In parallel, women organized hunger demonstrations, intervening in food markets in a bid to control food prices. [28], In the field of science, which played a crucial role in the development of the Swiss economy, the First World War propelled tendencies that had emerged at the end of the 19th century. General Ulrich Wille und die Kriegsbereitschaft der schweizerischen Armee, Osnabrck 1975. Spuren und Traditionen zur Schweiz im Ersten Weltkrieg, Baden 2014. This sparked a public outrage. Kriegsmaterialexporte der schweizerischen Uhren-, Metall- und Maschinenindustrie im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Jahrbuch fr Wirtschaftsgeschichte 56/2 (2015), pp. [18] With rural industrialization and a comparatively low level of urbanization, economic sectors and social strata were spread across most areas. Rethinking Colonialism From The Margins, New York 2015, pp. And the unions were increasingly recognized as negotiation and contractual partners, affirming their role as a regulating force (against wildcat strikes). In May 1917, the Social Democrat Robert Grimm (1881-1958), boldly asserting the neutrals right to mediate between belligerents, traveled to St. Petersburg hoping to achieve a separate Russo-German peace. Frhe bolschewistische Diplomatie am Beispiel der Sowjetmission in Bern (Mai bis November 1918), in: Thomas, Ludmilla / Knoll, Viktor (eds. In general terms, the country placed greater importance on export interests and the national economy than on military strategy. The war pitted the Central Powersmainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkeyagainst the Alliesmainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United . Their calls for reconciliation were often linked with invocations of a European mission in which they described Switzerland as, for example, a reconciled Europe in miniature (), which can some time serve the large blood-soaked and hatred-riven Europe () as a role model.[35] From this perspective, then, the Confederation not only was spared the ravages of war, but also was a transnational zone of mediation and provider of good services. On the initiative of the Swiss Federal Council, contracts were concluded with states from both power groups; between 1916 and the end of the war, Switzerland received 68,000 wounded and sick soldiers. The reluctance to send Swiss troops abroad was one of the main reasons for Swiss skepticism to joining the UN. As a neutral country, Switzerland was not involved in the devastating military conflicts of 1914-18. ), 19141918: Neue Zugnge zur Geschichte der Schweiz im Ersten Weltkrieg / Nouvelles approches et perspectives de recherche en Suisse, in: Sonderheft der Schweizerischen Zeitschrift fr Geschichte, 63 (2013); Hebeisen, Erika / Niederhuser, Peter / Schmid, Regula (eds. "The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men's souls. Large, export-oriented companies focused on production processes with a high proportion of value added and achieved advances in product functionality by pursuing application-oriented research. Members of the liberal middle class and conservative families from central Switzerland dominated the officer corps. Closely entwined with the European markets, the Swiss economy suffered considerable turbulence at the start of the war. "What we have is a [Swiss] baptism certificate for her first baby, dated May 1917, my uncle Geoffrey. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universitt Berlin, Berlin 2015-07-06. 220-232, here p. 228. It intended to use them to help the clockmaking industry, a key branch of the Swiss export trade which was struggling with a shortage of precious metal. 1977. The Zimmerwald movement held two follow-up conferences (in Kiental in April 1916 and in Stockholm in September 1917), where it affirmed its commitment in propagandistic terms to the mass international fight against the war (as written into the Stockholm manifesto).[45]. It condemned the deployment of troops to deal with strikes as a provocation and a flagrant sign of the armys use as an instrument of class war from above. As the purchasing power of broad sections of the population dropped, involvement in the unions rose. As a result: Russia got involved because Russia had an alliance with Serbia. Between 1914 and 1918, the Swiss Confederation issued nine mobilization bonds amounting to 830 million Swiss Francs; by the time the second was issued, in November 1914, the banking cartel and the cantonal banking association had taken over issuance. The unions, in contrast, were severely under-represented in the mediation system. In November 1917, the Federal Council set up a Swiss immigration police force with the initial task of surveying the resident foreign population. The employment statistics were as follows: