Memorial service held for foreign correspondent who specialised in the Arab world

Family, friends and colleagues of the late Arnold Hottinger, a foreign correspondent who specialised in reporting about the Arab world, gathered at the City church last weekend to commemorate his life. He died in May at the age of 92 after having spent the last few years of his life here in Zug.

As Brigitta Kühn-Waller of the City church explained, this location had been chosen as it was a place which very much fostered dialogue between those of different cultures.

Adding to the atmosphere of the occasion was music performed by Christian Moser on an oud, a type of Arab lute, as his daughter, friends and work colleagues paid tribute “to this great man”, whose portrait stood before them.

Jessica Hottinger spoke about her father’s fascination for the Middle East and the unusual life he had lived, mentioning how, for example, the family moved to the Lebanon as he wanted to learn Arabic. It was there he wrote many articles for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) and the first of 13 books he wrote on the Near East. He later moved to Los Angeles, but did not stay long, so much did he yearn for Arabia.

The family, by then with three children, moved to Madrid but he was hardly at home for more than 21 days at a time. And when he was, he was very busy writing, the children advised not to disturb him. He also became well known for his reports on Swiss TV and radio.

Fellow Near-East expert Ignaz Staub mentioned how Hottinger would no doubt have realised the dream of a paradise in the Arab world was not to be, Hottinger writing as early as 2004 that he knew he would die before the Arab crisis ended. Staub paid tribute to Hottinger’s language skills and great knowledge, which made him such an exceptionally good foreign correspondent. “He was never one for hasty shallow reporting; he was more of an observer who knew the background to the situations he wrote about,” he said, as he explained that it was visit to Tunisia which had initially sparked off Hottinger’s interest in the Arab world.

Another former colleague, Richard Meier, mentioned how Hottinger had worked for some 35 years for the NZZ, mainly reporting from Beirut, “where he spent his happiest times”, signing off his articles with his initials, as is the tradition at the newspaper.

It was also mentioned how he had previously worked in Paris, reporting, for example, on the end of the Franco regime before going on to report on the Middle East from Nicosia in Cyprus.

What he was known for in particular was his explanations to the historical background to events often confusing to the outsider, the conflict between Israel and Palestine, for example.

Another speaker at the service was Heiner Hug, the former editor of Tagesschau and Journal21. He mentioned how, last autumn, he had heard that Hottinger was in hospital and thought, “that means there will be no article today”, whereupon a few hours later he received an e-mail with an article about Syria, written from the hospital bed. “He wrote over 600 articles for us,” he said, “two or three a week. Everyone is replaceable, but not Arnold Hottinger.”

Annalies Ursin, who is well known in Zug cultural circles, mentioned how she consulted Hottinger about her interest in Palestine. “His knowledge impressed n me greatly,” she said. And Hans-Jörg Riwar, the vicar of the reformed Church in Zug, said what a great man he was, not that they had often spoken about religion together. “However, I did once ask him about divinity, whereupon he quoted a line from a mystic, who said, “God hides himself behind a veil”, without elaborating.

Money raised through a collection at the service was destined for the children of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.