August Rudolf Lindt (5 August 1905 – 14 April 2000), also known as Auguste R. Lindt, was a Swiss lawyer and diplomat. He served as Chairman of

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

from 1953 to 1954 and as

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

from 1956 to 1960.

Career

Lindt was the son of August Ludwig Lindt, a pharmacist and

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

manufacturer, and Lina Rufenacht. ''Virginia, Marriage Records, 1936–2014'' He studied law in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

and Bern. He is related to

Rodolphe Lindt Rudolf Lindt (16 July 1855 – 20 February 1909), often known by his francized name Rodolphe Lindt, was a Swiss chocolate maker, chocolatier and inventor. He founded the Lindt brand of Swiss chocolate and invented the conching machine and other p ...

Lindt & Sprüngli Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in Kilchberg, where its ...

. He earned a doctoral degree in 1927 with a dissertation on Soviet commercial law, and worked in

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becau ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

from 1929 to 1940. From 1941 to 1945 he worked for Swiss

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

. In 1945 he became involved in humanitarian work in Berlin on behalf of the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

, and in 1946 he joined the Swiss

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA, german: Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten, french: Département fédéral des affaires étrangères, it, Dipartimento federale degli affari esteri, rm, ), so name ...

as a press spokesman. He was later posted to the embassy in London. From 1953 to 1956, he was the Swiss Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York. He was Chairman of

from 1953 to 1954. In 1956 he was appointed as the

, the second person to hold the office after Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart, and served until 1960. He served as the Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States from 1960 to 1962 in Washington, where he met Karl Barth. He was Ambassador to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

from 1966 to 1968. He was later General Commissioner of the

for West Africa and Swiss Ambassador to

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

. He was an adviser to the

President of Rwanda This article lists the presidents of Rwanda since the creation of the office in 1961 (during the Rwandan Revolution), to the present day. The president of Rwanda is the head of state and head of executive of the Republic of Rwanda. The presi ...

from 1973 to 1975. In 1962, he married Romanian Ileana Maria Pociovălişteanu Bulova in Arlington.

References

Literature

*Rolf Wilhelm (ed.): ''August R. Lindt: Patriot und Weltbürger''. Haupt Verlag, Bern 2003, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindt, August R Chairmen and Presidents of UNICEF United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees People from Bern 1905 births 2000 deaths Permanent Representatives of Switzerland to the United Nations Ambassadors of Switzerland to the United States Ambassadors of Switzerland to the Soviet Union Ambassadors of Switzerland to Mongolia Ambassadors of Switzerland to India Ambassadors of Switzerland to Nepal Swiss officials of the United Nations University of Bern alumni