Hector Hodler

Who was Hector Hodler?

Hector Hodler was a Swiss Esperantist who had a strong influence on the early Esperanto movement.

Hodler was a son of the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler, who after a period of poverty became suddenly very well-to-do. As a 16-year-old, Hector Hodler learned Esperanto with his classmate Edmond Privat, and founded soon afterward a club and the journal Juna Esperantisto. The schoolbench was their editorial office for five years as they managed production, addressed copies and replied to correspondence. Sometime later they learned about Idiom Neutral and about Bolak, in order to convince themselves as to whether Esperanto was truly the "best" international language. Besides The Young Esperantist, he authored articles in Through the World and the translation of the novel Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de Saint Pierre.

In 1906, on the occasion of the second World Congress of Esperanto, he saw in the organizational proposals by Théophile Rousseau and Alphonse Carles for Esperanto consuls a chance to realize his plan to organize reciprocal self-help among people of good will. This was the germ of the World Esperanto Association of which Hodler was a co-founder.