The Academy Bookman

311 The Academy Bookman

HENRI DUNANT AND THE RED CROSS* SALLIE MORGENSTERN Curator, Rare Book and History of Medicine Collections The New York Academy of Medicine New York, New York

ON June 24, 1859, during the short and bloody battle between Austria and the small Italian state of Piemonte, Henri Dunant, a rich patrician banker and philanthropist from Geneva travelled to Solferino to submit to Napoleon III a great industrial project for Algiers. By pure chance, he happened to see the battlefield with its thousands of dead and wounded. He forgot his projects and his millions. Two feelings over- whelmed him: horror of war and an ardent wish to help. It was there, on the battlefield of Solferino, that Dunant conceived the idea of the Red Cross. Out of his heart came the simple, spontaneous words that were to express the innermost spirit and sustaining idea of the Red Cross: "Tutti fratelli!" "We all are brothers!" Hundreds of wounded who had taken refuge in the main church in the village of Castiglione were fighting for a little straw to lie upon. As Dunant was passing, several Austrian soldiers were thrown down the church steps. "Oh, no! Don't do that. We are all brothers!" he cried. The wounded, the peasants, and the women looked with astonishment at the man who had just given the commandment of humanity. From that moment help came from every side and people no longer differentiated between friend and foe. The words, "We are all brothers, " born in one man's compassionate heart, subsequently became one of the basic points at the Geneva Convention, where, in Article 6, one reads, "Officers, soldiers and other persons officially attached to armies, who are sick and wounded shall be respected and cared for without distinction of nationality by the belligerent in whose power they are." Henri Dunant's business trip failed because the meeting with Napoleon

Part II of a two-part article. Part I appeared in the November 1979 issue of The Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine.

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III he had hoped to arrange did not take place. Back in Paris, he resumed his struggle to gain approval for his business venture. Two years went by as he proceeded from one governmental antechamber to another. During this time he was haunted by memories of Castiglione. Those horrors pursued him, and he could not rid himself of the thought that something must be done to cut down the loss of the wounded. Then, carried away by his inspiration, he wrote Un Souvenir de Solferino. The book appeared in 1862. It described in an extremely clear and gripping way his experiences on that battlefield, and at the same time set forth his suggestions for an international organization to alleviate the suffering caused by war. The book was a tremendous success and produced immediate results. Bringing to a climax earlier discussions in military and humanitarian circles of 19th century Europe, Dunant's sug- gested solution soon aroused the attention and concern of Europe. Milita- rists, pacifists, charitable women, cabinet ministers, and princes recog- nized its importance. Victor Hugo endorsed Dunant's "noble efforts with enthusiasm." Ernest Renan, the French philosopher, termed it "the greatest work of the century." The Goncourt brothers, France's most influential social critics, wrote that "A Memory ofSolferino is a thousand times more beautiful than Homer. One finishes this book by damning war." Charles Dickens devoted an article in his weekly All the Year Round to the "Man in White." Only French military leaders viewed Dunant's ideas with suspicion. Though only a small edition was initially printed for private use, demand for the book was so great that a second edition was called for within one month. It appeared in December 1862 simultaneously in Geneva, Turin, St. Petersburg, and Leipzig. Translations into German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, and English followed. Even more important was the reception accorded to Un Souvenir de Solferino in Geneva itself. Shortly after the appearance of the book in 1862, Gustave Moynier (1826-1910), a noted philanthropist, visited Dunant to tell him how moved he had been by Un Souvenir de Solferino. Offering his assistance, Moynier inquired what plans Dunant had to turn his inspiration into reality. Though they possessed qualities which were complimentary in certain respects, fundamental differences between Moynier and Dunant were evident from the first. Dunant was personal and emotional, Moynier was detached and cool. It was not surprising that they had never much understood one another, yet Dunant and Moynier

