The Red Cross in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

F OR a century the Red Cross has been one of the most familiar institutions of the civilized world. It is taken as much for granted as the ordinary mail and railway service, meaning of the Red Cross is known to everyone and, if in peace time its organizations remain more in the background of public life, in times of war as now, they become the focal point of public interest. For everyone, from the High Command to the ordinary civilian, Red Cross has only one single meaning unaffected by any political differences of opinion, namely humanity and love of mankind. The brotherhood of thus was set forth as the meaning of the Red Cross at one of its many anniversary celebrations. Here for the second time in the history of mankind the cross became a superindividual and an international symbol of the original unity and equality of man. One can say that the international humanitarian institution of the Red Cross is the first or at least the most important practical realization of the ethical meaning of Christianity, that is the ethical principle of brotherly love. As have already said, the international humanity and practical Christianity of the Red Cross is absolutely familiar and presents no problems to us. Nevertheless there is no institution of our modern life which is more beset with problems and contradictions. One word will suffice to indicate these problems. Because of its very nature the Red Cross is an instrument of war, of course an instrument that softens war, that sets up its own salvation in opposition to the destruction of human life, and in the very midst of war replaces the meaning of enemy with the meaning ofL himself. Nevertheless its problem remains. Likewise its humanity serves the anti-human, for its optimistic love of humanity is based on the pessimism which holds that war is unavoidable for human society. In fact this connection between the Red Cross, the most universal and humane institution, and war, the most nationalistic and inhuman, is the first and most apparent contradiction that meet in its structure. But even with this statement not much is recognized and understood. We must first ask whence comes this contradiction. When do this the curtain rises on one of the most interesting and remarkable epochs in history, that of the nineteenth century, with its contradictory political and intellectual character. Red Cross, created in the middle of this century, is in fact a mirror and even a turning point in the great and contradictory intellectual trends of the nineteenth century. Martin Gumpert has given the most vivid and important presentation of the story of the Red Cross in his book published in Stockholm in 1938. It tells of the life and personality of the founder of the Red Cross, a Swiss merchant and philanthropist, Henry Dunant, whose name and personal work have been forgotten by the world to a far greater extent than that of most people who have been connected with so great a work. This rich banker, patrician, and philanthropist conceived the idea of the Red Cross as a result of his experience in war. It was in the summer of 1859, during the short and bloody war between Austria and the small Italian state of Piemonte, that Dunant came to Solferino in order to submit to Napoleon III a great industrial project for Algiers. By pure chance he happened to see the battlefield with its thousands of dead and wounded left helpless, and he forgot his projects and his millions. Two 'feelings overwhelmed him; the horror of war and the ardent wish to help. It was there on the battlefield of Solferino that Dunant conceived the idea of the Red Cross. Out of his heart came the simple spontaneous words which from then on were to express the innermost spirit and sustaining idea of the Red Cross: Tutti fratelli! We all are brothers! Hundreds of wounded who had taken refuge in the church Maggiore in Castiglione were fighting for a little straw to lie down upon. Dunant was just passing as several Austrian soldiers were thrown down the church steps. Oh no, don't do that, are all brothers he cried, and the wounded, the peasants, and the women, looked with astonishment at the man who had just given the commandment of humanity. From this moment came help from every side and one no longer differentiated between friend and foe. It was these words we are all brothers born in one