agriculture, 27 percent; trade and industry, 44 percent; services, 28 percent. Despite the increasing pressure, the authorities response to the rising protests was generally inconsistent. Several attempts were made to consolidate the short-term public debt by means of bonds. Rossfeld, Roman / Buomberger, Thomas / Kury, Patrick (eds. Fuhrer, Hans Rudolf/Strssle, Paul Meinrad (eds. The leftwing press spoke of class justice; the right wing found the sentencing, based on the legal minimum, far too lenient. [21] Between 1915 and 1920, the authorities recorded taxable war profits of some 2.4 billion Swiss Francs, roughly equivalent to the employed workforces loss in purchasing power. Die Schweiz als Ausgangs- und Zielort von Migration, 1914-1918, Zurich 2018, p. 64, 74, pp. Consequently, a 24-hour general strike was called for 9 November in 19 cities. ): Mazbouri, Malik; Perrenoud, Marc; Vallotton, Franois et al. "Our men were simply astounded. The deployment of troops took the resting OAK by surprise and was a clear provocation to the workers, who had still hoped for negotiations. People didn't have TV of course, so the only news they got of the war was from newspapers. to cover the cost of mobilization, border deployment, and armament, ran to some 2.3 billion Swiss Francs by 1920 (including the cost of detachments to deal with the national strike and other strike movements). It was, moreover, the site of international peace efforts. [65], In opposition to this class war from the right, the government introduced reforms aiming to promote integration. Schweizer Aussenpolitik im Wirtschaftskrieg 1917/18, Zurich 2016. Switzerland's administrative capital is Bern, while Lausanne serves as its judicial centre. Linksradikalismus und Sozialismus in der Schweiz 1919 bis 1921, Frauenfeld et al. 204-205. Defense spending alone, i.e. 2023 BBC. At the start of the 1920s, Swiss companies were largely protected against hostile takeovers by foreign investors.[25]. - Quora Answer (1 of 3): Of course, an overwhelming majority is never 100% and Adolf Hitler found a few admirers also in Switzerland, but they never gained more than one out of 231 parliamentary mandates in Swiss elections. Britain declared war on . Methoden auslndischer Wirtschaftskontrollen ber die Schweiz, Bern 1971, p. 59. 259-283, here p. 276 and 280. . It had been preceded in summer 1915 by the German-established trust agency Treuhandstelle Zrich, which was consolidated into the Swiss trust agency Schweizerische Treuhandstelle (STS), based in Bern, in September 1916. The OAK proposed negotiating conditions for the withdrawal of troops but was rebuffed by the government. When the war started Italy declared neutrality; in 1915 it switched and joined the Triple Entente (i.e. Cf also Spitteler, Carl: Unser Schweizer Standpunkt, Zurich 1918 (protocol of a lecture given in the Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft, Zurich group, on 14.12.1914). [47] On 10 June 1918, women led by Rosa Bloch (1880-1922) held a major demonstration outside the government building. Dejung, Christof: Welthandelshaus und Swiss Firm. This marked an even more drastic curtailment of the policy-making system than in belligerent states such as Britain and France. [57] Moreover, the rumor was circulating that the Allied troops including some 200,000 U.S. soldiers near the Swiss border would intervene in the event of a revolutionary uprising in Switzerland. Mr Girardet began doing some research, and uncovered a dramatic tale. Tools Map of the territorial evolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy (1291-1798). Eine Gesellschaft zwischen Integration und Polarisierung (1910-1939), Zurich 1996. That explains why the First World War came to be largely overlooked by historical research and relegated to the margins of national remembrance culture. Industrial research came to predominate over state programs, while the two fields closely cooperated. 211-233. 224-244. Trentino, Bolzano, Istria, were all Italian regions, so much so that in Italy we refer to WW1 as the fourth war of independence By early September 1918, there were only 20,000 soldiers in service. Aktienrecht und Corporate Governance in der Schweiz, 1881-1961, Zurich 2008, p. 230; Rossfeld / Straumann, Der vergessene Wirtschaftskrieg 2008, p. 33. ): Rossfeld, Roman/Straumann, Tobias (eds. It is a less known fact that Switzerland (German part namely . During World War II, Switzerland's position was of great interest to the Germans and other countries involved in the War.Switzerland's geographical location made each of the warring parties try to convince the country to join them. Humanitarian concerns and neutrality went hand in hand in Switzerlands idealized self-image. ): Ruchti, Jacob/Wildbolz, Eduard/Brschweiler, Albert. In recent