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. HENRI DUNANT 313 made an effective, if not a harmonious team. Together they created a unique organization for the benefit of all mankind. In 1862 Moynier was 36 years old, of a positive and practical turn of mind, and a strong character. He had studied law, but, on the edge of a legal career, he realized that he was not really interested in it. He searched for an occupation in which his skills had some chance of being useful. The subject that drew him most strongly was the problem of improving the conditions of the working classes. Moynier became a member of various international philanthropic committees, and attended their meet- ings in Paris, Brussels, Frankfort, and London, giving addresses on philanthropy considered as a mathematical problem. He was a founder of the Swiss Statistical Society, and was deeply absorbed in the study of social problems. One of his many activities consisted in presiding over the Geneva Public Welfare Society. It was Moynier who translated Dunant's ideas into real action. Initially, Dunant wanted to start the movement from Paris, which he considered the center of the world. However, upon the advice of Moynier, Dunant began the campaign for his ideas in Geneva. To this end, Moynier proposed to bring the whole matter before the Geneva Society for Public Welfare (Societe d'Utilite Publique). Moynier was as good as his word, and Dunant's book was discussed by the society in 1863. Founded in 1828, the Geneva Society for Public Welfare was com- prised of the aristocracy of that town. Known as much for its learning as for its charitableness, in 1863 the Society had 180 members and was managed by a central committee. In the beginning the group showed no great enthusiasm for Dunant's ideas. One member voiced serious doubts that an organization depending on volunteers to help the wounded could "arouse the energy or the enthusiasm of the people." But Moynier was not to be put off. He advised the society's members to support the idea, and urged the society to consider presenting Dunant's suggestions at its forthcoming congress to be held in Berlin in September. As a result of Moynier's efforts, a special committee of five members was appointed for further study of the entire matter. Ten days later the committee of five first met. In addition to Moynier and Dunant, its members included: General Dufour, commander-in-chief of the Army of the Swiss Confederation; Dr. Louis Appia, deeply interested in military surgery; and Dr. Theodore Maunoir, a well-known and respected Genevan practitioner.

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Dufour (1787-1875), the oldest and best known of the committee, was made chairman. Like Moynier, Dufour found his true profession only after a false start. Disappointed with his medical studies, he switched to an engineering school in Paris and continued his education at the military college in Metz. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars of France, and after Bonaparte's downfall, became a Swiss citizen. In Geneva he served in his dual capacity as an engineer and soldier. Besides being a lieutenant colonel in the Geneva militia and a captain in the Swiss Federal Army, he helped alter the face of Geneva with bridges and quays of his own design. In 1847 Dufour led the Federal Army in putting down an uprising by seven predominantly Catholic Swiss cantons, the Sonderbund, in an almost bloodless war. Dufour's handling of the delicate threat to Swiss unity won him acclaim throughout Europe and the admiration of generals abroad. His prestige and patronage were most valuable to a committee whose purpose was so closely related to questions of military organization. Theodore Maunoir (1806-1869), Genevan by birth and nephew of the well-known Dr. Jean-Pierre Maunoir, studied medicine in England and in France where he was graduated in 1833. During his stay in France, he was a cofounder of the Societe Medicale d'Observation. By 1860 he had become chief surgeon in the Geneva hospital and served on the board of health and the public hygiene and sanitation commission. He was a close friend of Louis Appia, and, like Appia, was a first-rate surgeon. A man of intelligence and charm, Maunoir was a vital addition to the committee because of his background in medicine and his judgment and wit. Dr. Louis Appia (1818-1898), the fifth member of the committee, was born in Germany of Swiss parents and studied medicine at Heidelberg and Paris. He chose Geneva as his home in 1849. Influenced by his studies of the Crimean War, he was keenly interested in the whole question of the treatment of wounds, and had engaged in special research on gunshot wounds. Like Dunant, he took an active part in the care of the wounded during the Italian campaign in 1859 and later in the hospitals of Brescia, Milan, and Turin. He was the first physician to offer his services in a civilian capacity to a foreign army and the first to urge the people in Geneva in May 1859 to start collections for the wounded. He described his wartime experiences in a brochure entitled Le Chirurgien a l'ambulance ... suivies de lettres a un collegue sur les blesses de Palestro ... The letters were addressed to Maunoir. In the brochure, Appia described his invention of a special splint with a rubber contrivance to enable

