Léon Savary (Fleurier, 1895 – Boudry, 1968) was a Swiss French-speaking writer and journalist [1] from Payerne, Vaud.
Savary was the son of a German russified aristocratic mother from the Baltic region (Von Paucker) and a father who was Protestant pastor from Vaud and was a converted to Roman Catholicism. After studying at the University of Fribourg, he worked from 1921 to 1923 for the Geneva newspaper la tribune de Genève, in Geneva, and correspondent in Bern (1935–1946) and Paris (1946–1956). He was Historian of the city of his own choice Fribourg.[2] He wrote about twenty books, most of them are not published anymore.
With René de Weck and Gonzague de Reynold, he formed the troika of Fribourg writers of the early twentieth century.
He had a great knowledge of the Swiss political system and habits. In Letters with Suzanne (French: Lettres à Suzanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1949), he denounced "the occult influence of hitlerism on Swiss people during the second world war, which were not conscious of being under". About Swiss Politic in general, in the same book, covering the Federal Palace, he said, with his alert and sharp pen:"The Swiss do not desire great men, and in politics, they are afraid to have them. What they like is honesty and average aptitude to manage public affairs like a shop. They mistrust superiority and, let us frankly admit, they are horrified at genius. No geniuses, no saints, even talent is suspect. It is enough to say that a politician who showed signs of surpassing the low water mark would be promptly subject to public discredit"
After coming back from Paris in 1956, he spent the end of his life in the cities of Vevey and Bulle.
Léon Savary won the Schiller Prize in 1960.