• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Davos, Switzerland Sunday Mercury & Kunzle

BordesleyExile

BordesleyExile

master brummie
Does anyone have photos or memories of Pro Juventute, Davos the scheme which Sunday Mercury readers contributed to, or the Christian Kunzle Chateau also at Davos? Today Pro Juventute can be accessed on the website www.kinderklinic-davos.ch, though as Mozilla Firefox is not working properly I cannot copy the link.
The first two photos are of Pro Juventute Kinder Sanatorium at Davos Platz and the third is of the striking Christian Kunzle Chateau:
 
Bordsley have tried the link but comes up as this page cannot be displayed. I am interested as my dads cousins worked for Kunzles and visited the home. Would love to look through the photo's. Will try your link now Len. Thanks. Jean.
 
THE GIVE A CHILD HEALTH CHARITY
THE Sunday Mercury charity was set up in the 1953 to raise money to send asthmatic children for breaks in Switzerland.
It was recognised that time spent at high altitude significantly improved their breathing conditions.
The newspaper reported how philanthropic confectioner Christian Kunzle helped to fund boys suffering from asthma to be treated at the country’s Davos clinic.
Mr Kunzle was originally from Switzerland and made a fortune from producing Kunzle cakes at his factory in Birmingham and wanted to thank the city.
After the story appeared young asthma sufferer Brenda Jobson contacted the newspaper to ask why girls couldn’t go.
In response the Freddie Whitehead, editor at the time, started a fund known as Give A Girl Health - mainly so that Brenda could attend the Davos clinic.
She died before she could go.
But such was the response to the appeal, that arrangements were made to keep the fund going.
Freddie Whitehead discovered that the Red Cross had access to beds at the Davos clinic.
And with the help of Colonel Collins, Director of the Red Cross in Birmingham, and Dr Morrison Smith, chest consultant at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, he began sending up to half a dozen asthmatic girls for treatment at a time.
When Christian Kunzle died the boys were out on a limb, so the Give a Girl Health Fund included boys.
In more recent years the fund has sent three or four children for the long summer school holiday to an asthma clinic in the French Pyrenees and devoted some of its funds to the treatment of cystic fibrosis at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
In 1995 the fund was established as a registered charity and changed its name to The Give A Child Health Charitable Trust.
In 1997 the readers of the Sunday Mercury raised £110,000 to equip and run a lung function laboratory at the new Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
Other projects have included funding an eczema nurse.
Dr Peter Weller, a consultant paediatrician in respiratory medicine at the hospital, said: “The appeal helps to fund many ongoing projects, and to pay salaries for individual specialists.
“It really does make a difference to the lives of children at the hospital.”
Readers have raised tens of thousands of pounds since the appeal started but we still need your support to be able to continue helping. Len.










 
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJvzp5199zM"]YouTube - Rachel Moroz returns from Davos[/ame] The Sunday Mercury arranged this visit, well done. Len.
 
My aunt went to the Davos clinic in the 1950's suffering from tuburculosis she met a young man there and became engaged, they were on the front page of the sunday mercury when they returned from Switzerland and married.I was their bridesmaid.
 
Pam what a lovely story. My dads cousins worked for the company and they were treated to a holiday care of it a few times. I wish I had the photo's but they left their house in Victoria road and cleared most of them out. Shame. Jean.
 