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. HENRI DUNANT 315 HENRI fracture cases to be moved with a minimum of jolting. He also described his experiments with chloroform to allow painless surgery, curare to ease muscle spasms and to make surgery more accurate, and chloride of iron to stop bleeding and to prevent hemorrhage. At its appearance, the brochure was widely appreciated, and its author was admitted to membership in a number of learned societies. His later publications and his enormous contributions to the Red Cross were immensely important to the organization. These five private individuals, without office or authority, and with no more backing than the 180 members of the Geneva Society of Public Welfare, started a movement of world historical importance. At the very outset, Dunant proposed that Moynier act as temporary chairman of the meeting. (Moynier later presided over this committee with a firm hand for half a century.) Members of the committee decided upon a plan of action. "This program," explained Dunant in presenting his plan, "includes the improvement of military hospitals, the universal adoption of new ideas on the treatment of wounded and sick soldiers, and the creation of a museum for the display of life-saving appliances, which would also be of use in civil life.'" The immediate objective of his program was that even before any questions of war arose, all countries should form societies of trained relief volunteers and collect all kinds of stores, such as medical equipment and stretchers. In the event of war, the societies would immediately go to the theater of operations to provide support to the medical services of their respective armies. The scheme seemed simple enough but it remained to be seen whether governments and armies would tolerate the presence of civilians on the battlefield. The committee decided to present a statement dealing with the suggestions put forward in the Souvlenir de Solferino at the coming Berlin Welfare Congress. In scarcely more than two hours the committee had laid down the fundamentals of the program-the internationalism of the movement, its centralization in Geneva, and its freedom from partisan or religious connections. It was resolved that medical standards be set and that government patronage be sought. Before adjourning the first session, the Committee of Five unanimously voted to change its title to the International Standing Committee for Aid to Wounded Soldiers (Comitc' International et Permanent de Secours aux Militaires blesses). From that moment, Dunant began an almost ecstatic restless activity which drove him from one end of Europe to the other. Records indicate

Vol. 57, No. 4, May 1981 S. MORGENSTERN 316 S. MORGENSTERN that Dunant spent nearly 50,000 Swiss francs of his own funds on these tireless journeys on behalf of the cause. He was so obsessed with the Red Cross that he totally neglected his business affairs. When the committee met for the third time, Moynier proposed that the world's major nations be invited to send delegates to an international conference at Geneva on October 26, 1863 "for the purpose of putting M. Dunant's suggestions into operation ... and if necessary, to recom- mend the appropriate measures for their execution." Dunant was charged to encourage diplomats and military experts to attend the meeting. Still believing that political forces in Paris would greatly contribute to the success of his plans, Dunant visited Paris and was received by a number of important people. He also travelled at his own expense to Berlin, where the International Statistical Congress was meeting. His aim was to set out his ideas and gather support from international circles. In Berlin Dunant met a Dr. Basting, who was representing the Dutch government and who turned out to have energy similar to his own. These two kindred spirits immediately struck up a friendship and submitted a joint proposal to the Congress to establish the neutrality of army medical services. Their proposal was eagerly debated and, in the end, approved by the experienced body of savants and public officials who represented many countries. Delegates to the congress unanimously voiced the hope that "'all governments would recognize the neutrality of the wounded, as well as of military and civil volunteer and auxilliary medical personnel." While in Berlin, Dunant issued a circular setting forth the conclusions of the Berlin Congress endorsing his new proposal of neutrality. In the name of the committee in Geneva, but without the committee's prior approval, he requested the governments invited to the congress to agree to the neutrality of the personnel of the army medical services and to grant facilities in wartime to relief organizations to convey supplies to invaded areas. Dunant seized the opportunity of explaining his plans to influential members of the reigning families and to leading politicians in Germany. After Berlin, he visited Dresden, Vienna, and Munich, where he was received successively by King John of Saxony, the Archduke Rainer, the Bavarian Minister of War, and many others. Wherever he went he was enthusiastically welcomed. Thus, he won his first converts outside Swit- zerland both in France and Germany. Returning to Geneva, Dunant was severely reprimanded for issuing his circular in Germany without previously consulting his colleagues. But

