Rudolf Sutermeister (May 7, 1802 – May 9, 1868)[1] was a Swiss medical doctor for the poor. He was also a businessman, a manufacturer, an early socialist and a socio-political writer. He is considered one of the first native Swiss German socialists, together with Gustav Siegfried, Johann Jakob Treichler, and Karl Bürkli; however, unlike Siegfried, he is also considered a utopian.[1]
Rudolf Sutermeister | |
---|---|
Born | Wynigen, Switzerland | 4 May 1802
Died | 9 May 1868 Zofingen, Switzerland | (aged 66)
Era | 19th-century philosophy |
Region | Western Philosophy |
School | Utopian socialist |
Main interests | Economics |
Notable ideas | Swiss liberal-communist circle |
Sutermeister was born in the municipality of Wynigen. He was a minister's son who came from an old family of town councillors in Zofingen, where he was naturalized. He graduated in medicine from the University of Basel and was trained as a doctor in Bern. In 1824, Sutermeister began practicing medicine in Zofingen.
He is often regarded as an economical and spiritual "proletaroid."[1] This is because he lived in financial distress while serving as a medical doctor to the lower class.
In the 1840s, inspired by Charles Fourier and Wilhelm Weitling, Sutermeister believed that the welfare of his country depended on a communist transformation. Three years earlier in 1837, he had appealed to the public for the first time with a social reform manifesto. He devised plans for socialist experiments following the Saint-Simon pattern. Together with August Becker and Johannes Glur, he formed a liberal-communist circle.[1] His last years were filled with litigation and he sank into oblivion. He died in Zofingen, on May 9, 1868.[1]
Sutermeister wrote many works with communist and chiliastic content. These works were disseminated in Switzerland by the Bund der Gerechten (Justice League).