Spaces Vol 1 Is 6

The war had ended and Europe was
licking its wounds. Though Robert
moved away from art, he continued with
his passion for sports. However, as he
grew older, his physique became heavier
and he had to change from gymnastics
to wrestling. He made the Wulflinger
Turnverein (gymnastic club) proud by
bringing in medals and wreaths and even
winning the cantonal (state)
championships. Robert joined the
obligatory army service with the “Light
and Mechanized Troops”, where he
thought he would be driving around in a
jeep; he ended up with the bicycle troops.
He left the army when he did not get
first accreditations to become an officer.
Even after leaving the army, he
continued bicycling and toured large parts
of war-torn France, Italy, Spain and
England. An entry in Robert Weise’s diary
dated: London 29 th June 1948, gives an
early hint on what he was going to do
with his life. “The foreign lands are not at all
foreign to me; for it is there that I hope to be
able to express the personal freedom in me”.
Robert Weise completed his architecture
in 1953. Soon thereafter he wooed Lotti
Stalder, an adventurous and attractive
young woman from the Bernese Alps,
to marry him.
CAMEROON
After completing his studies, Robert
applied for a job with the Basle Mission
to work in the British Cameroons. To
prepare for the task of working in such
a foreign context, he was sent to the
Building Research Centre at Watford,
England to specialize in tropical
architecture. In December, his first
daughter, Gerda, was born. Four months
later, after last minute preparations for
the long journey to the “black continent”,
the family boarded the S.S. Reventazon
in Liverpool. After 12 days, on May 11 th
1954, the ship entered the bay of Victoria
and docked at Tiko, British Cameroons.
Cameroon had a turbulent past and after
the First World War, the territory divided
up between the British and the French,
had little social or political progress. It
was only after World War II that the
independence movement erupted and
guerrilla warfare raged in the French
Cameroons. The security situation was
deteriorating and though even
missionaries carried personal firearms,
Weise chose to remain unarmed, arguing
that it was the firearms that attracted
disaster. During the 3 years in the British
Cameroons, Weise was assigned to
various mission stations. Other than
looking after the existing faculties of the
mission, several new projects were carried
out such as; a leprosy settlement in
Manyemen, a theological seminary in
Nyasoso, a bookshop in Victoria and a
teacher’s training centre in Batibo.
Working conditions were tough. Materials
needed to be ordered and often selfprocured
from Douala in the conflictridden
French Cameroons. The roads
were earthen tracks that became a
quagmire of slippery red mud during the
rains. The boats that frequented the route
between Victoria and Douala had to wind
through the creeks where danger lurked
around every bend. The building sites
had often to be cleared from the thick
forests. The labour force lacked training
and even the supervisors had difficulty
understanding how to measure something
that was longer than their measuring stick.
Innovation and endurance was required.
Weise brought about basic reforms on
his construction site, by banning the
beating of labourers. Lotti Weise did the
Above: Leprosy settlement and book
shop, Cameroon.
Below: Residence of Prince
Basundhara and T.U. Library,
Kathmandu
accounts and carried out first aid for the
sick labourers.
The contract ended in June 1957 and
the Weises flew back to Switzerland. The
wooden crates remained packed, for
Robert had no intension of remaining in
Switzerland. A new job was in the
offering; this time in Nepal. A son,
Stephan, was born in September and
when Stephan was barely seven weeks
old, the family boarded the plane towards
the East.
NEPAL
It was November 11 th 1957. The Dakota
DC 3 landed on the Gaucharan airstrip
in Kathmandu. A pickup was waiting to
take the Weises to the SATA (Swiss
72 SEP-OCT 2005 SPACES