Hans Martin Sutermeister
Encyclopedia
Hans Martin Sutermeister (September 29, 1907 in Schlossrued
- May 5, 1977 in Basel
; pen name: Hans Moehrlen) was a Swiss physician
and medical writer, politician
, and activist against miscarriages of justice
.
; his grandfather was Otto Sutermeister
. A minister's son, Sutermeister studied theology
in Germany, changing to medicine at University of Basel
just before completing his degree. After his promotion
with his uncle Hans Hunziker
in 1941, Sutermeister published, under the pseudonym “Hans Moehrlen” (following the surname of his great-grandfather Christophe Moehrlen
), an autobiographical novella about his life as a bachelor
. The novella describes his philosophical change of direction towards a monist
view of love and happiness, inspired by natural science; remarkably is its heartedness in times of war
. In the following years, Sutermeister published a series on neopositivist medical thought. He was especially interested in psychosomatic medicine and music psychology
. For example, according to him, “swing music is restful” because
During World War II
, he worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
in Germany, Poland
and Czechoslovakia
, as well as a physician at the Swiss border. After the war he wrote for medical journals and was an instructor in psychophysiology
at the Volkshochschule (Folk high school) in Bern. In 1945, he opened his first a family medical
practice in Bern.
In order to get a venia legendi in History of Medicine
and Medical Psychology
(Psychosomatics), Sutermeister successively deposited, at the beginning of the 1950s, three post-doctoral theses
at the Medical Faculty of the University of Berne
:
Sutermeister was in contact with the medical historian Erich Hintzsche
particularly because of his work Schiller as physician, and he participated in a seminar on medical history 1953 in Lugano. In a letter to Hintzsche, Henry E. Sigerist described Sutermeister's review, published in 1955 as Volume 13 of the Berne contributions to the history of medicine and natural sciences, as “a very nice work … that is interesting even to literary historians.” The assessor Jakob Klaesi
recommended to the Dean of the Faculty Bernhard Walthard
to allow Sutermeister's habilitation allow for the government to issue Sutermeister's habilitation as a lecturer in Medicine history and Psychosomatic medicine. Hintzsche, however, who decided jointly, rejected his habilitation.
. From 1967 to 1971 he served as a member of the municipal executive
, as well as director of the city's schools. As school director, he promoted comprehensive school
s. Although he had a reputation as a progressive within his party, he also stirred some concern both inside and outside the party by fiercely criticizing The Little Red Schoolbook
, an educational manifesto deriving from the 1968 student protest movement
that urged students to reject societal norms. Der Spiegel
quoted his warning to all educators:
and added that some schools banned the book; Radio Bern canceled a broadcast on it; and bookstores canceled orders; the city authorities determined that the book was not seditious, but with police assurance that they had the power to do so, banned it as posing a danger to minors. His actions revealed latent attitudinal and generational divisions within the party, and he was not re-elected in 1971.
In 1972, he opened his new family medical practice in Basel.
, and began to involve himself in investigating and attempting to right miscarriages of justice. He traveled widely and wrote analyses on false recognition, intimidation by prison inmates, uncritical acceptance of expert testimony, suggestibility and emotionalism in jurors and psychological errors by judges. His book Summa Iniuria, which treats hundreds of cases, is one of the most thorough German-language works in the field. He concerned himself particularly with the case of Pierre Jaccoud, whom he was convinced had been wrongly convicted of murdering Charles Zumbach based on faulty forensic work. At one point Pierre Hegg, the head of the police criminological laboratory, sued him for defamation. His efforts on behalf of Jaccoud made him a prominent and effective opponent of courtroom injustice, and he went so far as to assemble the funds to hire Horace Mastronardi and other lawyers to appeal Jaccoud's conviction. Despite his efforts, the case was never reopened.
The criminal law expert Karl Peters
puts Sutermeister's Summa iniuria in the context of the earlier works of Erich Sello, Max Alsberg, Albert Hellwig, Max Hirschberg
and Heinrich Jagusch and considers him as a "committed fighters for a constitutionally protected Criminal Justice".
Schlossrued
Schlossrued is a municipality in the district of Kulm in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.-Geography:Schlossrued has an area, , of . Of this area, or 61.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 31.3% is forested...
- May 5, 1977 in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
; pen name: Hans Moehrlen) was a Swiss physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and medical writer, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, and activist against miscarriages of justice
Miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful...
.
Early years
Sutermeister was the brother of composer Heinrich SutermeisterHeinrich Sutermeister
Heinrich Sutermeister was a Swiss opera composer.-Life and career:During the early 1930s he was a student at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich where Carl Orff was his teacher and Orff remained a powerful influence on his music. Returning to Switzerland in the mid 1930s, he devoted his life to...
