.