months a vast . By the time the virus cleared in June 1919, it had caused the deaths of 25,000 Swiss, including some 1,000 soldiers. French-speaking parliamentarians successfully motioned for the Federal Council to start accounting for its political and administrative decision-making in regular neutrality reports. But not long after the officer scandal, news of the affaire des trains broke: the press reported that trains and German-speaking Swiss troops had been secretly prepared for deployment in the event of unrest in western Switzerland. In summer 1915, Federal Councilor Hoffmann had declared that Switzerland had only three options for responding to the tightening economic constraints imposed from without: to starve, to fight, or to submit. The Zurich workers union then seized the initiative and announced the continuation of the strike, risking an escalation. Cf. Grimm, Robert: Unter dem Burgfrieden. A national general strike was called, in which over 250,000 workers took part. About half of the nations foodstuffs were imported, making Switzerland vulnerable to supply crises. ): Der vergessene Krieg. Class divisions in society continued to be a crucial factor in political culture until the mid-1920s, exacerbated by the middle classes and militarys response to the national strike. Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars? Kuhn, Konrad / Ziegler, Batrice: Dominantes Narrativ und drngende Forschungsfragen. Cf. Krmer, Daniel: Die Verletzlichkeit der Schweizer Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft whrend des Ersten Weltkrieges. The stock exchanges in Zurich and Basel were closed for a period. The Swiss soon decided that parents, wives, and fiancees would be allowed to visit. Rationalization and scientific management were the buzzwords that chimed with people of all classes. [1] At the start of the 21st century, a book from 1928 was still the standard reference work on the period. Ochsenbein, Die verlorene Wirtschaftsfreiheit 1971, pp. The country had enough bread stocks to last 60 days. Seippel, Paul: Schweizerische Wahrheiten, Zurich 1917, p. 33-34. Hnggi, Karl: Die deutsche Propaganda in der Schweizer Presse, Bern 1918. At 0.65 percent, the Swiss mortality rate was relatively high in a European comparison, a fact which sparked intense dispute over who was responsible. Pally, Martin: Die Elektrifizierung der Bahn als nationales Ziel. Germany and France bought Swiss newspapers, coerced Swiss publishing companies, set up news agencies, and mounted exhibitions to disseminate their war aims. It was published in the same year as two other studies, which arrived at similar conclusions to Gautschi: Schmid-Ammann, Paul: Die Wahrheit ber den Generalstreik von 1918. On 13 November, the Federal Council issued the OAK an ultimatum, demanding the unconditional end of the strike. Allies in green, Central Powers in orange, and the neutral countries are in grey. Anyone who upheld this unifying vision disregarded the political and social divisions of the years after 1914 and the clash over the national strike in 1918. They ended with convictions for Robert Grimm, Friedrich Schneider, Fritz Platten (1883-1942), and Ernst Nobs (1886-1957). [33] As a German victory became increasingly unlikely, in 1918 the SNB tried to erase the traces of these deals by smelting the Belgian silver into bars. ), Kriegs- und Krisenzeit 2014. An ambitious project to conduct neutral conciliation negotiations between the belligerent parties, launched in early November 1914 by the union of Swiss womens organizations and the association of womens suffrage, came to nothing. Switzerland - Exploring Neutrality, Zauberformel Formula, Immigration ): Kriegswirtschaft und Wirtschaftskriege, Zurich 2008, pp. Bedrohung, Landesverteidigung und Landesbefestigung, Zurich 1999, pp. [53] The government and army leaders tightened constraints to a maximum. Dissent over military issues caused the social democratic labor movement to radicalize. Presuming attack to be the best form of defense, the OAK called an indefinite national strike for 12 November. Building on the Swiss Mission of summer 1917, entrepreneurial reformers organized numerous economic study trips to North America from 1919 on, focusing on the United States.[68]. In mid-1915 it issued a directive on insults against foreign peoples, heads of state or governments.