; his grandfather was Otto Sutermeister
Otto Sutermeister
Friedrich Gottlieb Otto Sutermeister was a Swiss folklorist and professor at the University of Berne who collected and revised numerous folk tales, legends, fables, and proverbs....
. A minister's son, Sutermeister studied theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
in Germany, changing to medicine at University of Basel
University of Basel
The University of Basel is located in Basel, Switzerland, and is considered to be one of leading universities in the country...
just before completing his degree. After his promotion
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
with his uncle Hans Hunziker
Hans Hunziker
Hans Hunziker was a Swiss psychiatrist, professor of social medicine at University of Basel and notable for his contributions on neuropsychiatry.-Publications:...
in 1941, Sutermeister published, under the pseudonym “Hans Moehrlen” (following the surname of his great-grandfather Christophe Moehrlen
Christophe Moehrlen
Christophe Moehrlen , pen name: Christoph Irenius, was a Swiss French protestant pastor of German origin, schoolteacher and author of children's literature.- Biography :...
), an autobiographical novella about his life as a bachelor
Bachelor
A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married . Unlike his female counterpart, the spinster, a bachelor may have had children...
. The novella describes his philosophical change of direction towards a monist
Monism
Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...
view of love and happiness, inspired by natural science; remarkably is its heartedness in times of war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In the following years, Sutermeister published a series on neopositivist medical thought. He was especially interested in psychosomatic medicine and music psychology
Music psychology
Music psychology,or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of psychology or a branch of musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behavior and musical experience...
. For example, according to him, “swing music is restful” because
the brain becomes fatigued when it is worked too hard, as in acquiring knowledge of new facts. Both students and business men can benefit by such music … the best way to rest the brain after such fatigue is to “regressRegression (psychology)Regression, according to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is a defense mechanism leading to the temporary or long-term reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way...
” to more basic or primitive forms of thought and feeling.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations in 1945, was especially active in 1945 and 1946, and largely shut down...
in Germany, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, as well as a physician at the Swiss border. After the war he wrote for medical journals and was an instructor in psychophysiology
Psychophysiology
Psychophysiology is the branch of psychology that is concerned with the physiological bases of psychological processes. While psychophysiology was a general broad field of research in the 1960s and 1970s, it has now become quite specialized, and has branched into subspecializations...
at the Volkshochschule (Folk high school) in Bern. In 1945, he opened his first a family medical
Family medicine
Family medicine is a medical specialty devoted to comprehensive health care for people of all ages. It is a division of primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, sexes, diseases, and parts of the body...
practice in Bern.
In order to get a venia legendi in History of Medicine
History of medicine
All human societies have medical beliefs that provide explanations for birth, death, and disease. Throughout history, illness has been attributed to witchcraft, demons, astral influence, or the will of the gods...
and Medical Psychology
Medical psychology
Medical psychology is a very broad field and has been defined in various ways. The Academy of Medical Psychology's definition applies to both the practices of consultation and prescribing in Medical Psychology, when allowed by statutes...
(Psychosomatics), Sutermeister successively deposited, at the beginning of the 1950s, three post-doctoral theses
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
at the Medical Faculty of the University of Berne
University of Berne
The University of Bern is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a broad choice of courses and programmes in eight faculties and some 160 institutes. The university is an...
:
- About the changes in the perception of the disease;
- Psychosomatics of laughter and crying (a philosophical-psychological and physiological work on the Freud's theory of humor);
- Schiller as physician: a contribution to psychosomatic medicine.
Sutermeister was in contact with the medical historian Erich Hintzsche
Erich Hintzsche
Erich Hintzsche was a Swiss physician and historian most notable for his studies on Albrecht von Haller's contribution to medicine history.-Publications:...
particularly because of his work Schiller as physician, and he participated in a seminar on medical history 1953 in Lugano. In a letter to Hintzsche, Henry E. Sigerist described Sutermeister's review, published in 1955 as Volume 13 of the Berne contributions to the history of medicine and natural sciences, as “a very nice work … that is interesting even to literary historians.” The assessor Jakob Klaesi
Jakob Klaesi
Jakob Klaesi-Blumer was a Swiss psychiatrist most notable for his contributions to the sleep therapy and his phenomenological analysis of expression.-Life:...
recommended to the Dean of the Faculty Bernhard Walthard
Bernhard Walthard
Bernhard Walthard was a Swiss pathologist and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern....
to allow Sutermeister's habilitation allow for the government to issue Sutermeister's habilitation as a lecturer in Medicine history and Psychosomatic medicine. Hintzsche, however, who decided jointly, rejected his habilitation.
