School Utopian socialist Era 19th-century philosophy Role Writer | Name Rudolf Sutermeister Main interests Economics Region Western philosophy | |
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Born 4 May 1802 ( 1802-05-04 ) Wynigen, Switzerland Notable ideas Swiss liberal-communist circle Died May 9, 1868, Zofingen, Switzerland Influenced by Charles Fourier, Wilhelm Weitling | ||
Rudolf Sutermeister (May 7, 1802 – May 9, 1868) 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.
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Biography
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." 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. His last years were filled with litigation and he sank into oblivion. He died in Zofingen, on May 9, 1868.
Works
Sutermeister wrote many works with communist and chiliastic content. These works were disseminated in Switzerland by the Bund der Gerechten (Justice League).