At the end of the First World War, the Spanish flu raged, also in Switzerland and especially in the cramped army quarters. The left-wing press in particular made Colonel Carl Hauser responsible for the abuses. A look back.
Embellished picture: classroom in Olten that was converted into a sick camp by the army, dated April 1918.
In July 1918, the Spanish flu was rampant in Switzerland. The sanitary conditions are precarious, especially in the Swiss Army’s barracks. This is also noticed by the press, which is anyway focused on the army because of the ongoing war. The newspapers classify the number of sick members of the army as worryingly high – and note an astonishingly passive behavior on the part of the responsible authorities.
While the bulletin of the Federal Health Office still speaks of the “benign character” of the disease, which differs “by nothing” from the usual picture of influenza, the assessment of the “Berner Tagwacht” goes in the opposite direction. On July 13, 1918, the Social Democratic newspaper reported that the state of health of the army was “not only not good, but very bad.” On June 1, 1918, there were already almost 2,500 cases.
In order to show “how easily the medical service of the Swiss army broke up”, letters from soldiers are woven into the articles. Soldiers report how badly things are going for them in the troop quarters. There are hardly any sanitary staff, no medication, and the sick are left to their own devices. With the help of the letters, mere numbers become emotional stories. This increases the interest of the readership, who also wants to know who is responsible for the abuses.
“Mass deaths in the army”
On July 15, 1918, the “Berner Tagwacht” headlined: “Mass deaths in the army”. A letter to the editor from a soldier stationed in the Jura is quoted as describing how sick soldiers are put in an ambulance, only to have to wait many hours at different stations and finally be driven back to the original station. There is talk of an “organizational chaos”. The army doctor, who is more concerned with the well-being of the foreign military and civilians interned in Switzerland, is held responsible: “While the internees are in the nice hotels and are taken care of in every respect, the Swiss soldiers are lying on straw with a high fever or inadequate mattresses.» The article culminates in the exclamation «If only we were strangers!».
The 51-year-old army doctor Carl Hauser, head of the medical department since 1910, is increasingly in the crosshairs of the press. The front pages of the newspapers knew almost no other topic in those days. “Resign the army doctor!” demands the “Berner Tagwacht”. Although the author of the article admits that he does not know the army doctor personally and that he has a neutral attitude towards him, he is indignant: «Not indifferent [ist] the responsible work of a man who – one can say that today – indirectly has the death of numerous human lives on his conscience.»
Oberfeldarzt Carl Hauser.
Newspapers with other political orientations also take a stand. The “Neue Zürcher Nachrichten” is “deep ashamed when listening to these complaints, in addition to justified indignation”. The NZZ adds: “It will be up to the highest authorities to investigate the extent to which personal issues must be brought into play when the inevitable ‘reorganization of the medical service’ is undertaken.” She also finds that “the entire Swiss press of all political shades” agrees that something has to change.
Now the Federal Council is also reacting. General Ulrich Wille has to give information to the government. The minutes of the meeting of July 19, 1918 state: “The General has become convinced that the medical service has done its utmost and that nothing has been missed.” It is decided that Carl Hauser will hand over the management of the internment service in order to concentrate fully on his job as army doctor. But the plan to calm the situation with it fails. The newspapers, which demanded that the army doctor Hauser resign from his position as head of the medical service, continued to be outraged.
Is it all class warfare?
Above all, the social-democratic “Berner Tagwacht”, which accuses the Federal Council – which is firmly in the hands of the bourgeoisie – of being much too passive: “Kreuzthunderwetter! Has the blazing heat robbed the people in the Federal House of the little bit of reason with which they govern the country! » The army doctor remains in the focus of left-wing newspapers. He is accused of deliberately publishing outdated and incomplete death figures. After the demands for his resignation came the call for the judge. The judiciary must take care of the matter.
But why the vehemence in relation to the conditions in the army? The number of registered flu deaths exploded in Switzerland in July 1918 – from 37 in the previous month to 2264. The scandal has a political background.
The social situation is tense this summer. Around a sixth of the population is dependent on government support. However, the Federal Council failed to push through improvements. The class differences are getting bigger, the fronts between social democracy and the bourgeoisie harden more and more (and will culminate in the state general strike in November 1918). The left criticize “bourgeois class rule” and see the army as an instrument for maintaining that rule. Against this background, the reports in the left-wing press, despite all justified criticism of the abuses in the troop quarters, read as criticism of the system – with the army doctor Hauser as the representative of this system.
The bourgeois media eventually noticed this and began to backtrack. The “Basler Anzeiger” wrote on July 22: “The unprecedented whipping up of popular passions, as reported by the social-democratic press in recent days [. . .] has been operated schematically does not serve to clarify responsibility in any way.” The “Berner Tagblatt” decides to “also give a defending voice space”, i.e. per army doctor Hauser. The impression is created that the bourgeois newspapers would now even overcompensate. The newspaper “Vaterland” writes: “As far as the organization of the medical system is concerned, Colonel Hauser has rendered merits. It would be unfair to try to ignore that. Today is being avenged what has been a sin of inappropriate thrift for years.» The “Thurgauer Zeitung” only speaks of a “clumsiness that our army medical staff showed”.
And so the personalized “Hauser affair” is slowly disappearing from the press. That does not mean, however, that there are no more disputes on the subject of medical services. In August 1918, the Federal Council set up a commission of inquiry. At the beginning of 1919, this came to the conclusion that “some errors, omissions, negligence and regrettable mistakes” had actually occurred. But due to the powerlessness of medicine during the flu epidemic, a certain failure was programmed. And with regard to Carl Hauser, it is stated that it is impossible “to blame just one personality for the errors and shortcomings that have come to light”. Hauser remained senior medical officer and head of the medical department until 1935.