The Lia Rumantscha (Romansh Organisation) was founded in Chur in 1919 as an umbrella organisation of Romansh associations in Graubünden (Grisons).
The Lia Rumantscha created the Rumantsch Grischun. This language is based on three Romansh idioms (Sursilvan, Vallader and Surmiran).
(further information: www. liarumantscha.ch).
Switzerland is a quadrilingual country (Italian, German, French, and Romansh) with three minority languages: French, Italian, and Romansh-speaking citizens. The vast majority are German-speaking, and the principle at the federal level remains mastering the German language.
However, there is another minority, the fourth minority. These are the Italian-speaking people in the canton of Grisons. The canton is officially trilingual (Romansh, German, and Italian). The German-speaking inhabitants are the majority (around 100,000), while the Romansh population comprises 60,000 speakers.
The minority of around 20,000 Italian-speaking canton inhabitants lives in four separate valleys (Val Poschiavo/Puschlav, Val Bregaglia/Bergell, Val Mesolcina/Misox, and Val Calanca). The Italian speakers in these valleys regard themselves as the Italian minority of the Italian-speaking minority in the canton of Tessin/Ticino.
The Italian association Pro Grigioni Italiano confirms that the Italian-speaking minority in the canton have fewer career changes at the federal level compared to citizens of Ticino, even if they speak the other languages of the Confederation.
Moreover, there is no solidarity between the Italian-speaking minorities of Ticino (352,000 inhabitants) and Grisons. They call it Ticinocentrismo.
The solidarity between French- and Italian-speaking Swiss citizens, la solidarité latine, is also limited.
The debate is topical when the Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne is considering the education of foreign language(s) in primary schools (in addition to German, Romansh, or Italian, depending on the commune in which the language is spoken).
Most German-speaking schools opt for English, whereas most Italian-speaking schools prefer German over English.
The city of Biel/Bienne is bilingual. French and German have the same status. A study on bilingualism in Biel/Bienne and Freiburg/Fribourg praised the coexistence of the two languages as an exemplary model.
The report described Biel/Bienne as more than a “miniature Switzerland.” It praised the city as a role model for the country.
The language is chosen by the person who speaks first. Whether the conversation is in French or German, the counterparty adapts accordingly, even if they do not speak the second language well.
This behaviour has been known as the “Model of Biel/Bienne” since the 1980s.
The Centre Dürrenmatt in Neuchâtel, in collaboration with Forum Helveticum, organises an exhibition about this type of bilingualism.
(Source: www.lebendige-traditionen.ch).
The famous Swiss historian Jacob Christian Burckhardt (1818-1897) was the first to analyse the use of satire, parody and wit in Renaissance Europe.
Burckhardt (Weltliche Betrachtungen, posthumously published in 1905) also introduced the term Kleinstaat (Le petit état, the small state) as a reminder of Switzerland’s democratic qualities at the time of European superpowers and a (megalomaniac) neighbour. A warning from history.
(Source Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, Gutenberg Project, translation 2014).
Europe
Europe is a name given by the Greeks to a region or continent that stretches from the Ural in the east to Ireland (or Iceland) in the west and from Scandinavia in the north to Italy in the south.
The continent’s societies, cultures, and languages have always been highly diverse. Greeks and Romans were the first civilisations to introduce an urban, written, and so-called high culture.
Europe was a world of hunting and peasant communities before the arrival of the Romans and Greeks. Europe would never be the same after the fall of the (West) Roman Empire (476).
The ‘Greek’ Byzantine Empire kept the idea of a united Europe alive, referring to itself as the continuation of the Roman Empire.
Latin Europe saw political fragmentation, a sharp decline of the urban landscape, and a loss of Roman (written) culture. An elite of aristocrats (and bishops) ruled over the peasant populations. They maintained a network of loyalties and alliances that made up the political world.
However, the new class of clerics, including monks, bishops, and popes, was a novelty. They worked and lived in a web of institutions (Benedictine abbeys, monasteries, churches, bishoprics). The first bishop in Rome was the religious successor of the secular Roman emperors. Latin Europe’s cultural inheritance was a mixture of Germanic/Frankish and Roman culture, with Latin as the learned and religious language, and a (rudimentary) surviving network of roads, cities, and trading routes.
Latin Europe of the early Middle Ages (c. 400-800) was marked by less mobility, although long-distance trading networks never disappeared completely. For example, Frisian and Scandinavian traders in the north and their Swiss, German, French, and Mediterranean partners in the south.
The Carolingian Empire (ninth century) and the Holy Roman Empire (from the tenth to the eleventh centuries) paved the way for a vital European society, encompassing the conquered territories in the east and the Christianization of the Scandinavian peoples.
