The Sonderbund War
Lucerne, Fribourg, Gisikon, Meierskappel, Airolo
Key figures: Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Konstantin Siegwart-Müller, Johann Ulrich von Salis-Soglio, Ulrich Ochsenbein
HLS (German): Sonderbund
The origins (1830–1845). After 1830 eleven cantons adopt liberal constitutions, and the radical liberals want to revise the Federal Pact of 1815 to strengthen the Confederation. The clash with the conservatives takes on an ever more religious character: in 1841 Aargau dissolves its monasteries, against the Pact, and in 1844 Lucerne recalls the Jesuits. The radicals make it a national issue; in 1844 and 1845 the “free corps”, armed volunteers, attack Lucerne, and the conservative leader Josef Leu is murdered.
The Sonderbund (11 December 1845). Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg and Valais conclude a mutual defence pact in Lucerne, with a Council of War chaired by the Lucerne politician Konstantin Siegwart-Müller and empowered to raise troops. The liberals call it the Sonderbund, “separate league”. The alliance presents itself as defensive, but the powers of the Council of War violate the Federal Pact; its arguments are the defence of the Catholic religion and of cantonal sovereignty, and the Sonderbund seeks support in Paris, Turin and Vienna.
Towards war (1846–1847). In 1846 the alliance, until then secret, becomes public. When the liberals win the elections in St Gallen in May 1847, they gain a majority in the Diet, the assembly of the cantons. On 20 July 1847 the Diet decides to dissolve the Sonderbund and then to expel the Jesuits. In October both sides arm: on 21 October the Diet appoints the Genevan Guillaume-Henri Dufour, a Protestant and moderate conservative, as general, and on the 24th mobilises 50,000 men; on the 29th the Sonderbund delegates leave the Diet.
A 25-day war (November 1847). On 3 November the Sonderbund strikes first, across the Gotthard, to overthrow the radicals in Ticino and open a supply route to Austrian Italy; the offensive stalls near Biasca. On 4 November the Diet orders the Sonderbund to be dissolved by force. Dufour wants a quick victory without hatred: he orders that enemy wounded be cared for and civilians spared, and relies on numerical superiority to discourage the enemy. Fribourg capitulates on 14 November, Zug on the 21st; on 23 November the federal troops win at Gisikon and Meierskappel, and Lucerne surrenders. Between 25 and 29 November the original cantons and the Valais give in without a fight.
The toll and the birth of the federal state. According to the most recent research, the war leaves 93 dead, 60 among the federal troops and 33 among those of the Sonderbund, and 510 wounded. The costs, 6.18 million francs, are charged to the defeated cantons and to those that remained neutral; the Sonderbund leaders flee abroad and the trial for high treason peters out in 1855. The great powers threaten to intervene, but the revolutions of 1848 in Europe prevent them. In the same year Switzerland adopts a Federal Constitution (see the stage): it is the last war fought on Swiss soil.
Johannes Weiss, the return of the federal troops to Herisau after the Sonderbund campaign, lithograph
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Sonderbund propaganda sheet, lithograph by the Eglin brothers, Lucerne 1845
Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek Luzern, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, photograph by Émile Pricam, 1875
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The Sonderbund War, November 1847: in purple the Sonderbund cantons, in green those of the Diet, in red the military operations (modern map, German labels)
Marco Zanoli, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Jakob Ziegler, the Rust battery at the Battle of Gisikon, 23 November 1847, lithograph of 1848
Wikimedia Commons, public domain