[41], As social unrest grew toward the end of the war, so did fear of foreign dominance. With personal freedom of movement guaranteed until 1917, Switzerland became an international hub for diplomats, spies, agents provocateurs, and propagandists,[43] as well as a base for political emigrants, nationalist anti-colonialists and artists, writers, bohemians and rebels. Switzerlands continuing social tensions, however, were shaped by contradictory developments. Die Politik der schweizerischen Frauenverbnde 1914-1971, Zurich 2007. World War I largely arose from a conflict between two alliances: the Triple Alliance ( Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) and the Triple Entente ( France, Russia, and Britain ). One young woman, Connie Kirkup, writes of getting lost on the long journey across Europe, and then arriving in the Alps to find her fiance Angus, well recovered from his injuries, taking part in a bobsleigh race: "My heart stood still, but oh it was great - and the English team won!". Die Schweiz in den Kriegsjahren 1914-1918, Zurich 2013. A few days after this announcement, the Wilson administration obtained a copy of the Zimmermann Telegram, which urged Mexico to join the war effort on the side of Germany and pledged that in the event of a German victory, the territories of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico would be stripped from the United States and returned to Mexico. Like their counterparts in the belligerent countries, the latter had initially approved of emergency law and war loans but in 1915 they opted out of the party truce (also known as the union sacre in western Switzerland). World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 1914-18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. It did not mark a turnaround toward social partnership, but it did stimulate thought processes and teach some lessons. ): Woche fr Woche neue Preisaufschlge. The Soviet Union only reluctantly accorded diplomatic recognition to Switzerland, which had been a herald of anticommunism in the interwar period. The first contingent of wounded British soldiers arrived on 30 May 1916 for internment in the tiny village of Chateau d'Oex. [7], Economically, Switzerland was hardly prepared for war. [27] Swimming with the tide of the war, Switzerland sought to do more business with the Entente Powers and especially the United States from 1917 on. small countries; entangled history; war economy; neutrality, Occupied railroad engine during Swiss General Strike, Guard detail in the federal parliament building in Bern, International Prisoners of War Agency, Rath Museum, Geneva, Rosa Bloch and the womens protest against hunger and inflation, Zurich, Introduction: The First World War and Historiography, Declaration of Neutrality and Party Truce, Mobilization, Active Military Service, and the Labor Market, National economy: Wartime Prosperity, Poverty, and Loss of National Sovereignty, Openness and Isolation: Markets and Scientific Research, The Helvetian Rift, Propaganda, and the Swiss Humanitarian Mission, International Emigrants, War on Foreign Infiltration, and Cultural Innovation, Antimilitarism, Class War from Above, Social Democrats, and the General Strike Debate, The National Strike of 1918: A Milestone of Democracy, The present essay is partly based on the findings of a research project, conducted by four universities between 2012 and 2016 and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, on a transnational history of Switzerland in the First World War. Consideration of the war years context within the history of the 20. Switzerland's forgotten role in saving World War One lives Not only was the revised Swiss Federal Factory Law suspended when the war started but wartime inflation, which raised the cost of living between 1914 and 1918 from 100 to 230 index points, caused massive economic redistribution. Two of the bloodiest battles of World War One, Verdun and the Somme, are being marked 100 years on, but in Switzerland, centenary commemorations are taking place for a far less known wartime event. A relatively large number of multinational industrial, commercial, and finance companies based their operations in Switzerland, aiming to circumvent their competitors import barriers by relocating production abroad. 350-359; Steiner, Sebastian: Unter Kriegsrecht. / Ziegler, Batrice (eds. In early November, however, substantial reinforcements were provided by a new military commando, conscripted to maintain internal order (Ordnungsdienst). They modernized the language and posed the old social question in a new way, and the United States seemed to have a functioning form of industrial modernity that could serve as a model. As outlined above, from 1915 on, Switzerlands regional, language-based frictions were to some extent overridden by social tensions. But that is not to say it did nothing for their cause. As the SNB adhered to the Real Bills Doctrine, which was thought to deflect price rises caused by increasing money supply, the problem of inflation was largely overlooked until 1918. In early 1918, Social Democrats and unions protested the Federal Councils motion to introduce obligatory community service. Rossfeld, Roman / Straumann, Tobias (eds. Mechanisms of protecting intellectual property (patents, licenses, brands) were extended after a long period of laissez-faire in the 19th century and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) carried out major reforms between 1908 and 1911. Switzerland was resource-poor but highly industrialised and dependent on tourism. According to Swiss Federal Councilor Ludwig Forrer (1845-1921), this extra-constitutional emergency law, later described as a plenipotentiary regime (Vollmachtenregime), gave the executive special dictatorial powers that effectively deactivated parliamentary control and finally tipped the balance of power in government, which had been shifting away from the legislative and toward the executive since 1900. As well as reinforcing certain convictions among the propertied classes, it also prompted them to reconsider some positions. Degen, Bernard / Richers, Julia (eds. Ullmann, Hans-Peter: Kriegswirtschaft, in: Hirschfeld, Gerhard / Krumeich, Gerd / Renz, Irina (eds. Section Editors: Daniel Marc Segesser; Roman Rossfeld, Translator: Charlotte Hughes-Kreutzmller, Tanner, Jakob: Switzerland , in: 1914-1918-online. [1] At the start of the 21 st century, a book from 1928 was still the standard reference work on the period. 63-64. The Federal Assembly held an extraordinary meeting in Bern the same day. In 1914, Switzerland had a militia army based on the principle of compulsory military service. The National Strike (1918) The economic hardship created by the war had a profound impact on workers. Women did not gain the right to vote in national elections until 1971. In 1916 the Federal Council retroactively introduced a war-profit tax as of 1915 now asserting its plenary power which yielded a total of 732 million Swiss Francs. Historians continue to argue whether it simply failed or whether there is empirical evidence to indicate there was a victorious loser.[63] At first glance, the conflict marked a defeat for the labor movement. Simply because Switzerland was a worse alternative plan strategically than Netherlands and Belgium. And, he adds, it was a chance for Switzerland, surrounded by belligerents at the time, to show that its neutrality could be useful. Their number rose between 1910 and 1919 from 34 to 50. Recent research into the war and events that shaped modern Switzerland, including the national strike, takes a transnational approach. World War I: Summary, Causes & Facts | HISTORY [44] In 1918/19 the nation was kept in suspense by a series of bomb trials which painted a turbid picture of intelligence operations and anarchist activity. However, the dream of peace ended when Germany declared war on Russia and France mobilized on 1 August 1914, the Swiss national holiday. Das Schweizer Militr im Ersten Weltkrieg / En marge de la tempte. Initially regulating the military sphere (including censorship), from 1916 on they increasingly affected the economic and social spheres. ), Woche fr Woche neue Preisaufschlge 2016; Hebeisen et al. Cf. French entry into World War I - Wikipedia At the same time, Switzerland was the only country that succeeded in concluding a series of governmental trade agreements. The Federal Supreme Court was not empowered to judge the constitutionality of the emergency regime. Huber, Anja: Fremdsein im Krieg. These activities were crucially supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Zrich whrend des Ersten Weltkrieges, Zurich 2014. Rumors of impending disaster triggered runs on banks and panic buying from retail stores. Ernhrungswissenschaft. Nevertheless, in the first years after the war, the left wing made more of an impact than ever before on the decision-making mechanisms of federal politics. berfremdungsdiskurs und Ausgrenzung in der Schweiz 1900 - 1945, Zurich 2003. Some months later (on 5 April 1919), the organizer of this rally, Eugen Bircher (1882-1956), founded a Swiss fatherlands association to combat international emigration, which brought together various paramilitary vigilante groups and displayed anti-Semitic tendencies. A quarter of a million male and female workers participated. Toward the end of the war and after 1918, these were supplemented by U.S. bonds, which enabled Switzerland to acquire the necessary dollars to import goods. Bach, Raffael C.: Die Schweizerische Rckversicherungs-Gesellschaft, in: Rossfeld / Straumann, Der vergessene Wirtschaftskrieg 2008, p. 509. [38] Other advances met the same fate. Hitler had a plan to attack Switzerland, named Operation Tannenbaum but the Maginot line could be breached through Belgium and Netherland. Kley, Andreas: Geschichte des ffentlichen Rechts in der Schweiz, Zrich et al. To defend the interests of such internationally operating companies, Switzerland extended its diplomatic service, installing company-oriented honorary consuls. 