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Dunant contended that there was no time to be lost as the Geneva conference was to meet soon. In his enthusiasm he never imagined that his colleagues would not appreciate the course he had taken. Thanks to the prestige of his name, however, his audacious act largely contributed to the success of the Geneva conference. On October 26, 1863 the International Conference opened in Geneva under the presidency of General Dufour. It was a triumphant achievement. The representation at the conference exceeded all expectations. Eighteen representatives from 14 governments were present, and the discussions lasted for four days. Participants, comprising senior officers, military surgeons, and quartermaster generals, were at first sceptical because of the sheer novelty and daring of the project before them. Although there were numerous debates about the merits of the ideas before them, the participants concluded the conference on October 29. With a few small changes, the participants reached a complete understanding on all the points under discussion and recommended the creation in all countries of voluntary committees for the relief of the wounded. On Dr. Appia's motion, a uniform emblem, a red cross on a white field, was proposed for all members of the future relief societies. As this conference was unofficial, it requested the early convening of a diplomatic congress to settle questions of international law raised by the problem of "neutralising" the wounded. In accordance with these 1863 resolutions, committees formed in almost every country in Europe, and the Geneva committee was trans- formed into an international committee, with General Dufour as president, Gustave Moynier as vice-president, and Dunant as secretary. The new international committee wasted little time in preparing for the coming diplomatic congress which the Swiss government offered to convene in Geneva where the Red Cross was born. Henri Dunant again set out on his travels. Because the Germans were, to a large extent, already won over to his views, Dunant turned his attention to France. He was eloquent enough for the cause to be able to gain the support of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. Instructions were sent to the French ambassadors to make known to the governments of the countries to which they were accredited that Napoleon III took a personal interest in the question of the neutrality of the medical services. This action was sufficient to decide other countries in Europe. On June 6 the Federal Council of Switzerland invited 25 sovereign states to send representatives to the forthcoming diplomatic congress in

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Geneva. The representatives of 16 governments gathered on August 8, 1864 for the opening, of the congress. Messrs. George Gilman Fogg, United States Minister to Switzerland, and Charles S. P. Bowles, Europe- an agent of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, were the American delegates, but were accredited only for "giving and receiving such suggestions as might be thought likely to promote the human ends which have prompted the meeting." From the minutes of the congress and reports of the American delegates, it appears that many delegates doubted the possibility of adoption by the nations and the ratification of a treaty along the lines formulated by the 1863 conference. They were particularly doubtful about the success of the provision permitting the presence of volunteer Red Cross agents within the theater of hostile operations and without the consent of military authorities. However, experience gained during the American Civil War, still in progress, indicated that it was practicable and safe for the warring powers to permit neutral medical personnel in the combat area. The Congress adjourned on August 22, 1864, after the delegates had adopted and signed a final document drafted by Moynier. This Convention for the Welfare of Soldiers Wounded in Action consisted of 10 articles and was a milestone in the history of mankind. It embodied the great principle that members of the armed forces who are wounded or sick, and thus harmless and defenseless, must be respected and cared for without distinction of nationality. As a corollary, and in the exclusive interest of the wounded, it added that ambulances, military hospitals, and medical personnel were to be protected against hostile acts. The distinctive emblem of the red cross on a white field was to be the visible sign of this immunity. Its conventions later would be extended to protect wounded sailors and relief ships (1899) and prisoners of war (1907 and 1927). The significance of the convention was many-sided. It opened the way to the whole body of treaty law relative to the rules of war. The Hague conventions and, still more, the Geneva conventions, sprang from it. The success of the diplomatic congress which produced the first Geneva convention undoubtedly was due to Dunant's remarkable ability. At that time, disagreements had already arisen within the Geneva committee; criticisms which he was loath to answer were advanced against him, and Moynier's attitude towards him was tempered with misgivings. Even before the opening of the conference in the spring of 1864, Dunant was on the verge of collapse. Reviewing all that had been achieved during the months in which he had spent himself, emptying his