Thanks you very much for the links, Lencops. My search engine had not found them so I am very gratefull. It is rather touching that MPs had such regard for the importance of holidays for workers, though mention of the Kunzle scheme is a strange digression.
No, the link I gave does not work because as I explained Moxilla Firefox is not working so I cannot cut & paste. You could try searching for alpine kinderklinic which normally brings up the former Pro Juventute which is where the Birmingham children so kindly financed by contributors to the Sunday Mercury Fund & Red Cross were sent to stay.
Kinder Sanatorium Pro Juventute was in Davos Platz below Schatzalp & just up the hill from the English Church where children with exzema were still expected to don those itchy choir boy / girl costumes & sing each Sunday. Still within walking distance was, in winter, the largest open air skating rink in Europe. Around the edge raced the speedskaters & inside that ring one end of the rink was given over to a private club, although the general skaters had the majority of space. Next to the large rink I think was the curling rink. We walked often but in winter we used to toboggan. Occasionaly there would be coach trips for instance to Lichtenstein or St Moritz, where we picked bilberries.
Whilst Pro Juventute was a purpose built sanatorium, Christian Kunzle's Chateau in Davos Dorf had been a private home. The boys that stayed there skied, toboganned & even collected slow worms from the slope below, at least until the teachers found out about the little menagerie. The Kinzle boys were even allowed to walk out on the lake when it was frozen, something not available to the Pro Juventute children. The pictures I have seen of the Kunzle Chateau are taken quite close up. It may have been difficult to take distance shots as on the opposite side of the valley the trees were quite dense & would probably have blocked the view.
I understand that in the 1950s there were few TB patients in Davos. In the 2nd picture that I posted it is possible to see the TB Sanatorium behind Pro Juventute. Notice the open verandas. We were made to lie down on day beds called ligis for 2 hours a day winter & summer. We were not permitted to read during that rest time, though I used to smuggle a book out & have it open on the floor so that I could occupy my mind.
Postcard sites such as Ebay have many old photos of Davos, though I have not seen any of Pro Juventute.
The walks from the sanatorium were wonderfull. There was & is a path running horizontally along the lower slopes of Schatzalp but high enough to give good views of Davos. Sometimes we used to visit the lake, or even the waterfall. The flowers were a delight & primroses grew in abundance such as I have not witnessed since. The squirrels were so tame they used to come up to fetch peanuts from tourists.
Thomas Mann set part of his book The Majic Mountain in a Davos sanatorium for adults. He describes the journey to Davos by train, though after all these years it is Davos itself I remember, not the approach to what was in the 1950s a very pretty little town.
 
My Mother was born in Davos and her sister lived opposite the sanatorium.
We knew the Kunzle family very well and used to visit when we went over on holidays, my uncle owned the Davoserhof hotel just up from the railway.
Below are some pics from the Hotel brochure
 
G Jean Yes it is a lovely story about my aunt.My mom has some photos somewhere will try and dig them out.The Sunday Mercury followed their story as they both made a full recovery and had my cousin 12 months after their wedding all the pictures were in the paper.
 
Thank you for the pictures Bilsat. The carved furniture in picture 3 was very similar to the dining chairs in Pro Juventute, so perhaps they were typically Swiss.
 
one of my friends went to switzerland under the give a girl health scheme...i think she would have been about 12 maybe...so that would have been in the mid 60s...

astoness:)
 
Pam the building in the back of the first photograph below was referred to as the TB Sanatorium around 1960. Pro Juventute, the children's sanatorium is to the right of the picture though I cannot recall the building to the left. The children used to use the medical facilities at the TB Sanatorium including x ray facilities such as I have never since seen & what I am told was an ioniser. The second & third pictures are very blurred & there is nothing I can do about that as they are from the alpine kinderklinic website but they show Pro Juventute with the trianglar playground bordered by the path along which the children are walking in photo two.
 
Thanks for the pictures Bordesleyexile..
My momhas some photos of her sister standing on the balcony of that building I will try and dig them out if I can.Many thanks Pam
 
Thanks, Pam it would be great if you could post some pictures. Astoness I hope your friend's heath improved. We were told the success rate was good for most children who stayed in Davos.
 
I Went out to Davos in the spring of 1953 on the Kunzel scheme and stayed at chateau bruxelles.I visited last year (Sept 2009) and things are much the same except it has been turned into a apartments.There is a brass plaque on the gate(in German)giving a history of the place.Whilst I was there I visited St Lukes church,where we sang in the choir.Does anyone remember a child drowning in lake Davosee in 1953,I believe he or she was something to do with a member of staff at the chateau. All being well my wife and self will be going back again this year(we like walking) so take advantage of the Davos free pass.
 
hi i am new to this site, not sure how it all works i am intrested in lots of the stories, however just looking at Davos int 1953 my father was there at this time, name afred. i hope to add to your stories soon
 
Hello Alfred, dont know whether your dad is still with us,but when in 53 did he go to Davos.Adderley does ring a bell. Cheers AK.
 
