British aristocrats were the first mountaineers in Switzerland and introduced winter sports (through a bet with the founder of the Kulm Hotel in St Moritz). Such was the enthusiasm that the world’s first Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857, followed in 1863 by the Schweizer Alpen Club (SAC)/Club alpine suisse (CAS).
Churchill and Switzerland
The greatest Briton of all time and saviour of European civilisation (‘1940 hat Churchill gerettet Europa‘, Willy Bretscher in 1971, editor-in-chief of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung during the Second World War) was one of them.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965) climbed Monte Rosa and several other mountains, and visited Switzerland on several occasions (1893, 1894, 1904, 1906, 1910) during his younger years. During these (lengthy) stays, he got to know and appreciate the country, as did other compatriots before and after him.
Sir John Bowring (1792-1872). Devonshire Association
The British banker Sir Ernest Cassel (1852-1921) was his host in the summers of 1904, 1906, and 1910 at his Villa Cassel on the Riederfurka, in the area of the Aletsch glacier (canton Valais).
Moreover, through publications by English writers, Churchill became aware of Swiss history and political development.
Most people know Churchill as a relatively sedate and cigar-smoking politician in his sixties during World War II. In his younger years, however, he was an active sportsman, with activities including horse riding, polo, and hiking. He also played bridge, albeit not always with good experience:
“I can’t tell you how much I hate losing money with bridge. It’s a complicated game, especially if you’re a bad player with lousy cards in your hand”.
His literary, journalistic, military, and political career, eloquence, and historical knowledge are well known. His (brief) training and activity as a bricklayer and career as an amateur painter also deserve attention. He was proud of the stone barn and wall he built in 1928 on his Chartwell estate in Kent.
His painting career began in 1915 on the Flanders battlefield, following one of his lowest political moments. The Swiss artist and art collector Charles (Carl) Montag (1880-1956) supported and educated him.
Winston Churchill, View of Chartwell, 1938. Front cover, The National Trust, Chartwell, 1992
Moreover, Swiss staff worked preferentially at Chartwell until he died in 1965. He also published articles in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (and media in other countries).
Churchill was a child of the English Victorian establishment and the 19th century. The anachronistic commentary of some of today’s opinion makers, journalists and historians says something about the present-day understanding of the (recent) past.
Besides his many (human) qualities, Churchill also had shortcomings, mistakes, and misjudgments. Still, even years before the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945) and after the communist coup in Russia at the end of World War I (1914-1918), he had the right political and moral compass.
He foresaw not only communist terror, its economic mismanagement and cultural nihilism in 1918 but also National Socialist barbarism in the 1920s and 1930s. He was aware of the danger that threatened neutral countries, including Switzerland.
Prague, Náměstí Winstona Churchilla (Winston Churchill Square), 1999, a replica of the original from 1976 by Ivor Robert-Jones (1913-1996), which stands in Parliament Square in London. The unveiling of the statue took place on November 17, 1999, and marks Prague as an important European cultural, political, and historical centre. It also commemorates the famous words of Churchill in a broadcast to the Czech and Slovak people on September 30th 1940: “The Soul of Freedom is Deathless. It Cannot and Will not Die”.
World War II
The famous speech (‘Let Europe Arise‘) in Zurich on September 19th 1946, concluded his last visit (August 19th—September 22nd 1946) to Switzerland. It was also a massive thank-you from the Swiss people in Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, Zurich, or wherever he appeared. After all, Churchill had also saved Switzerland.
Or in the words of Werner Vogt: ‘Die Schweiz, namentlich die Schweizer Bevölkerung, hat Winston Churchill im Sommer 1946 viel gegeben. So viel aber, wie sie im Sommer 1940 bekommen hatte, konnte sie gar nicht zurückgeben. Es war auch die schweizerische Freiheit, die Churchill im Sommer 1940 verteidigte ‘ (Werner Vogt, p. 203).
Apart from the (British, Polish and Czech) pilots of the RAF during ‘the Blitz’ in the summer of 1940, Churchill’s decision and naval experience made the evacuation of the British expeditionary army on 26-29 May possible. These were perhaps the decisive and most pivotal three days before victory in 1945 or, freely, to Churchill:
‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to one person‘.
London, 2012, Trafalgar Studios, Three Days in May, Warren Clarke as Churchill, Jeremy Clyde as Lord Halifax, Robert Demeger as Neville Chamberlain
A concrete threat of German invasion existed for Switzerland until 1944, as it had been since May 10th 1940. France’s rapid capitulation (June 22nd 1940) most likely prevented an invasion.
The need was no longer there, and a neutral Switzerland was more interesting for diplomatic, financial, and industrial reasons. The Allies could not bomb the north-south link either (although there were plans).
Be that as it may, despite fear among the population and defeatism among some politicians and thanks to the combative attitude of the army (Réduit), public opinion and media and the rejection of an ‘Anschluss’ and ‘irredentism‘ by the vast majority of the population, the cost-benefit analysis among Italian and German dictators fell in favour of respecting neutrality.
