Avalanches

With the increase in winter tourism, the study of avalanches has developed as a branch of Alpine climatology, and in wintertime the research station near Davos releases daily avalanche bulletins as a warning for villagers and tourists. The Alpine cantons have about 10,000 avalanches annually, with about four-fifths of them occurring in February, March, and April. For centuries, village communes have relied on forests on the mountain slopes for protection from these slides, because a 20- to 30-year-old forest can inhibit or stop small avalanches. Villages, highways, and Alpine paths are also protected by costly artificial structures such as metal barriers, earthen walls, and concrete wedges and enclosures. Acid rain, however, has caused the illness and death of many trees in the mountain areas of Switzerland and poses a serious threat to their ability to act as barriers to avalanches. In the mountain forests, some two-fifths of the trees have been classified as damaged, sick, or dying.

Switzerland is a confederation of 23 states, called cantons, three of which are subdivided into half-cantons for administrative purposes. The cantons and half-cantons are as follows: Aargau; Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden (half-canton); Appenzell Inner-Rhoden (half-canton); Basel-Land (half-canton); Basel-Stadt (half-canton); Bern; Fribourg; Geneva (Genève); Glarus; Graubünden (Grisons); Jura; Lucerne (Luzern); Neuchâtel; Nidwalden (half-canton); Obwalden (half-canton); Sankt Gallen; Schaffhausen; Schwyz; Solothurn (Soleure); Thurgau; Ticino; Uri; Valais; Vaud; Zug; and Zürich.

Cantons of Switzerland

Government

Switzerland is a republic governed under a constitution adopted on May 29, 1874, and amended many times since. The Swiss political system combines direct and indirect democracy with the principles of sovereignty of the people, separation of powers, and proportional representation. In federal elections, all citizens age 18 or older are eligible to vote; women gained suffrage in national elections in 1971 through a referendum. The electorate not only chooses its representatives but also decides important issues by means of referenda, an integral part of Swiss government. Constitutional amendments may be initiated by a petition of 50,000 voters and must be ratified by referenda. Federal legislation may also be made subject to referenda.

The Federal Palace in the canton of Berne is the name of the building in which the Federal Assembly of Switzerland (federal parliament) and the Swiss Federal Council (executive) are housed.

Executive

In Switzerland, executive power is vested in the Bundesrat, or Federal Council, composed of seven members who are elected to four-year terms by a joint session of the bicameral parliament. The council is responsible to the parliament. The legislature elects a president from among the members of the council for a one-year term. The constitution expressly prohibits the reelection of a president to consecutive terms of office.

The Swiss Federal Council in 2008. The current members of the council are (from left to right): Widmer-Schlumpf, Leuenberger, Calmy-Rey, Couchepin, Schmid, Leuthard, Merz. The Federal Chancellor of Switzerland, Casanova, is also pictured.

Legislature

The Swiss parliament, called the Federal Assembly, consists of two houses: the Ständerat, or Council of States, with 46 members (two for each full canton and one for each half canton) elected for varying periods at the discretion of the canton; and the Nationalrat, or National Council, with 200 members elected for four-year terms under a system of proportional representation.

Judiciary

The Federal Tribunal at Lausanne is composed of 30 judges who are appointed for six-year terms by the Federal Assembly. The court has final jurisdiction in suits between the cantonal and federal governments, corporations and individuals, and between cantons. It has original jurisdiction only in cases involving offenses against the confederation. In addition, each canton has its own autonomous system of justice, including civil and criminal courts and a court of appeals. Capital punishment was abolished in Switzerland in 1942.

Local Government

All powers not delegated to the confederation by the Swiss constitution are reserved to the cantons. The forms of cantonal government vary, but each of the 20 full cantons and 6 half-cantons has an elected legislative council and an executive council. In the smaller cantons, the council is a Landsgemeinde, a general assembly of voting citizens who decide matters by voice vote. In most cantons, however, the legislative council is a representative body elected by popular vote. Women gained the right to vote in local and cantonal elections in most areas during the 1970s; the last male bastion, Appenzell Inner-Rhoden, changed in 1990. The commune is the basic local unit of government; Switzerland has more than 3000 communes in all, and they are largely autonomous in many governmental matters. Several communes are grouped into a district, which is headed by a prefect representing the cantonal government.

