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. he wrote about twenty books, most of them are not published anymore.