The Felsplatte (Canton of Solothurn)
With today’s knowledge, condemning Switzerland is easy. Churchill, however, respected the country’s neutrality and extremely hazardous position, even when Allied (as well as German) planes were shot down over Swiss territory by the Swiss air force. He also put the much larger arms supplies to Germany and Italy in the perspective of the country’s dire situation:
‘Of all the neutrals, Switzerland has the greatest right to distinction. She has been the sole international force linking the hideously sundered nations and ourselves. What does it matter whether she has been able to give us the commercial advantages we desire or has given too many to the Germans to keep herself alive? She has been a democratic state, standing for freedom in self-defence among her mountains, and in thought largely on our side‘ (Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Volume VI, London, 1954).
University of Zurich
Zurich 1946
His speech in Zurich on September 19th 1946, is still relevant to today’s Switzerland. Churchill was a strong advocate of far-reaching cooperation between European countries, especially France and Germany:
“It is to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can, and provide it with a structure. We must all turn our backs upon the horrors of the past. We must look to the future, a blessed act of oblivion”.
The first step in re-creating the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany. We must recreate the European family in a regional structure, perhaps called the United States of Europe. The first step is to form a Council of Europe. Great Britain, the British Commonwealth of Nations, America and Soviet Russia must be the friends and sponsors “.
In his 1954 publication, Winston Churchill explained his ideas in more detail in The Second World War, Volume VI (London, 1954). He did not want a federal European State but an undefined ‘United States of Europe’ (“I shall not try to make a detailed programme for hundreds of millions of people“).
He saw the United States of Europe as a European Regional Council of sovereign countries. He also envisaged the Regional Council of the Pacific (with Russia, Asia, and Oceania), the Regional Council of the Americas, the British Commonwealth, and possibly other (future) Regional Councils. The World Council was the highest body with delegates from these Regional Councils.
Churchill suggested that, for practical reasons, European countries would send representatives to the European Regional Council by region, e.g., the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), the Slavic countries, and the Scandinavian countries.
He wrote about Switzerland: “Mr Wallace also asked whether I contemplated the possibility of Switzerland joining with France, but I said Switzerland is a special case“. (Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Volume VI, London, 1954, p. 718).
In his view, the UK had to opt for the ‘seas, free market, and free trade’ approach anyway, rather than joining these European structures, which did not rule out cooperation. After all, the UK was already a member of the Commonwealth.
European Union-Switzerland
The 1954 explanation clarifies that Churchill did not want a federal Europe. He would probably be critical of the functioning of the current European Union’ Aus dem Ruder gelaufen‘ while emphasising the need for its realistic ambitions and projects.
How would Churchill judge the current European Union-Swiss relationship? He was realistic and pragmatic enough to see the country’s difficult position surrounded by European Union countries. He also recognised the European cooperation’s benefits, positive developments, and necessity.
However, he would also pinpoint democratic, bureaucratic, and juridical activism, political shortcomings, and (sometimes unrealistic or megalomaniacal) ambitions without falling into populism. After all, this European Union sometimes resembles a United Nations at the European level or an NGO, which is not a compliment.
Gdansk shipyard, a monument to the fallen workers in 1970
Conclusion
We will never know. Perhaps he would recommend nurturing direct democracy, subsidiarity, federalism, decentralisation, innovation, and a national currency, with the necessary compromises.
About today’s Russia, he would be as clear as he was about its predecessor and aggressive ally of the German dictator until June 22nd 1941:
‘When I awoke on the morning of Sunday, the 22nd, the news was brought to me of Hitler’s invasion of Russia. I had not the slightest doubt where our duty and policy lay. The Nazi regime is indistinguishable from the worst features of Communism.
It excels in all forms of human wickedness in the efficiency of its cruelty and ferocious aggression. No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last 25 years, and I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil‘ (Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Volume III, London, 1950).
The Russian invasion of February 22nd 2022, is nothing but a continuation of the aggression against Poland (September 17th 1939), Finland (November 1939) and the Baltic States (1940) by the Soviet Union.
In May 1940, Churchill saved European civilisation. The fact that this struggle ended with the communist nightmare in Central and Eastern Europe was a bitter pill for him:
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of central and eastern Europe. This is certainly not the liberated Europe we fought to build up“, Fulton, on March 5th 1946).
Gdansk shipyard, Solidarność uprising, 1981
Military facts, communist terror, and an inexperienced new US president ( Harry Truman, 1882-1972) and British prime minister (Clement Attlee, 1883-1967) sealed the fate of Eastern European countries, particularly Poland and former Czechoslovakia (‘the Switzerland of Central Europe’ until 1938). Great Britain started the war in 1939 because of Poland after it failed to defend Czechoslovakia in 1938.
Churchill always respected different political views, parliamentary discussions, and democracy, but could not stand or respect Lord Haw-Haw (1906-1946) or similar present-day personalities.
(Source: Werner Vogt, Winston Churchill und die Schweiz, Zürich 2015; The Churchill Foundation)
