Jules Humbert-Droz

Jules-Frédéric Humbert-Droz (23 September 1891, La Chaux-de-Fonds – 16 October 1971) was a Swiss pastor, journalist, socialist and communist. A founding member of the Communist Party of Switzerland, he held high Comintern office through the 1920s and also acted as Comintern emissary to several west European countries. He was involved in the Right Opposition in 1928. He rejoined the Swiss Socialist Party in the 1940s and served as its secretary from 1946 to 1965. Early life He was born in a working-class family of watchmakers with socialist beliefs. His grandfather was a member of the International Workingsmen's Association. Humbert joined the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (Swiss Socialist Party) in 1911, at the age of 20. After studying Protestant theology in Neuchâtel, Paris and Berlin, he wrote a thesis about Socialism and christianism. He became a pastor in 1914 and started writing in the socialist daily newspaper La Sentinelle soon after. He married Eugénie (Jenny) Perret in 1916, who would accompany him throughout his political life; she became known as Jenny Humbert-Droz. Political life