Six hundred years of the Confederation
Schwyz, Rütli, Bern
Key figures: Emil Welti, Josef Zemp
Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (German): National Day, Popular initiative
An anniversary to be invented (1889–1891). Until well into the 19th century the birth of the Confederation was dated, following the chronicler Aegidius Tschudi, to 8 November 1307. The Federal Charter of 1291, long forgotten, had only been published in 1760. As Bern prepared to celebrate the seven hundredth anniversary of its founding in 1891, the idea arose of marking the six hundredth anniversary of the Confederation in the same year. Rather than a revolutionary conspiracy, a legal document was chosen as its birth certificate: the pact concluded by Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden “at the beginning of the month of August” 1291. And so 1 August became the date of the celebration.
Schwyz, 1 August 1891. The official celebrations were held in Central Switzerland, regarded as the cradle of the Confederation. On the eve it poured with rain, and in the evening the bells of all the churches in the valley announced the festival. On the morning of 1 August cannon salutes opened the day; after the church service a procession climbed to the festival meadow: the Federal Council, the diplomats and the delegations of all the cantons, whose ushers wore cloaks in the cantonal colours. The President of the Confederation, Emil Welti, addressed the crowd. In the afternoon, on a large open-air stage, 720 performers staged a Festspiel before some 10,000 spectators, ranging from the first inhabitants of the valleys to the oath on the Rütli, Morgarten, Murten, the Diet of Stans and Pestalozzi. In the evening a cross of fire was lit on the Mythen.
The Rütli, 2 August 1891. The next day the celebrations moved to the Rütli meadow above Lake Uri, where according to tradition the alliance was sworn. At nightfall the shores of the lake and the mountains were illuminated. The 1891 ritual, however, remained an exceptional event tied to a special anniversary: no one yet thought of repeating it every year.
1 August becomes the national day (1899–1994). The annual celebration began in 1899, when the Federal Council asked the cantons to ring the church bells on the evening of 1 August, partly at the urging of the Swiss abroad, who wanted their own 14 July. Bonfires on the heights and official speeches soon became part of the day, followed by paper lanterns and more and more fireworks. For almost a century, however, 1 August remained an ordinary working day: only some cantons declared the afternoon or the whole day a holiday. On 26 September 1993, in the wake of the Confederation’s seven hundredth anniversary, 83.8 per cent of voters approved a popular initiative by the Swiss Democrats, and since 1994 1 August has been a public holiday throughout Switzerland.
The popular initiative (5 July 1891). The Constitutions of 1848 and 1874 allowed 50,000 citizens to demand only a total revision of the Constitution. In 1884 a motion by the Catholic Conservative National Councillors Josef Zemp, Johann Joseph Keel and Martino Pedrazzini called for the possibility of amending individual articles as well. On 5 July 1891 the people and the cantons approved the change with 60.3 per cent in favour and a turnout of 49.9 per cent: the Catholic Conservative cantons voted for it en masse, Fribourg by 95.3 per cent, while the Radical cantons were sceptical and Vaud rejected it. Since then 50,000 citizens, 7.6 per cent of the electorate at the time, have been able to propose an amendment to the Constitution, as a general proposal or as a finished text, on which the people and the cantons vote. The first initiative to be accepted, in 1893, banned slaughter without prior stunning, a measure in effect aimed at Jews. In 1977 the number of signatures required was raised to 100,000.
The first Catholic Conservative Federal Councillor (17 December 1891). On 6 December 1891 the people rejected the purchase of the shares of the Swiss Central Railway, championed by Emil Welti, who resigned. To end the crisis, the Radicals for the first time offered a seat in government to the opponents they had defeated in 1847, the Catholic Conservatives. On 17 December 1891 the Federal Assembly elected Josef Zemp of Lucerne, who had opposed railway nationalisation; he was given the Post and Railways Department, and as minister he supported the buy-back of the railways, approved by the people in 1898, which led to the creation of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). President of the Confederation in 1895 and 1902, he remained in office until 1908. His election sealed the historic compromise between Radicals and Catholics: Zemp became the symbol of the integration of political Catholicism into the federal state, as Ernst Nobs would be for the Social Democrats in 1943.
The federal celebration in Schwyz: the speech by President of the Confederation Welti, “Die Gartenlaube”, 1891
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The Federal Charter of 1291 between Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, with two of its three original seals, kept at the Museum of the Federal Charters in Schwyz
Museum of the Federal Charters, Schwyz, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Medal of the Swiss colony in France for the sixth centenary of the “first perpetual alliance of the Confederates”, 1291–1891: the reverse with the Swiss arms and those of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden
Photo Berlin-George, Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The festival procession on the main square in Schwyz, in the rain, on 1 August 1891, “Die Gartenlaube”, 1891
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The celebration on the Rütli meadow above Lake Uri, 2 August 1891, “Die Gartenlaube”, 1891
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Federal Councillor Emil Welti, President of the Confederation in 1891, portrayed by Karl Stauffer-Bern in 1887
Karl Stauffer-Bern, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
A 1 August bonfire, 1957, photograph by Ernst Klöti
Zentralbibliothek Solothurn, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
In the same year, 1891, Bern celebrated the seven hundredth anniversary of its founding: the festival ground at the Dählhölzli, with the stands for the Festspiel
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The same medal by Alphée Dubois: Helvetia flies over the mountains with a torch and a palm branch, 1891
Photo Berlin-George, Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Above, the cross of fire on the Mythen; below, the Festspiel stage with the Urirotstock in the background, drawings by Fritz Bergen, “Die Gartenlaube”, 1891
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The Rütli house above Lake Uri, with the two Mythen peaks in the background: photochrom, 1890–1900
Photochrom Print Collection, Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Josef Zemp, the first Catholic Conservative Federal Councillor, in 1892
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The 1 August bonfire in Zollikon on Lake Zurich, 2016
Photo Adrian Michael, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0