Karl Burkli

Origin

Switzerland

Sources

DMN 1906, Franziska #13, Sandell, Wolski

Notes

Swiss group leader (Franziska 1855, colonists.py); 1906 roster calls him ; Sandell's 'Brochier, P. (Birqui, Burkli)' conflates him with Brochier — the description (a director, brought the Swiss) is Bürkli's'President, Emil Burkli' — forename conflict, note both

Ship

• Franziska, Bremen → Galveston, departed 13 May, arrived 4 July 1855 — #13, as BURKLY, Carl, Switzerland

Positions

• member of the Grand Council, Canton of Zurich — c. 1851 – 1855 (elected) [cordillot] founder of the Zurich Konsumverein the same year
• member of the conseil de direction, Société de Réunion — 1855-08 – c. 1856-02 (named) [cordillot] left after Considerant refused him a tannery
• delegate of the Zurich and Wetzikon sections, AIT congress, Geneva — 1866 (elected) [cordillot] on the commission that drafted the International's rules; a congress secretary at Lausanne 1867
• founder, AIT section, Zurich — 1864 (member) [cordillot]

From the register of positions.

Biography

Karl Burkli


Name
  Canonical: Karl Burkli
  German: Karl Buerkli; also Charles Burkli; "Burkly, Carl" (Franziska
    manifest); "Birqui" (Wolski); "Burcly" (Savardan)
  Nicknamed at Zurich "le chef de tribu" and "le Texan" for the rest of
    his life

Birth: July 31, 1823, Zurich, Switzerland, into a patrician family
Death: October 20, 1901, Mettmenstetten (Cordillot: "Mentmenstetten"),
  of a pulmonary infection
Burial: unknown

Origin: Zurich. Military school, walked out at 17 to become a
  tanner-currier. Journeyman tour through Lausanne (the Arbeiterverein's
  Weitling discussions), Lyon, Marseille and Paris, where he followed the
  chemist Dumas's evening courses at the Sorbonne and, in 1846, read
  Briancourt and then Renaud's Solidarite -- "a revelation." Met
  Considerant in the Fourierist circles. Home via England, Belgium and
  Holland on the eve of the February Revolution.

Before the colony
  - Tannery at Zurich; too little capital for a modern works
  - Propagated the Paris ideas in the Gruetliverein
  - 1851: founded the Zurich Konsumverein, soon the largest consumers'
    association in Europe by membership; won a seat on the Zurich Grand
    Council

Company role
  - Took part in drafting the Convention provisoire, the charter of the
    future Societe de Reunion
  - Raised more than 150,000 francs in Switzerland
  - With Gaspard Baer translated Au Texas for propaganda (Auswanderung nach
    Hoch-Texas, Zurich: Orell Fuessli, 1855)
  - Led the Swiss group of 31

Ship / arrival: Franziska, Bremen to Galveston, 13 May - 4 July 1855
  (passenger #13, "BURKLY, Carl"). Cordillot has the sailing April 12 and
  the arrival July 5 with 26 companions, five having been judged "not fit
  for the rough work of the beginnings" once in America; the manifest
  fixes the voyage (see TIMELINE 1855.04.12 and 1855.07.04).

Colony role: member of the conseil de direction of the Societe de Reunion
  from the publication of its statutes (August 1855). Six months later
  Considerant refused to let him start a tannery; discouraged, he left
  the colony for Central America. His own account (src/sources/burkli)
  puts his stay at about six months.

Post-colony
  - 1861: back in Switzerland, "a hardened phalansterian ... returned with
    his faith intact"
  - Founder of the Zurich section of the First International; delegate of
    Zurich and Wetzikon at the Geneva congress (1866), on the commission
    that drafted the International's rules; one of four secretaries at
    Lausanne (1867); at Basel (1869) raised direct legislation, backed by
    Rittinghausen and Liebknecht and rejected after Bakunin opposed it
  - 1880: Zurich correspondent of Benoit Malon's Revue socialiste
  - 1893: at the Zurich congress of the Second International, again made
    the apology of Fourier

Sources
  Cordillot, "Burkli Karl (ou Burkli Charles)," Au Texas (2003)
  Burkli's own account, transcribed in doc/text/ (src/sources/burkli/
    dossier.md, timeline.md)
  Franziska passenger list, #13 (doc/colonists/ships/franziska/roster.md)
  Sandell, colonist directory (conflates him with Brochier -- see
    src/sources/sandell/colonists.md)
  TIMELINE.md: 1855.04.12, 1855.07.04, 1857.04.06 (his loss figure)

Notes
  Burkli is the Swiss capital: 150,000 francs raised, the Swiss edition of
  Au Texas, and the party that became East Dallas. He is also the
  witness who put the first-years' loss at Fr. 120,000 of about two
  million invested (against the press's 1,800,000 "squandered") -- and
  who named the railroad land reservation as the cause of the failure.
  Santerre's list omits him entirely; Sandell folds him into Brochier.
  The Dallas tradition forgot the man who financed it.

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