Political Parties

The strongest Swiss political parties are the Radical Democratic party, standing for strong federal power; the Social Democratic party, advocating democratic socialism; and the Christian Democratic People’s party, opposing centralization of power. Other political parties of note are the Swiss People’s party, the Independent Alliance, the Liberal party, and the Greens, an environmentalist group.

Health and Welfare

The Federal Insurance Law of 1911 regulates accident and sickness insurance. Accident insurance is compulsory for most officials and employees. Old-age and survivor’s insurance, which also includes disability benefits, is compulsory and is financed by a payroll tax on both employers and employees. Unemployment insurance became compulsory under a 1976 law.

Defense

Service in the Swiss military is compulsory for all males from the age of 20 through 42. Switzerland does not maintain a standing army, however, so service is for relatively short periods of training. Because rifles, uniforms, and other equipment are kept at home, Switzerland can totally mobilize within about 48 hours. If mobilized, the Swiss armed forces would include some 625,000 people, although the size of the force was being reduced in the mid-1990s.

The Middle Ages

The Franks in turn conquered the Alamanni in the 5th century AD, and the Burgundians in the early 6th century. The Franks introduced a new civilization based largely on Christianity. On the dissolution of the Frankish Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, most of Switzerland became part of the duchy of Alemannia, or Swabia, one of the great feudal states of the German Kingdom; the southwestern part was incorporated into the kingdom of Transjurane Burgundy. In 1033 the Burgundian portion was acquired by Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II, and Switzerland became a part of his empire. It consisted of a collection of petty states, ruled by dukes, counts, bishops, and abbots, and of a number of small city-states, independent by imperial charter, which later became cantonal commonwealths.

Struggle for Independence

In 1276 Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty attempted to assert feudal rights in Switzerland, making his power a threat to the traditional liberties of the Swiss. To resist Rudolf’s aggression, the three so-called forest cantons—Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden—around the Lake of Lucerne, entered a league for mutual defense in 1291. During the 14th century Zürich, Glarus, Bern, Lucerne, and Zug joined the league, and in the 15th century Fribourg and Solothurn joined. In 1474 the Habsburgs, unable to cope with the militant Swiss mountaineers, abandoned their attempts to acquire the region as a family appanage, and the Swiss confederation became directly dependent on the empire.

Federal charter of 1291

In 1499 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I attempted to abrogate various Swiss governmental rights; in the ensuing war he was defeated, and by the Treaty of Basel on September 22, 1499, he was compelled to recognize the virtual independence of the Swiss. By 1513 Appenzell, Schaffhausen, and Basel had entered the confederation, each independent as a canton and sending two delegates to a federal assembly. Because of their skill and bravery in war, Swiss mercenaries became famous throughout Europe. In the course of the wars between Italy and France in the early 16th century, Swiss troops, fighting with the French as mercenaries, were able to annex the Italian districts and towns that later formed the canton of Ticino. The Swiss troops then fought against the French, and were defeated in 1515. This led to the introduction of Switzerland’s neutrality policy. In 1536 the Bernese Swiss took Lausanne and various territories from the duchy of Savoy.

Reformation

The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland started in 1518, when a country pastor named Huldreich Zwingli began to denounce the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic church. Subsequently, under Zwingli’s leadership, the city of Zürich revolted against church dogma by burning relics, banning the adoration of saints, and releasing clerics from their vows of celibacy. Vigorously backed by the merchant class, such innovations further asserted the city’s independence from both the Roman Catholic church and the Holy Roman Empire. Other Swiss towns, such as Basel and Bern, quickly adopted similar reforms. In 1536 Geneva, where the French theologian John Calvin had just settled, revolted against the duchy of Savoy and refused to acknowledge the authority of its Roman Catholic bishop. Calvin organized his church democratically, incorporating ideas of representative government. From 1541 to 1564 Geneva became the stronghold of the Calvinist brand of Protestantism. Although the cantons preserved their neutrality in the Thirty Years’ War of 1618 to 1648, Swiss diplomacy was able to maneuver formal recognition of Switzerland as a completely independent state by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

Unification

During the 1790s the French Revolution spread to Switzerland; the French continually intervened in support of Swiss revolutionaries, a group that sought to promote political reforms and the establishment of a strong national government, and in 1798 the revolutionaries occupied all Swiss territory. The Swiss confederation had until that time been a loose defensive alliance, but Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of France, unified the country under the name Helvetic Republic and imposed a written constitution, which, like the French military occupation, was bitterly resented by most of the Swiss. In 1803, when it was in his interest to have Switzerland friendly, Napoleon withdrew the occupation troops and by the Act of Mediation granted a new constitution with Swiss approval. The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland, and Swiss territory was expanded to include 22 cantons; since that time the country’s boundaries have remained virtually unchanged.

