Robert Grimm Papers

Period  1914-1917
Total size   1.7 m.
Consultation Not restricted

Biography

Born in Wald, Switzerland 1881, died in Berne 1958; typographer; joined as an itinerant the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) in 1899; active in Swiss social democracy from 1905 as e.g. secretary of the Arbeiterbund Basel 1905-1906, trade union secretary 1907-1908 and editor in chief of Berner Tagwacht 1909-1918; Swiss delegate to the International Socialist Bureau (ISB) from 1912, he was instrumental in the formation of the social democratic antiwar opposition since 1914 by organizing its international conferences in Zimmerwald 1915 and Kienthal 1916 and as a secretary of its International Socialist Committee; member of the Executive of the Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz (SPS) 1915-1917 and 1919-1936; played a leading role in the Landesstreik-movement of 1918 and influenced the party's center-left stance in the early 1920s; held various parliamentary seats and executive functions from communal to federal level 1909-1955, President of the Federal Assembly in 1946.

Content

Correspondence and other documents received and dispatched in his capacity as secretary of the International Socialist Committee in Berne, from and to Pavel Aksel'rod, S. Bronstein Semkovskij, Angelica Balabanoff, Camille Huysmans, Lenin, Willi Münzenberg, Christian Racovsky, Karl Radek, Henriette Roland Holst, Bertha Thalheimer, Leon Trotsky, David Wijnkoop, Clara Zetkin, G.E. Zinov'ev and others and the boards of various socialist parties and other organizations 1914-1918; circulars issued by R. Grimm and the International Socialist Committee 1915-1916; minutes and drafts of minutes of the Zimmerwald Conference and the preparatory session with mostly handwritten annexes 1915; handwritten minutes of the February and May session of the comprehensive committee 1916; minutes of the Kienthal Conference with mostly handwritten annexes 1916; declarations and resolutions issued by various socialist parties and other organizations 1914-1919; handwritten manifestos, reports and notes concerning the international socialist movement 1914-1917; press clippings, leaflets and pamphlets 1914-1917; manuscript of his translation of Charles Rappoport's Jean Jaurès biography n.d.

Secondary creator

Zimmerwalder Bewegung

Alternate Form of Material

Partly published in: Die Zimmerwalder Bewegung. Protokolle und Korrespondenz. Hrsg. von Horst Lademacher. 2 Bde. The Hague, Paris 1967.