Biography
Born in Metz, a city in Alsace-Lorraine (German: Elsass-Lothringen) that from 1871 to 1918 was part of Germany, his family was French-speaking. He received a good education in Metz and spoke not only French and German often but also Latin and Greek.
Very early he became an Esperantist and dreamt of a better future through the diffusion of Esperanto. World War I, when he was conscripted into the German army and had to fight on the Eastern Front, was a disaster for him as a pacifist and for the Esperanto movement in general. After the war he did not remain at Metz, now again a French city, but moved to Paris, where he worked in a large banking firm until his retirement.
Read more about this topic: Raymond Schwartz
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