Walter Corti

[3] When he was 19 years old he became interested in the pan-idealist movement led by the Paneuropean Union of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, becoming the president of the European youth section.

[4] Following a student court found Corti as essentially Jewish and a merely tolerated foreigner the idea to assemble a library of the knowledge of all mankind emerged.

[2] In the 1940s his literary interests gained some success, in 1940 he won the Swiss University Journal championship for his article Ratio Militans for which in 1942 was awarded the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize.

[5] In 1954 Corti called for the establishment of an academy in which research on peace, disarmament and the sociological conditions for development would be the focus and a large library on scientific literature should have place.

[7][9] During World War II, Walter Corti and Marie Meierhofer discussed, what solution was to be found for the homeless children in the war-torn countries.

[2] On 24 October 1960, the United Nations Day, he laid the foundation stone for the first international house in the Pestalozzi International Village in Sedlescombe, United Kingdom[12] Experiences like reading news from World War I in the childhood, the baptism which he refused while fifteen years of age, the reading of the Luther Bible, the philosophies of Baruch Spinoza and Immanuel Kant had some impact on him.

[1] With nineteen years of age he became interested in the pan-idealist movement led by the Paneuropean Union of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, becoming the president of the European youth section.

[2] He attended the congress of Christian students in 1932[2] and by 1934 he got in contact with the Eranos circle in Ascona, where he met with Carl Gustav Jung and Martin Buber.