The general strike
Zurich, Bern, Grenchen and all of Switzerland
Key figures: Robert Grimm and the Olten Action Committee, General Ulrich Wille
Further reading: General strike (Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, German)
The hunger of war. During the First World War Switzerland remained neutral, but prices rose, wages did not, and many working-class families went hungry. In four years real wages fell on average by about 30 per cent, rents went up and from 1917 bread and basic foods were rationed. In the last year of the war more than one inhabitant in six, and in the cities up to one in four, lived on public relief. The soldiers, on duty for an average of 500–600 days, received no compensation for lost wages, and many of their families slid into poverty.
The Spanish flu. In 1918 the influenza epidemic also arrived: about half the population fell ill and about 22,000 people died, among them about 1,500 soldiers. It is the only year of the 20th century in which more people died in Switzerland than were born.
The Olten Committee. In February 1918 the Social Democratic Party and the trade unions founded the Olten Action Committee, led by the Bernese National Councillor Robert Grimm. In the autumn tension rose: in Zurich the bank employees went on strike, and on 13 October the people approved proportional representation for the National Council with two thirds of the vote. General Ulrich Wille feared a revolution and asked for troops; on 6 November the Federal Council had Zurich and Bern occupied. On 9 November the Committee called a 24-hour protest strike in 19 cities; the next day, on the Münsterhof in Zurich, a soldier died in the clashes. The Committee then proclaimed an indefinite general strike from 12 November.
Nine demands. The strike programme was more reformist than revolutionary:
- immediate new election of the National Council by proportional representation;
- votes for women;
- the obligation to work for all;
- the 48-hour week;
- reform of the army into a people's army;
- better food supplies;
- old-age and invalidity insurance;
- a state monopoly on imports and exports;
- payment of the public debt by the propertied classes.
Three days of strike. On 12 November 1918 about 250,000 workers downed tools across the country. The railway workers made the greatest impression: by stopping the trains, they carried the strike into the countryside as well. The Federal Council mobilised about 95,000 soldiers, called up mainly from rural regions and from French-speaking Switzerland: 20,000 in Zurich and 12,000 in Bern, where the army also occupied the Federal Palace. Armed citizens' guards sprang up in many towns. In French-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino the strike was less widely followed, and Ticino remained almost cut off because telegraphs and telephones were under control. On 13 November the Federal Council issued an ultimatum; the Committee, against Grimm's advice, decided to call off the strike to avoid civil war.
The dead of Grenchen. On 14 November, the last day, the news of the end of the strike did not reach Grenchen, the town of the watchmakers. The strikers blocked the station tracks; in the afternoon a unit of Vaud infantry fired on the crowd in a narrow street in the centre. Three young watchmakers died: Marius Noirjean, aged 17, Fritz Scholl, 21, and Hermann Lanz, 29. No soldier was ever convicted.
After the strike. On 15 November work resumed almost everywhere. Military justice opened 3,504 proceedings, mainly against railway workers, with 127 convictions. At the trial of the strike leaders in 1919, Robert Grimm, Fritz Platten and Friedrich Schneider were sentenced to six months in prison and Ernst Nobs to four weeks; in 1943 Nobs would become the first Social Democratic Federal Councillor. The country emerged divided: the right organised citizens' guards and founded the Swiss Patriotic Federation, while in 1921 the left wing of the Social Democratic Party broke away and founded the Communist Party.
The demands that came true. The strike ended without immediate success, but several of its demands became reality. In the autumn of 1919 the National Council was elected by proportional representation for the first time: the Social Democrats almost doubled their seats and the Radicals lost their absolute majority. In 1919–1920 the 48-hour week arrived, often without a cut in wages. Old-age and survivors' insurance (AHV) entered the Constitution in 1925 and became reality in 1948. Votes for women would come much later, in 1971.
Memory. For decades the general strike divided Switzerland between those who remembered it as an attempted revolution and those who saw it as a struggle for basic rights. In Grenchen a plaque commemorates the three workers who were killed; in 2018, for the centenary, exhibitions, books and events across the country took a fresh look at its history.
Demonstration in Zurich during the general strike, 13 November 1918
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Appeal of the Olten Action Committee «An das arbeitende Volk der Schweiz!» (To the working people of Switzerland!) proclaiming the indefinite general strike, 11 November 1918
Staatsarchiv Zürich, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The record of the telephone call between Robert Grimm and Ernst Nobs of 8 November 1918, intercepted by a telephone operator
PTT-Archiv, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Troops marching on the Bubenbergplatz in Bern during the general strike
Swiss Federal Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Barricades and torn-up tracks at Grenchen Süd station, November 1918; in the centre Max Rüdt, head of the local strike committee
SBB Historic, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
«Mitbürger! Eidgenossen!» (Fellow citizens! Confederates!): leaflet of the Radical Party of the city and canton of Bern against the general strike, 1918
Photo HJunghans, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The plaque in Grenchen commemorating Hermann Lanz, Marius Noirjean and Fritz Scholl, killed on 14 November 1918
Photo Parangaricutirimícuaro, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
«No postponement of the general strike»: statement of the Olten Action Committee, Bern, 11 November 1918
SBB Historic, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Helmeted cavalry troops in the courtyard of the Zurich-Aussersihl barracks, November 1918. On the photo: «Aufgebot gegen Bolschewiki» (Call-up against the Bolsheviks)
ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Dismounted dragoons with their horses on the Bubenbergplatz in Bern during the general strike
Swiss Federal Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
«Der Landesstreik scheitert» (The general strike fails): leaflet of the executive committee of the National Bloc, November 1918
SBB Historic, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Robert Grimm, head of the Olten Action Committee, in a 1949 portrait
Carl Jost, Staatsarchiv Bern, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0