The period following the integration of Switzerland was one of attempted adjustment to the newly won unity. Conflict existed between autocratic and democratic elements and between Roman Catholic and Protestant areas. In 1847 the Roman Catholic cantons formed a league, the Sonderbund. The federal government declared the formation of such a league a violation of the constitution. Civil war resulted when the league refused to disband. The Sonderbund was defeated by the federal government, and the ensuing constitution of 1848 greatly increased the federal power. It was followed by the constitution of 1874, which, with modifications, is still in force; the 1874 constitution completed the development of Switzerland from a group of cantons to a unified federal state. However, Switzerland is unusual regarding the power vested within the cantons and individual communes. For example, it is the communes that grant individuals Swiss citizenship.

A Neutral Nation

Because of the traditional neutrality of the country, Switzerland became the favored site of international conferences and the headquarters of many organizations. The main office of the International Red Cross was established there in 1863, as was that of the League of Nations following World War I (1914-1918). Switzerland was a league member but, after maintaining neutrality and harboring political refugees during World War II (1939-1945), the country refused to join the United Nations (UN) on the grounds that certain obligations of membership were incompatible with Swiss neutrality. It did, however, become a member of many agencies affiliated with the United Nations, and it maintains a permanent observer at UN headquarters. It also served on the neutral nations’ commission supervising the 1953 truce agreement in Korea; contributed money to UN peacekeeping efforts in Cyprus; and became a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, an international trade organization that will eventually be replaced by the World Trade Organization.

In 1948 Switzerland joined the Organization for European Economic Cooperation. It became a founding member of the European Free Trade Association in 1959 and in 1963 joined the Council of Europe.

Domestic Issues

In February 1971, Switzerland for the first time granted women the right to vote in federal elections and to hold federal office; by 1979 more than 10 percent of the seats in the Nationalrat were held by women. Although most cantons also extended suffrage to women, the process was not completed until 1990. An equal rights amendment to the constitution was approved in a 1981 referendum; another referendum in 1985 guaranteed women legal equality with men in marriage. Other referenda in the 1980s upheld Switzerland’s system of military conscription (1984), rejected restrictions on abortion and some forms of contraception (1985), barred Switzerland from joining the UN (1986), tightened constraints on immigration and the granting of political asylum (1987), and defeated a proposal to abolish the military (1989).

Responding to international pressures, in recent years Switzerland has relaxed its traditional insistence on banking secrecy and allowed foreign investigators access to bank records in cases where illegal acquisition or use of funds was suspected. In November 1986, 30 tons of chemicals were released into the Rhine River after a fire at a factory near Basel; the Swiss government agreed to compensate the affected countries along the Rhine.

In 1992 Switzerland moved to end decades of fierce independence by joining the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund. However, in December of that year Swiss voters soundly rejected joining the European Economic Area, a free-trade zone linking many Western European countries. The vote was a significant blow to Switzerland’s application, filed earlier that year, to join the European Community (now the European Union). Hopes for the success of this application increased in November 1993, when the voters approved a national value-added tax more in line with the tax structure of other European Union members. The tax had been rejected three times in previous votes. In early 1994, however, the Swiss voted to curtail heavy truck traffic through their country by the year 2004, as an environmental preservation measure. The vote may have the side effect of hampering future relations with the other European nations.

Libraries and Museums

The library of Basel University, with about 2.8 million volumes, is among the largest in Switzerland. The Swiss National Library, in Bern, and the libraries of the United Nations (UN) and of the International Labor Organization, both in Geneva, are among the most important specialized libraries. Switzerland has many federal, cantonal, and municipal public libraries. The National Museum, in Zürich, houses the most important of several large historical collections in Switzerland. Fine arts museums in Basel, Bern, and Zürich contain collections of 15th- and 16th-century German, 17th- and 18th-century Dutch and Flemish, 19th-century French impressionist, and contemporary European works.

