Are there Swiss writer-diplomats?

by Matthieu Gillabert

Matthieu Gillabert est historien et collaborateur au Domaine d’histoire contemporaine de l’Université de Fribourg. Après avoir défendu sa thèse sur la diplomatie culturelle suisse (Dans les coulisses de la diplomatie culturelle suisse, Alphil, 2013), il mène actuellement ses recherches sur les échanges culturels Est-Ouest pendant la guerre froide et sur les mobilités étudiantes francophones après 1945.
, Matthieu Gillabert is collaborator at the Domaine d’histoire contemporaine (University of Fribourg, Switzerland). His doctoral thesis was published under the title Dans les coulisses de la diplomatie culturelle suisse (Alphil, 2013) and he actually conducts some research on the East-West cultural exchanges during the Cold War and on the students’ mobility in the Francophonie after 1945.

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The advent of modern diplomacy saw a new figure emerge: the writer-diplomat, straddling the worlds of chancelleries and of literature. Writing is at the centre of their twofold activity; ideally report writing and literary writing feeding off each other.  Travelling of course, is water on the mill of the author, and literary writing, accordingly sharpened, and allows for the composition of precise and pertinent reports for the ministry.

In  France, at the beginning of the 20th century, such personalities as Paul Claudel, Alexis Léger – also known as Saint-John Perse –  or  Paul Morand, were writer-diplomats incarnate, Claudel perhaps the only one to successfully manage both careers. The others took advantage of the Service for Promotion of French Literature Abroad, an innovation, created 1920 at the Quai D’Orsay (Department of Foreign Affairs), as a part of French cultural policy after World War I.

What about Switzerland? Diplomatic institutions were little developed, and the Swiss publishing landscape, divided into several linguistic regions, was not on a par with its Parisian counterpart.  As a consequence, Swiss writers often published in France or Germany in any case, hardly ever played the role of national cultural ambassador as did their French colleagues.

Yet, taking a closer look, it appears that certain Swiss personalities succeeded in having it both ways, often alternating between diplomacy and literature. Jacques Rial, retired ambassador, published a nearly complete bibliography of works written by Swiss diplomats since 1848 (“Le bicorne et la plume”, 2008). Although the majority of works were diligent studies of law and economics, it turned out that some diplomats had also published literary texts. Obviously there were the memoirs, written at the end of a career, to share or even justify some activities. The two major contributions to this genre were written by Albert Weinauer and Eduard Brunner, each having served as Secretary of State.

But what about fiction? Before the Second World War, the most prolific diplomat was doubtlessly René de Weck from the Canton of Fribourg, who between the two wars not only wrote several novels, but also enjoyed the companionship of literary circles.

Just as noteworthy are Frédéric Barbey’s stories and the poetry of Camille Gorgé, who served as Swiss minister in Tokyo during the war. Content aside, these two authors resemble each other inasmuch, as a clear distinction seems to have imposed itself on their divergent activities as diplomats and writers.

It needs to be said that Switzerland’s timid diplomatic policy did not recognise the prestige of the arts as a key asset for managing national affairs abroad.

On the eve of World War II, a figure with a new profile managed to join the diplomatic elite. The important embassies – Washington, London, and Paris – started recruiting press attachés, indeed cultural attachés, among other reasons, for their writing skills. Undoubtedly Bernard Barbey’s successfully completed career trajectory serves as the best example of this development. A published writer (“Le Crépuscule du matin, La Maladère”), editorial director at Fayard before the war, he was in his element when sent to Paris as a cultural attaché after having served as an aide to General Guisan.  His literary activities and his diplomatic career were mutually enriching:  he climbed up the rungs of the UNESCO hierarchy as the recipient of the “Prix de l’Academie” for “Chevaux abandonnés sur le champ de bataille” (1951).

Nevertheless, Barbey remains an exception. Headquarters in Bern, stubbornly bent on the upkeep of a discreetly efficient diplomacy, issued a report in 1947, entitled: “The profession of writer – is it compatible with a diplomatic career?” Obviously, the answer was no, and might have passed for a warning against being a serious writer within the diplomatic service.

As good functionaries bound by a duty of discretion, diplomats, tempted to put pen to paper had to develop strategies to bypass the problem. Frédéric Dubois, for example, diplomat in Paris, later serving in Bern as director of the Federal Office for Culture, used a pseudonym: Julien Dunilac.

 

Archives :

AFS, E 3001 (B), 1000/731/56.

Bibliography :

Badel Laurence, Ferragu Gilles, Jeannesson Stanislas, Meltz Renaud (dir.), écrivains et diplomates. L’invention d’une tradition xixe-xxe siècles, Paris : Armand Colin, 2012.

Rial Jacques, Le bicorne et la plume: les publications de diplomates suisses de 1848 à nos jours: un essai de bibliographie. Diplomats as writers. Msida ; Geneva : DiploFoundation ; Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, 2008.

medias

René de Weck, I

Portrait de René de Weck, signé du peintre fribourgeois Hiram Brulhart (collection particulière de la famille de Weck).

René de Weck, II

Portrait de René de Weck, signé du peintre fribourgeois Hiram Brulhart (collection particulière de la famille de Weck).

Chevaux abandonnés sur le champ de bataille

Couverture de l'ouvrage de Bernard Barbey: Chevaux abandonnés sur le champ de bataille, Juillard, 1951 (Prix de l’Académie).

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