Archibald Reiss

Dr. Archibald Rudolph Reiss (8 July 1875 Hechtsberg, Baden, Germany - 7 August 1929 Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was a publicist, a chemist, a professor at the University of Lausanne and a famous criminologist.His family was in the wine business. He was 8th child of 10, son of Ferdinand Reiss, landowner and Pauline Sabine Anna Gabriele.

After finishing highschool in Germany, he went to Switzerland for the studies. He had received Ph.D. in chemistry at the age of 22 and was an expert in photography. In 1906 he was appointed a professor of criminology at the University of Lausanne.

Upon the invitation of the Serbian Government he carried out an inquiry on Hungarian, German and Bulgarian atrocities in Serbia during World War I and published the reports in European papers. He went as a member of Serbian Government at the Peace conference in Paris.When Serbia was overrun in 1915 he joined the Serbian Army in its retreat across Albania to return with the victorius Serbian Army when it liberated Belgrade in the final days of the war. He was known as a great friend of Serbia and the Serbian people and after the war he stayed to live in Serbia.

After the war he tried to modernize the Belgrade police. Over time he seems to have become somewhat disillusioned and withdrew from public life but continuing to live in Belgrade.

He was one of the founders of the Red Cross of Serbia. As a legacy to the Serbian people, he left an unpublished manuscript "Ecoutez les Serbes!". It was finished on 1 June 1928, and in 2004 was printed in Serbian in large number of copies and distributed for free.He became honorary citizen of Krupanj in 1926. In several cities of Serbia, particularly in Vojvodina, streets carry his name.

After his death his body was buried in the cemetery Topcidersko groblje and, at his own request, his heart on the mountain Kajmakčalan in Macedonia.

External links

* [http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosta/knjige/book-REPORT-reiss.html Report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian army during the first invasion of Serbia by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss]
* [http://www2.unil.ch/BCU/informations/expositions/2000/e_reiss.htm Un Sherlock Holmes vaudois Rodolphe Archibald Reiss]