Politics
He joined the Ring of Independents political party and began his political career in the legislature of the Canton of BernGrand Council of Bern
The Grand Council is the parliament of the Swiss canton of Bern.It consists of 160 members elected by proportional representation for a four-year term of office...
. From 1967 to 1971 he served as a member of the municipal executive
Executive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
, as well as director of the city's schools. As school director, he promoted comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
s. Although he had a reputation as a progressive within his party, he also stirred some concern both inside and outside the party by fiercely criticizing The Little Red Schoolbook
The Little Red Schoolbook
The Little Red Schoolbook is a book written by two Danish schoolteachers, Søren Hansen and Jesper Jensen in 1969, which was controversial upon its publication. The book was translated into many languages in the early 1970s.- Synopsis :...
, an educational manifesto deriving from the 1968 student protest movement
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
that urged students to reject societal norms. Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
quoted his warning to all educators:
We will not permit our youth, who are today still healthy, and our freedom-based Western culture, to be undermined by such softening-up tactics, which are clearly controlled from the East, and made 'Ready for conquest' by Communism.
and added that some schools banned the book; Radio Bern canceled a broadcast on it; and bookstores canceled orders; the city authorities determined that the book was not seditious, but with police assurance that they had the power to do so, banned it as posing a danger to minors. His actions revealed latent attitudinal and generational divisions within the party, and he was not re-elected in 1971.
In 1972, he opened his new family medical practice in Basel.
Activism against miscarriages of justice
In the 1960s, Sutermeister became interested in forensic pathologyForensic pathology
Forensic pathology is a branch of pathology concerned with determining the cause of death by examination of a corpse. The autopsy is performed by the pathologist at the request of a coroner or medical examiner usually during the investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some...
, and began to involve himself in investigating and attempting to right miscarriages of justice. He traveled widely and wrote analyses on false recognition, intimidation by prison inmates, uncritical acceptance of expert testimony, suggestibility and emotionalism in jurors and psychological errors by judges. His book Summa Iniuria, which treats hundreds of cases, is one of the most thorough German-language works in the field. He concerned himself particularly with the case of Pierre Jaccoud, whom he was convinced had been wrongly convicted of murdering Charles Zumbach based on faulty forensic work. At one point Pierre Hegg, the head of the police criminological laboratory, sued him for defamation. His efforts on behalf of Jaccoud made him a prominent and effective opponent of courtroom injustice, and he went so far as to assemble the funds to hire Horace Mastronardi and other lawyers to appeal Jaccoud's conviction. Despite his efforts, the case was never reopened.
The criminal law expert Karl Peters
Karl Peters (jurist)
Karl Albert Joseph Peters was a German expert in criminal law, criminal pedagogy and miscarriages of justice.Peters was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit and the Order of St. Sylvester.-Publications:...
puts Sutermeister's Summa iniuria in the context of the earlier works of Erich Sello, Max Alsberg, Albert Hellwig, Max Hirschberg
Max Hirschberg
Max Hirschberg was a German Jewish Weimar era anti-Nazi criminal defense lawyer and scholar.Hirschberg confronted in court directly Adolf Hitler; he was imprisoned, but released because of his conduct during World War I and allowed to practice law even after the 1933 Nazi election.In 1934, he...
and Heinrich Jagusch and considers him as a "committed fighters for a constitutionally protected Criminal Justice".
External links
- Hans Peter Stalder. Kontroverse um kleines rotes Schülerbuch. With Manfred Wettler and Hans Mühlethaler. Antenne, July 1, 1970 (Memoriav)
- Jakob KlaesiJakob KlaesiJakob Klaesi-Blumer was a Swiss psychiatrist most notable for his contributions to the sleep therapy and his phenomenological analysis of expression.-Life:...
. Betrifft Habilitationsgesuch des Dr. med. H. M. Sutermeister. Letter to Bernhard WalthardBernhard WalthardBernhard Walthard was a Swiss pathologist and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern....
. September 6, 1954. - Franz KellerFranz Keller (psychologist)Franz Keller was a Swiss psychologist, Christian pacifist and left-wing news editor .Keller got his Ph.D in 1938 at University of Bern with the work Eitelkeit und Wahn: Eitelkeit als Charakterschwäche und als Grössen- und Verfolgungswahn; he was a member of the Social Democratic Party of...
. Lieber „Trotzdem–Freund“ Sutermeister! Letter to the editor. Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, Ar. 128.3, Dossier “Leserbriefe, an die Redaktionen geschickte Texte”.