The scale of production and distribution changed, the population grew considerably, urbanisation and commercialisation restructured economic and social life, and banking and financial devices were created (and financial crises as well).
The way of thinking changed with the discovery of ancient manuscripts, the foundation of universities, the role of the Papacy, the development of the legal system (advocates, judges, jurisprudence, and law), representative bodies (councils of states, parliaments), bureaucracies, international business, the financial system, and trading networks.
There was a shared cultural heritage. The (Romanesque) arts, the Church, architecture and the use of Latin are just a few examples of this Europeanization of Europe.
Switzerland
Switzerland did not differ from other European regions in Latin Europe. Its present-day territory was in the heartland of Latin Europe.
There were many independent political entities in Switzerland, including abbeys, bishoprics, (imperial) cities, communes, and aristocratic dynasties. After the eleventh century, the territories became part of the Holy Roman Empire.
The communes (Orte and Landsgemeinde) and the cities became the prominent political players in a process that started in the thirteenth century. The aristocracy, German/Habsburg emperors, and kings disappeared two centuries after 1291 and with the Peace of Basel in 1499.
The loose alliances of the Orte and cantons (the common name in the sixteenth century) finally evolved into the Eidgenossenschaft of thirteen sovereign cantons in 1513.In 1848,
Switzerland became a federal state with a single constitution, a unified currency, a standard foreign policy, and a unified army.
It is a state with four languages, various cultures, religions, and traditions, and twenty-six democratic sovereign republics. Cantons and their constitutions.
One could say that Switzerland was Europeanized after the Romans’ departure in the fifth century, after four centuries of Romanisation. This political entity also highlights the limitations of a politically unified European continent.
(Source: R. Bartlett, The Making of Europe. Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950-1350 (London 1993).
Switzerland is the second-oldest federal state after the United States of America. The federal constitution of 1848 was closely modelled on that of the USA (written in 1787). The cantons delegated some of their sovereignty to the federal level in 1848.
The cantons
Most cantons have a long history, dating back to the Middle Ages. The canton of Jura (1979) is a twentieth-century creation, following a long historical path from the Prince-Bishopric of Basel (until 1792-1798), the Napoleonic era (1798-1813), and the canton of Bern (1815-1979).
The Swiss Confederation consists of 26 cantons. The cantons of Geneva (Genève), Vaud, Jura and Neuchâtel (Neuenburg) are French-speaking, Valais (Wallis), Berne (Bern) and Fribourg (Freiburg) are bilingual, Ticino is Italian-speaking, Graubünden (Grisons) is trilingual (German-Romansh-Italian), and Aargau, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Zürich, Schaffhausen, Thurgau, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden, Sankt-Gallen, Nidwalden, Uri, Glarus, Solothurn, Lucerne, Obwalden, Züg, Schwyz are German-speaking.
There are six demi-cantons: Obwalden and Nidwalden, Protestant Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Catholic Appenzell Innerrhoden (since 1597), and Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft (since 1833). The demi-cantons have only one seat in the Council of States instead of two.
The 26 cantons have a high degree of independence. Each canton has its constitution, parliament/assembly of citizens, government, and courts.
Around 2,200 communes exist at the local level. The cantons determine the level of autonomy, which varies from commune to commune.
Subsidiarity, Direct Democracy and the Federal Level
How do you rule such a divided country? The secret is not just the four-yearly direct election of the 200 members of the National Council (Nationalrat) and the 46 members of the Council of States (Ständerat).
The answer entails decentralisation, direct democracy, constitutional recognition of languages and cultures and transparent public discussions encouraged by grass-roots referendums and popular initiatives.
This concept fosters good governance and citizen engagement. However, it is not the only reason for its democratic and multicultural success.
Switzerland is a small country with approximately 8.4 million inhabitants (about 20% are foreigners). It has an excellent education system, a well-developed civil society and legal system, a broad range of media services, a longstanding democratic tradition, the absence of a dominant central political power, and a robust social, monetary, and economic system.
As history shows, the country is neither immune to nor excluded from (global and European) challenges. Still, the citizens are always there to check and double-check the federal, cantonal, and local rulers and their follies, corruption, and clientele systems.
(Source: The Swiss Confederation. A Brief Guide. Bern 2021).
Napoleon assigned Tarasp to the canton of Grisons in 1803 (Act of Mediation, Mediationsakte). The town and its hamlets had been an enclave of the Habsburgs for centuries. Tarasp is, for this reason, a Catholic community.
The mineral springs Luzius, Emerita, Bonifazius, and Carola generated the prosperity after 1860. Large spa hotels (Kurhaus Tarasp, Schweizerhof and Walhaus Hotel (burnt down in 1989) were built between 1875 and 1910.
