Afera Grimma-Hoffmanna. Szwajcarski przypadek samowolnej misji parlamentarzysty w polityce zagranicznej

Abstract

The years of the First World War were also a difficult period for Swiss society. Its political polarization came out particularly sharply in the face of the political crises that occurred at the time. One of the most serious was the so-called Grimm-Hoffmann affair of June 1917. The leader of the Swiss socialist milieu, one of the better-known parliamentarians, Robert Grimm, who went to Stockholm to attend the socialist congress and then to Petrograd, turned out to be a secret agent of the head of the Political Department of the Swiss government, Arthur Hoffmann. Robert Grimm’s mission was to probe the new Russian government about the possibility of a separate peace between Russia and Germany. This exposed unlawful action, undertaken without the agreement of the government, led to an international scandal, as the actions of R. Grimm and A. Hoffmann were contrary to Switzerland’s policy of neutrality. At the same time, there was an intensified press campaign in the country against A. Hoffmann, ending with his resignation. The arguments used by the public in their attacks on A. Hoffmann, clearly show that the Swiss society did not tolerate the actions of parliamentarians that went against the customs of a democratic state.