Swiss National Museum – Zurich

Literature

Swiss literature comprises Latin-Swiss literature and the more important German-Swiss and French-Swiss literatures, which are closely linked to the literatures of the neighboring countries. Less significant are the Italian-Swiss, Romansh, and Swiss-dialect literatures. Latin-Swiss literature was important chiefly during the Middle Ages in religious and humanistic works. The most important Swiss literature is in German, beginning with the poetry of the minnesingers of the Middle Ages and including the popular ballads and chronicles dating from the 14th to the 18th century. The most outstanding German-Swiss authors include Gottfried Keller, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Hermann Hesse, Carl Spitteler, Jeremias Gotthelf (pseudonym of Albert Bitzius), Max Frisch, and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. One of the best-known French-Swiss authors is Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. A famous Swiss children’s book is Heidi (1880; translated 1884) by Johanna Spyri.

Art

A number of Swiss artists have achieved international recognition over the centuries. Chief among them are the painters Conrad Witz, Henry Fuseli, Arnold Böcklin, Ferdinand Hodler, and Paul Klee. The sculptor Alberto Giacometti and the architect Le Corbusier are world renowned.

Paul Klee Museum – Bern

Music

The Swiss composers Ludwig Senfl and Heinrich Loris, called Henricus Glareanus, made important contributions to European music during the Renaissance. Important Swiss composers in recent years have included Ernest Bloch, Othmar Schoeck, Frank Martin, Ernst Levy, and Conrad Beck. The Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet gained worldwide fame as conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, based in Geneva. The Swiss are also noted for developing the yodel, a kind of wordless singing with abrupt shifts in pitch.

Zurich Opera House

Map of the world

Map of Europe

Map of Switzerland

Land and Resources

Switzerland is one of the most mountainous countries of Europe, with more than 70 percent of its area covered by the Alps, in the central and southern sections, and the Jura, in the northwest. The Swiss Alps are part of the largest mountain system in Europe, and are famous for their jagged peaks and steep gorges. There are several ranges within the Alps, including the Pennine range, which has Switzerland’s highest peak, the 4634-m (15,203-ft) Dufourspitze of Monte Rosa. The Jura (Celtic for “forest”) are much lower and smaller than the Alps, and are popular for cross-country skiing. The renowned Swiss watchmaking industry began in the Jura Mountains. Between these two mountain systems lies the Swiss plateau, about 400 m (about 1300 ft) above sea level in average elevation and some 50 km (some 30 mi) wide; it extends from Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) in the extreme southwest to the Lake of Constance (Bodensee) in the extreme northeast. The plateau is thickly studded with hills. Between the ranges of the Alps and Jura also stretch long valleys connected by transverse gorges; one such valley is the Engadine along the Inn River in the southeast. Nearly every Swiss valley is traversed by streams, often interrupted by picturesque waterfalls, including the Staubbach Falls (about 290 m/950 ft) in the canton of Bern. The principal river system is formed by the Rhine and its tributaries. Other important rivers are the Rhône, Ticino, and Inn. However, the Swiss rivers are not navigable for any appreciable extent. Switzerland is famous for its many lakes, particularly those of the Alpine region, known for their scenic beauty. The most important include Lake Geneva, Lake of Constance, Lake of Lugano, and Lake Maggiore (at which lies Switzerland’s lowest point, 194 m (636 ft) above sea level), which are not wholly within Swiss borders; and Lake of Neuchâtel, Lake of Lucerne and Zürichsee, Brienzersee, and Thunersee, which are entirely within Switzerland.

Population
The Swiss people as a whole are mainly of Alpine, Nordic, and Slavic or Dinaric descent. The ethnic composition of Switzerland is generally defined by the major language communities: German, French, Italian, and Romansh (Rhaeto-Romanic). Less than 10 percent of the population is made up of other ethnicities, such as Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish.

Population Characteristics

The population of Switzerland (2001 estimate) is 7,250,000, yielding an overall population density of about 174 persons per sq km (about 450 per sq mi). The population of Switzerland is unevenly distributed, with the principal concentrations occurring in the Swiss plateau. Approximately 64 percent of the population is classified as urban, but most live in small towns. Population growth is slow, and a surplus of jobs means that foreign laborers and their families make up nearly one-fifth of the population.

Principal Cities

The capital of Switzerland is Bern, with a population (1991 estimate) of 134,510. Other major cities are Zürich (342,391), the largest city and financial center; Basel (171,903), a commercial center noted for textile and clothing manufacturing; Geneva (167,431), a cultural, financial, and manufacturing center noted for its watchmaking and jewelry; and Lausanne (123,153), a railroad junction and center for the manufacture of iron goods.