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pockets and giving his mind and body to the cause, it dawned on him in a flash that his task was finished. He realized that his influence in the committee at Geneva was practically gone. He was constantly criticized for the initiative he had shown. Moynier had taken charge and Dunant was relegated to the role of an underling. Thus, worn out and depressed, on May 29, 1864 Dunant wrote to Moynier from Paris asking to resign. "Now sir, I believe I have done everything I could possibly do to contribute to the advancement of our work and make it progress; I would like to stand down completely. Moynier replied at once. "Sadly," he wrote, "your letter ended with the news that has caused all of us consternation, ... . We are your aides not your replacements, and to abandon us would be the surest way to compromise our success ... .' His words had the desired effect; Dunant yielded to persuasion to stay and returned to take part in the preparation for the August meeting. He was put in charge of entertainment for the delegates. After the convention, Dunant, unwanted and openly disregarded by the committee, spent more and more time in Paris. In May 1865 he again went to Algiers only to find his mills still unproductive. At a gala in honor of Napoleon III, the emperor seemed to go out of his way to praise Dunant for his relief work and even promised to aid the mills of Mons- Djemila if Dunant could get strong backing. Dunant rushed back to Geneva with the news of the meeting, but the stockholders and prospec- tive investors in his Algerian dreams had grown wary of his visions. Back in Paris Dunant devoted himself equally to the Red Cross and to efforts to salvage his business. His depression lifted briefly when the Queen of Prussia personally invited him to Berlin in September 1866 to help celebrate Prussia's recent victory over Austria. In June of that year war had broken out between Prussia and Austria re- sulting partly from a disagreement over the joint rule of Schleswig- Holstein. At that time no relief society for the wounded had been formed in Vienna. The government had not acceded to the Geneva Convention. On the Prussian side, a number of Red Cross societies were already well- organized. The difference in the two situations turned out to be striking. On the one side, the medical services were quite inadequate; on the other, military doctors and nursing orderlies were backed by admirably trained teams with excellent equipment. The result was to be measured in the loss of human lives on so large a scale that even before the seven-week war ended, Austria acceded to the Geneva Convention.

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Dunant returned to Geneva from Prussia. He was not greeted with praise and enthusiasm in his native city. The same men who had invested in Dunant's Algerian venture, dreaming, as Dunant had, of easy wealth, now shunned him. Doors that were once opened wide in welcome were slammed shut. Soon after, he set out again for Paris. He tried to raise money by gambling on the Bourse, by investing in the French stock market, and by borrowing money from his family and close friends. He failed, however, and the shadow of bankruptcy and ruin grew darker by the day. In Paris, despite his great financial worries and disappointments, his mind was full of grandiose projects. In 1866 he began developing the idea of an international world library. This library was to house the important books of every civilization, and these books were to be made available to everyone. Much ahead of its time, this project was never funded. Besides the library project, Dunant nurtured other big projects for a better world and became their itinerant advocate. In March 1866 he published a booklet entitled The Rebirth of the Near East. In it he advocated the formation of a powerful international corporation with an independent budget, supported by both public and private investments, to secure land concessions in Palestine from the sultan, and sell them again for organized resettlement of the Jewish people in their homeland. Dunant's Middle East doctrine had as its underlying purpose the peaceful liberation of the Holy Land and the international economic development of the Arab lands. Dunant was acclaimed as a pioneer at the first Zionist Congress of 1897 in Basle. Today, on the slopes around Jerusalem, a tree named after Henri Dunant grows in the midst of the forest dedicated to the benefactors of mankind. In the beginning of 1867 Dunant was still in Paris struggling to save his Algerian business. He was not successful. On his return home, his creditors and shareholders attacked him simultaneously on all fronts, with the Credit Genevois, whose board of directors included Dunant, leading the charge. In their role as creditors they arraigned Dunant before the court. The commercial court issued a severe sentence against the board of directors, but Dunant's name was not mentioned. When the proceedings came up again a year later before the civil court, all the members of the board of directors were convicted, but Dunant alone was found responsi-

