The Bernese politician Albert Gobat and the IPU
“Always howling with the wolves is a practice that, in the end, does not bring much honour.” A. Gobat, 1905
Albert Gobat – A Bernese politician elected
as the first Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Albert Gobat was born in 1843 in Tramelan in the Bernese Jura, the son of a vicar in the Swiss Reformed Church. After obtaining a doctorate in law he opened his own chambers in Delémont in 1868. Alongside his profession as a lawyer, Gobat became increasingly interested in politics. In 1882 he was elected as a Liberal to the Bernese cantonal parliament and in the same year became a member of the cantonal government, a post he held for the next 30 years. From 1884 to 1890 Gobat was a member of the Council of States, and from 1890 to 1914 a member of the National Council. Gobat was a strong-minded but at the same time an obstinate person who always followed his ideas and aims with a great passion and without compromise.
As a member of the Swiss parliament, Gobat attended for the first time the 3rd Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Rome in 1891. He was appointed chairman as well as organiser for the annual conference the following year, which was held in Bern. At this meeting he distributed a proposal for creating a permanent IPU Bureau. His plan was that the “Inter-Parliamentary Bureau for International Arbitration” would be based in Bern. The delegates largely approved of his proposal and elected him as the first Secretary General of the IPU and Head of the IPU Bureau.
“The Utopia of today can become the reality of tomorrow.” A. Gobat, 1906
Gobat held the unpaid post of Secretary General for 17 years. Through his untiring and selfless commitment he made an immeasurable contribution to the development and continuation of the early IPU. He was particular interested in international arbitration and setting up a permanent court of arbitration. Another of his aims was to achieve the admission of delegates from countries that did not traditionally have a parliament.
Albert Gobat was a pacifist, and apart from being the Secretary General of the IPU he was a member of the League for Peace and Freedom. In 1891 he was among the founding members of the International Peace Bureau, which also had its headquarters in Bern. Together with his friend Elie Ducommun, Gobat was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1902. When Ducommun died in 1906 Gobat took over as Director of the International Peace Bureau. But he was becoming a focus of criticism, both for his dual function and his often authoritarian manner. In the opinion of various members of the IPU, Gobat was not a suitable person to be Secretary General and Bern was not the right choice for the Union’s headquarters. A change in the statutes was brought about, whereby the Secretary General of the IPU could not be a member of parliament. Moreover, the IPU’s headquarters were moved to Brussels. Meanwhile Gobat was keen to keep his seat in the National Council and consequently resigned as Secretary General of the IPU in 1909. He maintained his links to the Union, however, and was asked to chair an annual meeting again, namely in 1912 in Geneva. In 1914, during a meeting of the Peace Bureau, Gobat suffered an embolism and died shortly after.
“Preparing for war is not a preventive but an aggressive measure.” A. Gobat, 1911