Hi AK, yes i will ask him the weekend not sure when, we were taking a few weeks ago about Davos, this is how we found the site, i will see him this weekend i check the date and add some stories, which may sound familar. thanks for the reply
 
Hi AK i think my dad was at Davos in 1952-53 some memories for thought, it was one of the worst avalanche we experienced, hearing the rumberling sound of the snow during the night,in the spring we used to climb up the mountains, picking the flowers, the cows were being let loose from the sheds after the winter, remember the bells ringing round their necks, one day we were walking along the side the mountian and there was land slide, does anyone remember? we were lucky we just missed it. We used to have choir pratice in the week ready for the service on Sundays, in the local village church, (i was in the choir) also local singing lesson was how to yodel! one of the best bits was the dungeons when we used go under the court yard from the main chateau run along from one end to the other switching off the lights while some one was passing scaring :)
 
Hi AK i think my dad was at Davos in 1952-53 some memories for thought, it was one of the worst avalanche we experienced, hearing the rumberling sound of the snow during the night,in the spring we used to climb up the mountains, picking the flowers, the cows were being let loose from the sheds after the winter, remember the bells ringing round their necks, one day we were walking along the side the mountian and there was land slide, does anyone remember? we were lucky we just missed it. We used to have choir pratice in the week ready for the service on Sundays, in the local village church, (i was in the choir) also local singing lesson was how to yodel! one of the best bits was the dungeons when we used go under the court yard from the main chateau run along from one end to the other switching off the lights while some one was passing scaring them.
 
New to this site. In 1968 I was at this sanitorium for asthma, I was there for a year and a half and without being melodramatic this probably saved my life. My parents could not afford to send me so from what I can gather most of it was paid for by the Red Cross. We as a family were living in Wales at the time, I was taken to Macynlleth, Mid Wales to meet a Red Cross representative called Mrs Reddish who took me to London where I was joined by a group of boys from the Midlands and we flew out to Zurich and then trained up to Davos. I was eight at the time, the boys were mostly around my age. After getting over the initial homesickness really this place was a boys paradise. We had two hours of school a day in the morning, could play as much football as we liked, went tabogganing in the winter, was taken on guided walks and really had a lot of fun, only downside was missing the family and having to lie on a veranda every day for two hours between 2pm and 4pm. We had injections on Fridays every week, suppositries quite often, fresh farm yogurt and milk but I never remember having an egg for the year and a half that I was there. There were boys of all nationalities and I became quite friendly with not only the English boys but also one or two German. Ice skating was another thing we did in the winter which was always good fun. The nurses were good and became like our serrogate mothers. It was lovely to have mail from home, it used to come as airmail. Some parents could afford to come out to see their children and they always used to make a fuss of all of us at the same time. My parents were surprised when I returned home that I spoke with a Birmingham accent but as I shared a room with two Brummies Eddie and David this was to be expected.

After catching this information you guys have posted I thought I would write this note. Thank you for the pictures as I have had trouble finding them.

I have waffled on enough - I hope this will be of interest to some of you.

Yours sincerely

Steve
 
Steve thanks for a lovely insight into your time in Switzerland as a boy. This thread is so interesting as many like myself had no idea it took place. I have visited the country myself it's so clean and views amazing.:)

By the way I spend a lot of time in Wales Llanrhystud to be precise
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Steve you might enjoy looking at old Davos postcards on Delcampe & Ebay. I did post links but for some reason the post was not accepted!
 
Does anyone remember my husband Christopher Greenway at the Kunzles Chateau Bruexelles in Davos in the early 1950s ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top