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. HENRI DUNANT 321 2 -~~ ~~~~HNIDNN ble for having "willfully deceived" his colleagues and was required to repay the shareholders. Dunant was in one stroke totally ruined. Saddled with a debt amounting to nearly a million francs, the structure which he had built crumbled to pieces. Mons-Djemila disappeared, involving in its fall the other compa- nies for which the mills had been pledged as a surety. Although they tried, neither he nor his family could meet the judgment. According to the unwritten rules of his time and his class, Dunant had no choice but to leave Geneva. His exile began in 1867 and never ended. The disgrace he had brought to his family weighed heavily upon him. The debts he left unpaid troubled his waking and sleeping hours every day of his life. In later years he described his wretched existence. At times he spent his nights on street benches and in railway waiting-rooms. When he passed in front of a baker's shop, his whole body cried out in hunger; his socks were so full of holes that he daubed India ink on his heels to hide the fact. During this time, doubts were growing within the International Com- mittee. In the summer of 1867, even before the court of first instance had pronounced its judgment on Dunant, Moynier was attempting to get rid of him. Just about the time of the Paris Exposition, Dunant, who was at the Red Cross Societies' Conference, wrote to his mother on the 25th of August, "I did not show that I had seen Monsieur Moynier and, as he made no move to come towards me, we neither saw nor met each other." Yet, at the first session Dunant was nominated honorary member of the Committees of Austria, Holland, Sweden, Prussia, and Spain, and, together with Gustave Moynier and General Dufour, was awarded the Exhibition Gold Medal. Forestalling events, Dunant sent the International Committee a letter on August 15, 1867 announcing his resignation as secretary of the Commit- tee. It was accepted with glee by his colleagues. Moynier took advantage of the situation to install himself finally as master of the Committee. Delegates to the Geneva meeting were informed that because of "bad conduct" Dunant was no longer a member of the Committee. Before too many years had passed, inquiries about the founder of the Red Cross met blank looks and suggestions that he was probably dead. For years to come, histories of the Red Cross glossed over Dunant's contributions or overlooked them entirely. For 46 years (1864-1910) Gustave Moynier served as president of the International Red Cross

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Committee. From the original 14 members of the Geneva Convention, the number grew to 55. No matter what his personal shortcomings may have been, Moynier gave shape and force to the moral convictions he shared with Dunant. In 1870 war broke out between France and Prussia over who should rule Spain after the Hapsburgs. Financially, Dunant was in no better shape, but once again he managed to climb from oblivion to relieve the wounded. He began by writing to officials, reiterating the requirements of the Geneva Convention. When nothing happened, Dunant appealed direct- ly to the Empress Eugenie to remind the government to observe the Geneva Convention. He asked in addition for neutralization of towns where the wounded could be treated. This suggestion did not bear fruit, and it was not until after the collapse of the French Army at Sedan that Dunant's voice was heard, and official action was taken to protect the neutrality of medical teams. During the Paris Commune, Dunant displayed not only compassion, but great bravery. With extraordinary courage, he rescued many victims from the Paris Communards, and risked his life crossing the lines to intercede with them in order to prevent excesses which he feared they would commit. The exile from Geneva never ceased to work for the Red Cross. Both prisoners of war and naval personnel preoccupied Dunant in the years ahead, but he could do little but write and lecture. As early as 1863, before the first diplomatic conference, Dunant had given some thought to the prisoners of war. In 1867 he drafted a report on the same subject for the Paris conferences. But his efforts did not produce any kind of response. Later, he took up the struggle again and founded a special committee in Paris. Paris was not ready to hear what he had to say, so he went to London. At a meeting there, he was so faint from hunger that he could not finish his address. A few days later, though, he lectured at Plymouth, presenting a plan for an international high court of arbitration. It was the beginning of two years of exhausting labor, stubborn determi- nation, and grinding poverty. The goal he set himself was to convene another diplomatic conference to lay down provisions for the treatment of prisoners of war. The czar promised his support and encouraged the meeting of the congress, with a proposal that Russia should be the inviting power and that the conference be held at Brussels in August 1874. But the views of Alexander II and his ministers did not coincide with those of Dunant, who wanted to extend the scope of the discussions

