Carl Hilty (28 February 1833 – 1909) was a Swiss philosopher, writer and lawyer. He famously said "Peace is only a hair's breadth away from war." Although a Christian he was no pacifist but expected the coming world war and was also a high officier in Swiss Army. He was married to German wife Johanna Gaertner. Hilty was a spokesman for womens rights to vote and to be elected many decades before the subject became mainstream.
Carl Hilty was born in Werdenberg, Switzerland, and studied at the Universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, to improve languages and see the world he also spent some time in London and Paris. After that he begann his work as a lawyer in Chur where he started also family live and lived for almost 20 years. In 1874, he became Professor of Constitutional Law (Staats- und Volkerrecht) at the University of Bern. From 1886, he edited Politisches Jahrbuch der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (The Journal of Swiss Jurisprudence). In 1890, he became a member of the Nationalrat, the Swiss parliament.
But he became famous by his writings about happines, three volumes - first printed in 1891, 95 and 99 - were combining ancient stoic thoughts with Christian belief in following the words Jesus. These books were translated and read all over the world, even by presidents of the USA or the first Kanzler of Germany Adenauer who survived the spiritual desert of Nazi time by reading Carl Hilty.
Hilty himself supported the Salvation Army which opened their services in Zurich, first he made jokes about their noisy appearance but only a few years later he recognised them as one of the few groups who were able to live Christianity and put the words of Jesus in practice. Hilty was in his time one of the few intellctuals who still believed in the Gospel while most dedicated themselfs to the so called "monostic" philosophy following the new sciences after Darwin.
Hilty believed in a new reformation beyond the dogmas of churches and politics after the time of materialsm has made people tired so they will be looking for once more spiritual meaning of their existence.
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