The Davos University Conferences (; ) were a project between 1928 and 1931 to create an international university at

Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Origins

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

Local initiative

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, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

(Germany) after the

Locarno Pact The Locarno Treaties, known collectively as the Locarno Pact, were seven post-World War I agreements negotiated amongst Germany, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia in late 1925. In the main treaty, the five western ...

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, is an advisory organisation for the League of Nations which promotes international exchange between scientists, researche ...

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

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, 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 Convention (meeting), event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic jou ...

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 Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best know ...

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, and composed of the elements (conflated from the etyma for "God" and "good", and possibly further conflated with ) and ("pe ...

(1892 – 1964), president of the Frankfurt DFG, and

Erhard Branger Erhard is a male German given name and surname, and may refer to: People *Erhard of Regensburg, bishop of Regensburg in the 7th century * Erhard Altdorfer (c. 1480–1561), German Early Renaissance printmaker, painter and architect * Erhard Arnold ...

(1881 – 1958), mayor of

, 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

(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 Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

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 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

Presenters

1929

The second conference was opened by

Giuseppe Motta Giuseppe Motta (29 December 1871 – 23 January 1940) was a Swiss politician. He served as President of the Swiss Confederation 5 times. He was a member of the Swiss Federal Council (1911–1940) and President of the League of Nations (1924–1 ...

(

Federal Council Federal Council may refer to: Governmental bodies * Federal Council of Australasia, a forerunner to the current Commonwealth of Australia * Federal Council of Austria, the upper house of the Austrian federal parliament * Federal Council of German ...

). It was noted for the "

Cassirer–Heidegger debate The Cassirer–Heidegger debate was a 1929 encounter between Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger in Davos during the Second Davos Hochschulkurs. Background The Cassirer–Heidegger debate was an encounter between the philosophers Martin Heidegg ...

" between

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

and

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

Presenters

Students

1930

The third conference was opened by Federal Councillor

Heinrich Häberlin Heinrich Häberlin (6 September 1868 – 26 February 1947) was a Swiss politician, judge and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1920–1934). From 1904 he was a member of the Swiss Council of States, from 1905 member of the Grand Council (Swit ...

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

Presenters

1931

Presenters

The fourth conference was opened by

Carl Heinrich Becker Carl Heinrich Becker (12 April 1876 – 10 February 1933) was a German orientalist and politician in Prussia. In 1921 and 1925–1930, he served as Minister for Culture in Prussia (independent). He was one of the founders of the study of ...

(lately the Prussian Minister of Culture).

Disestablishment

The 1932 conference could not be held because of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

'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