Image by 7Messer on Pixabay · Pixabay License
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1874-10-21 ) 21 October 1874, Mézières , Vaud , Switzerland
- Died
- 7 April 1960 (1960-04-07) (aged 85), Pully , Vaud, Switzerland
- Allegiance
- Switzerland
- Service years
- 1894–1945
- Rank
- General
- Commands
- Swiss Armed Forces
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Henri
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Switzerland
- Place of birth
- Mézières
- Place of death
- Pully
- Occupation
- politician
- Educated at
- University of Lausanne
- Languages spoken
- French
- Conflict
- World War II
- Military branch
- Swiss Armed Forces
- Image
- Guisan Visp 1942 D2.8916.jpg
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Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Henri Guisan ( French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi ɡizɑ̃]; 21 October 1874 – 7 April 1960) was a Swiss military officer who held the office of General of the Swiss Armed Forces during the Second World War. He was the fourth and the most recent person to be appointed to the rarely used Swiss rank of general, and was possibly Switzerland's most famous soldier. He is best remembered for effectively mobilizing the Swiss military and population in order to prepare resistance against a possible invasion by Nazi Germany in 1940. Guisan was voted the fourth-greatest Swiss figure of all time in 2010.
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Henri Guisan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.