Walter Robert Corti

Walter Robert Corti (11 September 1910 – 12 January 1990) was a Swiss philosopher and writer. He contributed to the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the cultural magazine Du. In 1946 (after World War II) he helped found the Pestalozzi Children's Village which served homeless children and orphans from the war-torn countries.

Early life and education Walter Corti was born on 11 September 1910 in Zurich as the son of the botanic Alfred Corti the owner of the chemical company Flora in Dübendorf and a descendent of Italian immigrants who had established themselves in the Ticino. His mother was a Christian woman from Westphalia in Germany and a former student to the evangelic Friedrich von Bodelschwingh. and high school at the at the shores of Lake Constance. He wanted to be employed at the psychiatric clinic Burghölzli in Zurich. Following he was a high school teacher, The academy shall have become an international settlement of scholars. His plans were met with disappointment as in 1969 Uetikon withdrew a former permission to build the academy on land of their municipality. After his death, the library became part of the Centre for Ethical studies of the University of Zurich.

Pestalozzi Children's Village During World War II, Walter Corti and Marie Meierhofer discussed, what solution was to be found for the homeless children in the war-torn countries. In the August issue of Du in 1944, There were several localities that offered themselves for the children's village, such as Unterägeri in Zug or Zweisimmen in Bern, but eventually it was in Trogen in Appenzell where the Pestalozzi village was established on 28 April 1946. In the village, orphans from the war-torn countries were to be welcomed, in September the first children from France arrived and by the end of the year seven houses were inhabited.

Corti would preside over the institution from 1946 to 1950 and thereafter its honorary president. In 1956 he would receive an honorary citizenship of the Pestalozzi Children's village. On 24 October 1960, the United Nations Day, he laid the foundation stone for the first international house in the Pestalozzi International Village in Sedlescombe, United Kingdom

Philosophy Experiences like reading news from World War I in the childhood, the baptism which he refused while fifteen years of age, the reading of the Luther Bible, the philosophies of Baruch Spinoza and Immanuel Kant had some impact on him. With nineteen years of age he became interested in the pan-idealist movement led by the Paneuropean Union of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, becoming the president of the European youth section.

The Paneuropean Union propagates a Union of the European countries in order to maintain a peaceful Europe. He attended the congress of Christian students in 1932 and by 1934 he got in contact with the Eranos circle in Ascona, where he met with Carl Gustav Jung and Martin Buber. He would assemble a library of 30'000 volumes and donate it to the Academic Foundation for ethical studies in 1976. This donation would become the centre for ethical studies at the University of Zurich in 1989.

Personal life He married Anna Bonzo, the daughter of Hungarian violinist in 1946. He was the father of three girls and one boy. The family lived from 1954 until 1964 in Zurich and from 1964 to 1988 Corti and his wife settled to Winterthur in the house of poet Hans Reinhart, who died in 1963. Corti died on 12 January 1990 in Winterthur.

Recognition

1942 Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize 1957 Dr. h.c. in Philosophy of the University of Tübingen 1975 Albert Schweizer Prize in Brussels