News
News from SCI International Archives informs about recent activities and insights or ideas around archives and the history of SCI.
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on Nov 25, 2017
From the International Secretariat, I recently received its latest Annual Report. When I filed it to the Archives, I took the opportunity to look into older IS Annual Reports. I noticed that until the early 1970s there were no such documents – of course the IS regularly reported to ICM and IEC, but the Archives have no separate collection of reporting documents, apart from the ordinary mailings of the respective meetings. Then Theodor (Theddy) von Fellenberg took over the post of International Secretary from Ralph Hegnauer; the IS physically moved from Zurich to Bern (Theddy’s home town), later to Monti di Bodio, a mountain village in the South of Switzerland.
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on Oct 29, 2017
Even though a German branch of SCI has been founded only after World War II, with the help of British conscientious objectors from IVSP following the first Friedland refugee camp project (see my article from April 2016), SCI activities in Germany have started much earlier. Bertram Schröter, one of the oldest veterans of the movement in Germany, being active mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, has done an enormous job in compiling all available documents (and even transcribing some of them) from the branches pre-history in the 1920s until the mid-1970s.
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on Aug 27, 2017
One more report from a seminar on workcamp organisation and leadership from the deep 1980s. The seminar took place in a nice place outside Helsinki and it was called The Finland Seminar. Finland was not just a country among others in Europe, it was also an in-between space back then, in between the East and the West in the Cold War.
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on Jul 25, 2017
This is somehow typically 1980s: A lot of critical reflection mixed with funny cartoons, a sloppy layout compared to 21st century standards, and above all a very grassroots approach behind it. The readers are warned as early as in the preface on page 2 that this report is quite boring, as it was mainly written for the participants of the SCI seminar on workcamps that took place for a whole week in October 1985 in Linlithgow, Scotland. Copies were distributed to all branches for filing purposes, in order to fulfill our minimal bureaucratic duties. Even though I assume that most of us who are reading this will find it pretty funny and relaxed, it is hardly imaginable that one of the perfectly professionally layouted, carefully edited, and heavily subsidised brochures international SCI bodies are issuing nowadays would even dare to use such language. (And thanks God, even the generation before us took their bureaucratic duties seriously enough to leave one copy for the International Archives!)
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on Jun 20, 2017
"The evolution of SCI over the last forty years can be compared to the growth of a plant. The movement has spread from country to country and from continent to continent, taking root here and there. SCI has made various experiments in the field of voluntary work thanks to the energy and the generosity of men and women who deeply believe in SCI ideals and methods."
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on May 27, 2017
Not long ago, I received a request from a European SCI branch, asking me for the "first international constitution (1920)".
As everyone is aware that 1920 has been the year in which it all started (therefore we will soon be able to celebrate 2020!) the request somehow seems logical. But on the other hand, Pierre Ceresole and the friends who had organised the first international voluntary service for peace in a devastated French village two years after the end of the First World War surely had other priorities than to draft a constitution before even starting with practical work.
Posted by Liesbeth Vroemen on May 23, 2017
The sad news has reached us that Piet Kruithof, one of the founders of the Dutch branch of SCI, passed away recently, aged 92.
Posted by H. Gabathuler on Apr 22, 2017
This Guide for Camp Leaders, Hosts and Volunteers has been an indirect result of a seminar that took place in Stockholm in 1998 with participants from SCI branches and partners located around the Baltic Sea. It was subsequently produced by the Swedish branch IAL in co-operation with the Finnish branch KVT to try to raise the awareness of environmental issues and concerns that may arise during workcamps.
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on Mar 18, 2017
2020, when the first one hundred years of SCI will be celebrated, is moving closer, so it is time to remember another anniversary event: In November 1990, SCI celebrated its 70th anniversary in Verdun, France - as we all know, the first international voluntary service had started in November 1920 to reconstruct the village of Esnes in the surroundings of Verdun that had been devastated by German troops during the First World War. The anniversary celebration was combined with the 54th statutory International Committee Meeting (ICM). Another celebration event took place in India in the same month.
Posted by Heinz Gabathuler on Feb 23, 2017
For this and the next issue of From the Archives I had placed two nice objects on the shelf next to my desk some time ago already – but then I learned about the death of a very old friend from the Swiss branch of SCI, Fridolin Trüb (see article Swiss SCI veteran and lifelong peace activist Fridolin Trüb died, at age 97), and so I changed my mind and chose an object that is strongly related to this extraordinary SCI volunteer and peace activist.