The National Park, a hiking and skiing area, a golf resort and the Kunsthalle Nairs, a cultural centre, are new destinations in this monumental village.
(Source and further information: www.tarasp.ch).
The Hotel Waldhaus in Sils (Canton Graubünden) was built in 1908. The guests appreciated the view of Lake Sils, the Maloja pass, the mountains, and the valley. Many famous guests, including writers, movie stars, politicians, artists, and aristocrats, visited the hotel to be seen and to see others. It was the time of the booming Spa, health industry, and winter and summer tourism.
Many Grand Hotels can still be admired, serving the same function, or abandoned, with other destinations. They share the commonality that they were built in small villages with a few hundred inhabitants.
The failures and unrealised dreams are less well-known. The small village of Riom is showcased in Villa Carisch, presenting the dream of the Grand Riom Palace. The maquette shows the architecture of what could have been.
Charles Laurent Carisch (1882-1914), a grandson of Johannes Jacob Carisch (1820-1906), inherited the fortune his father, Charles Auguste Carisch (1851-1906), had amassed as the owner of restaurants in Paris.
Scuol, Tarasp, St. Moritz, Sils and Davos were similar villages at the beginning of the tourism boom. Charles Laurent had the vision, the architect and the money, but then came the First World War.
He died as a French soldier in 1914, and with him died the dream of the Grand Riom Palace in Riom.
(Further information: www.origen.ch).
The foundation of Aquae Helveticae (present-day Baden in Canton Aargau/Argovie) by the Romans is primarily attributed to the establishment of the army camp in Vindonissa (Windisch) around 17 AD.
Aquae Helveticae was a large bathing complex for the military and (Roman) citizens due to the springs of mineral water. The museum, located in the monumental Landvogteischloss on the banks of the Limmat, showcases this history and other ancient and medieval artefacts and stories.
(Source, H.W. Doppler, Der römische Vicus Aquae Helveticae, Baden, 1976).
The village of Savognin was first mentioned in 1154 in a document by the Bishop of Chur. It is in the Surses Valley and Parc Ela, Switzerland’s largest regional natural park.
The beginning of tourism in the mid-19th century increased the number of travellers passing through the village. The bridge spans Julia, one of the Lower Rhine (Hinterrhein) rivers.
The village remained Catholic and became one of the strongholds of the Counter-Reformation. The monks built the bridge (1682) and the (Baroque) churches in the small village and the rectory.
The Gabriel residence was formerly the property of the Bishop of Chur. These building activities made the Church a significant employer in the village. Tourism, agriculture, and smaller businesses employ the majority of people nowadays.
This region in the canton of Grisons (Graubünden) has many art treasures (the Carolingian church of St. Peter in St. Mistail, for example) and is an old transit route.
The Julier Pass was already in use in Roman times. Two Roman columns are the silent witnesses. The Septimer Pass has always been a competitor, even in the Roman era.
However, after the opening of the Splügen Pass and the Gotthard Pass in the thirteenth century, the Julier Pass and the Septimer Pass lost their significance.
The increase in tourism and the renovation of the roads brought the Julier Pass back to life again in the nineteenth century. Many coaches drove from Chur to Oberengadin and crossed the Julier pass. The Posthotel Löwen in Mulegns is a testament to this era.
The Gotthard tunnel (1882) and the Albula railway (1903) made this road less relevant. The cantonal prohibition of cars until 1925 was also not helpful.
Oberhalbstein (Surses in Romansh) fell into a deep sleep until the rise of tourism in 1960. From Tiefencastel (near the Carolingian monastery of St. Mistail), the Julier road leads via the Crap Ses canyon (or the tunnel) to the valley and the beautiful Ela nature park, then through Savognin and Rona to Mulegns and the Marmorera reservoir.
Marmorera
The town of Marmorera disappeared into the waves in 1954 and was rebuilt elsewhere (after a referendum, of course).
Bivio is the last town at the foot of the Julier Pass. Medieval Bivio was called Stabulum Bivio, the stable at the junction (bi via). This is for good reason: There is a choice between the Septimer Pass, the Julier Pass, or the Stallerberg.
Bivio is a junction of three cultures and languages: the German-speaking Walser of Avers, the Italian-speaking inhabitants of Bergell and the Romansh population.
German and Romansh are the main languages, although Italian is also spoken, even after the merger with other (Romansh-speaking) municipalities in the valley (Cunter, Marmorera, Mulegns, Riom, Salouf, Savognin, Parsonz, Sur and Tinizong-Rona).
This municipality, called Surses, has approximately 2,500 inhabitants.
(Source: www.valsurses.ch)