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. HENRI DUNANT 323 DUNANTHENRI 323~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ and lay down provisions for "'a general settlement of international rela- tions in time of war.'' A long time was to elapse, and many thousands of prisoners were to be thrown into camps during the First World War before the convention sought by Dunant was at last agreed to in 1929. On February 1, 1875 an international congress was organized in Lon- don for the full and definitive abolition of the sale of Negroes and of the slave trade. It was convened by the Universal Alliance of Order and Civilization, a society created by Dunant in Paris just after the 1870 war. In working for the most pitiable of all of his fellow creatures, Dunant was uttering the last of his appeals to the conscience of men to heal the suffering of mankind. Until 1887 Dunant wandered all over Europe. A vagabond without roots, he lived the life of an outcast, finding food where he could and sleeping on benches in railroad stations when it was cold or in parks when it was warm. Today, only a scrap of paper listing the cities through which he roamed between 1876 and 1887 exists. Nothing is known of what he endured. In the summer of 1887 an old man with a white beard turned up in the little Swiss mountain village of Heiden on the banks of Lake Constance. On the village square the astonished villagers turned round to look at the weary man. The man was only 59 years old and his name was Jean Henri Dunant. Poverty and wretchedness had driven him to seek refuge in this place deep in the country. His health was very poor and his right hand was so sore and painful that he could not write. Dunant made his way to the modest Hotel Paradis where he managed to keep himself alive for some time with just a few pence. He was so poor that he had to stay in bed on the days his linen was washed as he had no change of clothing. The village schoolmaster finally went to call on this stranger and discovered that he was Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross. The schoolmaster, William Sonderegger, took Dunant under his wing, and the generous villagers were pleased to have the distinguished man settle in their community. They listened to his stories and tried to calm him when he grew angry, bitter, and unhappy over the insults and torments that had followed him through 20 years of exile. The wanderer had found a home at last. Before long he was made honorary president of the Heiden chapter of the Red Cross and resumed the habits of another era as he again took up his pen to begin the huge task of preparing his memoirs. His family gave him a tiny allowance of 100 francs a month, just enough to provide him

Vol. 57, No. 4, May 1981 324 S. MORGENSTERN with the bare necessities of life. In the warm atmosphere of Heiden, he was determined to recapture the honor that was justly his and for which he had suffered so long. But it was difficult. The years of exile, which had taken their toll of his physical and mental health, left Dunant sleepless and bitter, and brought him to the edge of insanity. By 1892 it had become clear that Dunant's health was too precarious for him to live alone, and he was admitted to the District Hospital at Heiden, where he remained for the rest of his life. There in his little room, a sanctuary from the world, Dunant was happy to be alone, thinking and writing what he pleased. He had lived in this way for five years when a Swiss journalist, George Baumberger, came across him and wrote a sensational article about him in a popular Stuttgart newspaper. There were rumors of war just at that time. It was the right moment for Dunant to be rediscovered. All Europe was shocked and moved by the news that the founder of the Red Cross lived in poverty and loneliness. Honors, subscriptions, and presents began to flow in from all sides. He was awarded the Moscow Prize as a benefactor of suffering mankind by an international congress gathered in Moscow. From all over there was an avalanche of letters and cards sent by well- wishers, and from other sources came gifts of money. Dunant remained unmoved. He had known fame and popularity before; now he knew their worthlessness. He used the money he received to pay his creditors. During this time, a welcome visitor was Bertha von Suttner, a close friend of the dynamite king, Alfred Nobel, and author of the sensational novel Die Waffen Nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!). The dynamic Austrian who gave all her time to pacifist causes, roused Dunant from his lethargy, encouraged him to write, and got his articles printed in various European papers. In addition to helping the pacifist organizations with his name and words, Dunant wrote a long article in support of Czar Nicholas II's proposals for an arms reduction in Europe. Before the first International Peace Conference met at the Hague in 1899, Dunant wrote to the baroness to make sure that his chief plans for peace would be considered and to advise her on the methods to use. The baroness and her tutor in Heiden were thus partly responsible for the most significant achievement of the First Hague Conference-the establishment of a permanent court of arbitration at the Hague. Indirectly, the Baroness von Suttner, who had done so much to stimu- late Dunant's will to live, was the agent of his greatest honor. It is the baroness who is commonly given the credit for inspiring Alfred Nobel to set