Bern – Kramgasse and clock tower

Zurich – Limmat River and Grossmuenster

Religion

Roman Catholicism is the faith of about 46 percent of the population of Switzerland, and about 40 percent of the people are Protestant. Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Jews make up a small percentage of the population, while those with no religion are about 10 percent. Freedom of worship is guaranteed. In 1973 a referendum repealed articles of the constitution that were responsible for the banning of the Jesuit order and the founding of new religious houses. Several important developments of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century occurred in Switzerland; the French theologian John Calvin instituted some of his theories at Geneva.

Lausanne Cathedral

Language

The official languages of Switzerland are German (spoken by about 64 percent of the population), French (19 percent), and Italian (7 percent). The fourth national language, Romansh, is spoken by less than 1 percent of the people. Other languages spoken include Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish. In a majority of the cantons the most commonly spoken language is Schwyzertütsch (Swiss German), an Allemanic dialect of German differing vastly from both written German and other German dialects. Newspapers and magazines are written in standard German, however, and German is the language of many theater, motion picture, and television productions. French is the most commonly spoken language in the cantons of Fribourg, Jura, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, and Geneva, and Italian is the predominant language in Ticino. Romansh, a Romance language, is spoken chiefly in the canton of Graubünden.

Agriculture
Neither the soil nor the climate favors agriculture, and Switzerland must import much of the food it consumes and subsidize the farms that do exist. Nearly all the farms are family enterprises, and most are small in size. The leading agricultural products in the early 1990s (ranked by estimated value and with production in metric tons) were potatoes (737,000), apples (396,000), wheat (533,000), sugar beets (907,000), grapes (164,000), and barley (365,000). About 124 million liters (33 million gallons) of wine are produced annually. Dairy products make up a significant portion of Switzerland’s agricultural sector. Each year in the early 1990s some 3.8 million metric tons of cow’s milk and 134,600 metric tons of cheese were produced. Livestock included about 1.8 million cattle, 1.7 million pigs, 415,000 sheep, 52,000 horses, and 6 million poultry.

Grape garden in Rapperswil

Forestry and Fishing

Production of timber in Switzerland was about 4.1 million cu m (about 144 million cu ft) per year in the early 1990s. The industry has been hurt by air pollution, which has damaged more than 35 percent of the country’s forests. Most of the harvest was used to make either lumber or paper. Fishing is of minor importance, with catches of fish such as salmon and trout—primarily from Lakes Geneva and Neuchâtel and Lake of Constance and their tributary rivers—totaling about 4800 metric tons annually.

Mining

The Swiss mining industry is not of major importance. Annual mineral production in the early 1990s included rock salt, about 250,000 metric tons, and cement, about 5.2 million tons.

Manufacturing

Although raw materials are extremely limited in Switzerland, the country has a well-developed manufacturing economy. Raw material imports are converted into high-value exports by the country’s skilled workers. Leading areas of manufacturing include precision engineering, in particular clocks and watches (which accounted for 8 percent of export revenue in the early 1990s); heavy engineering and machine building, notably specialized, custom-produced equipment such as generators and turbines; food products, particularly specialized goods such as chocolate and cheese; textiles; chemicals; and pharmaceuticals. Swiss handicrafts, such as music boxes, embroideries, laces, and carved wooden objects, are widely prized.

Swiss watches

Energy

Switzerland has extensive waterpower resources, and in the early 1990s some 59 percent of its electricity was produced in hydroelectric facilities. Nearly all of the rest was generated in nuclear power plants. Output from all sources in the early 1990s was about 56 billion kilowatt-hours annually, with an installed capacity of 17.7 kilowatts.

Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant – Aargau

Communications

The Swiss Postal and Telecommunications agency oversees a comprehensive and modern communications system. The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation provides radio and television programs in German, French, and Italian, and Swiss Radio International transmits radio programs to foreign countries. In the early 1990s about 2.7 million radios and 2.5 million television receivers were licensed. Switzerland has 83 daily newspapers; dailies with international reputations include Neue Zürcher Zeitung, published in Zürich, and Journal de Genève, published in Geneva.

Labor

In the early 1990s the Swiss labor force was made up of about 3.6 million people, including nearly 912,000 foreigners (mostly from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France), called guest workers. The leading labor group is the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions, with some 444,000 members.