15 percent of industry and 8 percent of services were directly export-oriented (textiles, watches and machines, tourism); foreign trade in 1913 (import and export) accounted for 60 percent of the GDP. The identification of the causes of World War I remains controversial. Worldwide trading companies such as Basler Handelsgesellschaft and Gebrder Volkart (based in Winterthur) started advertising as explicitly Swiss firms to avoid getting caught between the economic frontlines. Finally, in November 1915, the Socit Suisse de Surveillance conomique (SSS) was set up, modelled on the Netherlands Overseas Trust (NOT). [29], The increasingly obvious redistribution of wealth within the national economy a result of government policy on financing the tremendous cost of the war, which many criticized as inequitable caused mounting political tension within Switzerland. Indy is answering your questions again. A Basel civilian defense group was active during the general strike of August 1919 and supported a military campaign in which five demonstrators and passers-by were shot. A federation for reforms in the transitional period, in which such diverse figures as Emil Klti (1877-1963), Charles Naine (1874-1926), Karl Barth (1886-1968), William Rappard (1883-1958), Ernst Laur (1871-1964), and Emil Sonderegger cooperated and campaigned for social improvements in the widest sense. But as postwar crisis loomed, fueled by international disillusion with the concept of the self-regulating market and the rational, autonomous individual, many of them came under threat. When WWI began in Europe in 1914, many Americans wanted the United States to stay out of the conflict, supporting President Woodrow Wilson's policy of strict and impartial neutrality. 33-46. So, the authorities submitted. So she stayed," she explains. Consequently, distinctly one-sided military arrangements (Punktuationen) were made before and after 1914 with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Sinister Face Of 'Neutrality' | FRONTLINE | PBS [17] Contrary to many womens expectations, these efforts were not rewarded with the introduction of female suffrage after the war. Switzerland isn't the world's only neutral countrythe. But soon after war broke out, it banned the export of munitions, and private companies took over the large-scale export of militarily relevant goods such as munitions components. 123-141. [6] On 3 August, the Federal Assembly acknowledged and approved the international mobilization of troops and elected a chief commander of the army. How and why did World War One start? - BBC Bitesize In total, tax revenue in Switzerland contributed to financing some 35 percent of the war budget, slightly more than the average in the belligerent countries.[32]. Germany was a threat and Switzerland built a powerful defense. Neutral small states faced similar financing problems to belligerent states. 1917 saw an upsurge in public resistance to the countrys arms exports and the war in general. In this way, the perceived rift became entrenched and manifested in a series of significant events. the Allies ). He was on crutches by then, he wasn't ever really able to walk again properly.". [52] At a revolution celebration in Zurich the next day, marking the anniversary of the Russian Revolution and attended by 7,000, a soldier was shot (probably by someone in the crowd) and several demonstrators were injured. Many families, not only in the cities, were pushed under the poverty line. Krisen, Konflikte, Kontroversen / Crises, conflits, controverses, Zurich 2018, p. 59. and 53f. The lines of continuity and the changes impacting throughout the First World War emerged more clearly post festum. Under the agreement of the warring parties, and with the help of the Red Cross, they were transferred to Swiss mountain villages to recover, and to sit out the war. [9], Another reason for the lack of long-term planning was that both the military leadership and the national government assumed that in the improbable case of a long war, Switzerland would have to ally itself with one of the belligerent power blocks. This very small minority got a lot of attention not only during the 1930's but al. Schneider, Oliver: Vollmachtenregime, in: 1914-1918-online. In November 1918 the situation reached boiling point in Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere. Ochsenbein, Heinz: Die verlorene Wirtschaftsfreiheit 1914-1918. Her grandfather never fully recovered from his war injuries, dying in 1931 aged 48. On 5 November, troops were mobilized at the request of the Zurich cantonal government. On 24-25 November 1912, the Socialist International hosted a major peace congress in Basel, attended by 555 delegates from 17 European countries.