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aside one fifth of his estate as a prize to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for peace among the nations. On December 10, 1901 the names of the first two winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were an- nounced. One was Frederic Passy (1822-1912), a writer and tireless worker for peace, the founder of the French Peace Union. He shared the honor with Jean Henri Dunant, the father of the International Red Cross. However, Dunant had no desire to leave his cloistered existence. He gave the peace prize money to charity, and continued to live as frugally as before. His 80th birthday was another occasion for an outbreak of celebra- tions, but he took no part in them. Dunant died October 30, 1910 in Heiden, and left a will saying: "I wish to be carried to my grave like a dog with none of your ceremonials which I despise. I trust in your goodness to carry out this, my last wish. Amen. I am a disciple of Christ as in the year one hundred and nothing else." According to his wishes, his body was cremated and the ashes buried in an unmarked grave in a Zurich cemetery.

SO URCES Appia, L.: The Ambulance Surgeon or Practical Observations on Gun- shot Wounds. Edinburgh, Black, 1862. : Le chirurgien a' l'ambulance ou quelques etudes pratiques sur les plaies par armes a feu .... Geneve, Paris, J Cherbuliez, 1859. Barton, C.: The Red Cross; A History of This Remarkable International Movement in the Interest of Humanity. Washington, D.C., American National Red Cross, 1898. Boppe, R.: L'Homme et la guerre. Le Docteur Louis Appia et les di'buts de la Croix Rouge. Geneve, Paris, MUhlethaler, 1959. Compte rendu de- la conference internationale re'unie a Geneve ... pour etudier les moyens de pourvoir a l'insuffisance du service sanitaire dans les arme'es en campaigne. Geneve, Fick, 1863. Dunant, J. H.: La charite internationale sur les champs de bataille .... Paris, Hachette, 1865. Dunant, J. H.: Un souvenir de Solferino. Geneve, 1862. Duval, A. J.: "Notice sur le Docteur Theodore Maunoir." Bull. Soc. Med. Suisse Romande: 322-36, October 1869. Franqois, A.: Le berceau de la Croix Rouge .... Geneve, 1918. The Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. Geneva, International Com- mittee of the Red Cross, 1952.

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Gigon, F.: The Epic of the Red Cross .... London, Jarrolds, 1946. Gumpert, M.: Jean Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross. Ciba Symposia 4:1368-74, 1942. Hamburger, K.: The Red Cross in the 19th century. Soc. Forces 21:22- 27, 1942. Joyce, J. A.: Red Cross International and the Strategy of Peace. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1959. Junod, M.: Warrior Without Weapons. London, Cape, 1951. Love, A. G.: The Geneva Red Cross movement .... Army Med. Bull. 62:1-182, 1942. Major, R. H.: Fatal Partners .... New York, Doubleday, 1941. Moynier, G.: Les dix premieres anees de la Croix Rouge. Geneve, Fick, 1873. Moynier, G. and Appia, L.: Help for Sick & Wounded .... London, Hotten, 1870. Muller, R.: Entstehungsgeschichte des Roten Kreuzes ... Stuttgart, Geiner & Pfeiffer, 1897. Rich, J.: Jean Henri Dunant .... New York, Messner, 1956. Rothkopf, C. Z.: Jean Henri Dunant .... New York, Watts, 1969. Die Waffenlose macht .... Passau, Wien, Traunau, 1953.

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