The Davos University Conferences (french: Cours universitaires de Davos; german: Davoser Hochschulkurse) were a project between 1928 and 1931 to create an international university at Davos in Switzerland.

Origins

The Davos University Conferences owed their creation to two complementary initiatives, one local and one international.

Local initiative

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12892, Davos, Große Eislaufbahn

Noting the large number of tubercular students who came to Davos, as a mountain town known for its cosmopolitan atmosphere and as a luxurious place to convalesce, between 1926 and 1927 a committee was formed by the local doctors to formulate a diversification project for Davos University.

International initiative

The Davos project coincided with warming international relations, particularly between France and the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

(Germany) after the

Locarno Pact The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland, during 5 to 16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central a ...

of 1925. The French intelligentsia wholeheartedly participated in projects of the

International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation The International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, sometimes League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, was an advisory organization for the League of Nations which aimed to promote international exchange between scientists, r ...

, but the Germans, who were excluded from it by the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

, instead founded the (DFG, "German-French Society"). German intellectuals who wanted to participate in international

academic conference An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic or scientific journal ...

s approached the Davos initiators and redefined their university project to become an annual conference.

Organisation

A committee made up of local and visiting academics was assembled under the chairmanship of Dr Paul Müller (instigator of the Spengler coup in 1923), the sociologist

Gottfried Salomon Gottfried is a masculine German given name. It is derived from the Old High German name , recorded since the 7th century. The name is composed of the elements (conflated from the etyma for 'God' and 'good', and possibly further conflated with ) a ...

(1892 – 1964), president of the Frankfurt DFG, and Erhard Branger (1881 – 1958), mayor of Davos, who made it their mission to invite élite European intellectuals to Davos for weeks of work and exchange of ideas. The committee was augmented in 1929 by three national committees (German, French and Swiss).

Establishment

For four consecutive years, between 1928 and 1931, the committee convened a large number of important intellectuals, (available only at the National Library, Ref 7q107). mainly German and French, for conferences (in both languages) lasting three weeks at the end of winter. These academics were accompanied by promising students in a programme of ("Work communities") and as well as the conferences themselves there were opportunities to get to know academics from other countries who were working in the same field.

Conferences

1928

The first Conference was opened by Erhard Branger (mayor of Davos),

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (10 April 1857 – 13 March 1939) was a French scholar trained in philosophy who furthered anthropology with his contributions to the budding fields of sociology and ethnology. His primary field interest was ways of thinking. ...

(French philosopher and sociologist),

Hans Driesch Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (28 October 1867 – 17 April 1941) was a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for his neo-vitalist philosophy of entelechy. He has also ...

(German philosopher) and

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

Presenters

1929

The second conference was opened by

Giuseppe Motta Giuseppe Motta (29 December 1871 – 23 January 1940) was a Swiss politician. He was a member of the Swiss Federal Council (1911–1940) and President of the League of Nations (1924–1925). He was a Catholic-conservative foreign minister and a ...

( Federal Council). It was noted for the "

Cassirer–Heidegger debate The Cassirer–Heidegger debate was an encounter between the philosophers Martin Heidegger and Ernst Cassirer from March 17 to April 6, 1929 during the Second Davos Hochschulkurs ( Davos University Conference) which held its opening session in t ...

" between

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...

and

Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science. A ...

Presenters

Students

1930

The third conference was opened by

Federal Councillor The Federal Council (german: Bundesrat; french: Conseil fédéral; it, Consiglio federale; rm, Cussegl federal) is the executive body of the federal government of the Swiss Confederation and serves as the collective head of state and governm ...

Heinrich Häberlin. It was the first conference to be conducted partly in English.

Presenters

1931

Presenters

The fourth conference was opened by Carl Heinrich Becker (lately the Prussian Minister of Culture).

Disestablishment

The 1932 conference could not be held because of the Great Depression.

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

's ascension and granting of absolute power on 30 January 1933, led to the exile of many German intellectuals and put an end to Franco-German co-operation in science, which made it impossible to continue the conferences.

Origins

Local initiative

International initiative

Organisation

Establishment

Conferences

1928

Presenters

1929

Presenters

Students

1930

Presenters

1931

Presenters

Disestablishment

See also

References

Notes

Further reading