Author: Maarten Koning

Sherlock Holmes in Meiringen

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) created the private detective Sir Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is known for his proficiency in observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic. He employs these skills when investigating cases for various clients, including Scotland Yard.

His methods were not just fiction but practical, visionary and effective, and they paved the way for modern investigation techniques and methods.

Meiringen (canton of Bern) is the village of the famous and deadly fight between Sherlock Holmes and his archenemy, Professor James Moriarty, in 1891, although more deadly for Moriarty.

Three years after the fight at the Reichenbach Falls, when all believed both had died, Holmes returned to his fictional life.

The public was so disappointed, upset and angry about his death that Conan Doyle brought him back to life in 1894, presuming that he had survived but had taken the opportunity to travel and think about his future.

Soon after, Holmes and Watson resumed their adventures on Bakerstraat 221 B in Londen. Conan Doyle chose Meiringen because the village was well known to British readers (mainly because of tourism). The landscape, mountains and waterfalls offered the ideal setting for his stories.

Meiringen had Grand Hotels, and the village was among the first in Switzerland to build an English church in 1867. Today, the church houses the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

(Source and further information: www.sherlockholmes.ch).

The Language Frontier Between Rodersdorf and Biederthal

The Celts and Romans left their traces throughout the later village of Rodersdorf (Canton Solothurn). The walls and foundations of Roman buildings, fragments of wall paintings, the remains of a floor heating system, a smithy, and a water mill are among the archaeological finds.

Almost nothing else is known until the twelfth century, when the brothers Hugo and Conrad von Ratolsdorf are mentioned in a document from 1197. The Lords of Ratolsdorf served the Counts of Pfirt and the Habsburgs after their extinction in 1324. They became landgraves in Alsace.

The Von Biederthan (today, the neighbouring French village Biederthal in Alsace) also played a role. Their standard coat of arms shows the kinship of the two families.

However, the circumstances changed over time. The rise of the wealthy bourgeoisie in the cities of the Swiss Confederation made life increasingly difficult for the nobility.

Imperial Austrian-Habsburg troops plundered Rodersdorf in the Swabian War (Swabenkrieg) in 1499. After the defeat of the Habsburgs, Solothurn acquired the village of Rodersdorf and the surrounding estates.

Biederthal became French after the Thirty Years’ War and has remained so ever since, although the “Wir wöllent Schwyzer werden!” slogan had long prevailed in this part of Alsace (and the Black Forest in today’s Baden-Württemberg).

During the turmoil of the Reformation (around 1530), Solothurn exhibited an astonishingly democratic approach for its time, as did the cantons of Glarus, Appenzell, and Zurich.

Rodersdorf

The canton initially appointed a priest or a minister, depending on the citizens’ majority vote. Later, however, Catholic belief prevailed throughout the canton of Solothurn.

Die 15 Kreuze zur Ehre Maria von Mariastein nach Rodersdorf

The frontier between France and Switzerland has been in place since 1648. Oberrheinalemannisch was the spoken language in both Rodersdorf and Biederthal until Napoleon made French the national language and compulsory in education.

After the Second World War, a language border separated the two villages, but the customs posts were (formally) abolished.

(Source and further information: www.rodersdorf.ch).

Multilingual Switzerland at Stake.

The author discusses a topical debate about using the four national languages. Switzerland has four languages: Romansh, French, German and Italian.

The teaching of languages is the competence of the cantons. The spoken language of the canton is compulsory in primary school. The problems or choices appear in secondary school.

Is a second language of the country mandatory or English? It is a fact that fewer and fewer Swiss can express themselves in another national language. It is no exception that (young) Swiss from, for example, French- and German-speaking Switzerland communicate in English.

This book (in French) pays attention to this development and the role of English. The subject is also topical because the four languages are an integral part of the federal structure of this multicultural and multilingual country.

José Ribeaud, La Suisse plurilingue se délingue, Neuchâtel, 2010.

Romanesque Switzerland

During the Romanesque period (1000-1300), Switzerland was still far from being a national entity. Medieval Romanesque architecture, therefore, presents a multifaceted picture.

The various influences, especially from Lombardy, Burgundy and the Upper Rhine, led to the development of highly individual forms of expression.

After a basic introduction, the author presents the Romanesque (church) buildings and their artistic treasures, grouped into the regions of Graubünden, Ticino, French-speaking Switzerland and German-speaking Switzerland, in a clear and descriptive manner. The presentations are complemented by short descriptions of lesser-known Romanesque buildings.

The book appeared in German (Romanische Schweiz) and French (Suisse romane).

Hans-Rudolf Meier, Romanische Schweiz, Würzburg 1996/  Suisse romane, Würzburg 1998.

Switzerland in 26 watercolours

The book shows the 26 cantons through watercolours and accompanying texts. It focuses on their capitals, history, and citizens who have shaped the country and its cantons.

The country with its four official languages, many dialects, more than 500 types of cheese, thousands of mountain peaks, hundreds of lakes and ponds and, since 1848, a true Confederation of independent but united republics under the name of cantons, is summarised in colour and text.

The more than 26 watercolours and accompanying texts tell the history of each canton and the country.

Daniel Lanoux, Anselm Zurfluh, J’aime la Suisse, Crissier, 2015

Republican Switzerland and the Seven United Provinces

The book A. Holenstein, Th. Maissen, M. Prak (Eds.) The Republican Alternative. The Netherlands and Switzerland compared (Amsterdam 2008) is the result of the workshop on 7-9 May 2004, organised by the University of Bern.

These two confederal republics of early modern Europe (1500-1795) consisted of (thirteen) independent cantons/Orte (the Eidgenossenschaft) and provinces and their cities (Republic of the Seven United Provinces).

The book compares the religious, military and economic similarities and differences, personal ties, and the (scientific) relationship between these two republics.

The Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) changed the constitutions of both countries: the monarchy and the unitary state in the Netherlands and the Confederacy of independent cantons in Switzerland.

However, the comparison yields interesting and unexpected results, as well as new facts. The same can be said about the exchange between Dutch and Swiss artists in the same period.

Jan Haeckert (1628-1690), around 1670. Collection: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. 

It is a fact that there are no mountains in the Netherlands. However, Dutch painters have depicted many mountains, waterfalls, caves and other alpine landscapes in Dutch surroundings since the sixteenth century, although many painters had never visited an alpine country.

They did so before Swiss painters. Thus, Dutch painters became a source of inspiration for their Swiss colleagues and vice versa. Switzerland became a popular destination for Dutch painters in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They created a new (fantasy) image of Alpine art.

Swiss artists also visited the (Protestant) Netherlands. The Dutch masters and their motifs inspired them. The exchange was intense in the nineteenth century.

The close religious, military, economic, scientific, and personal ties fit seamlessly into the research on the intensive artistic exchanges between the two countries from 1500 to 1795.

The Edition Kunst + Architektur in der Schweiz/Art + Architecture en Suisse (Nr. 3, 2020) of the Swiss Society for Art History (Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte/Société d’histoire de l’art en Suisse) recently published an interesting dossier on this subject under the title Schweiz-Niederlande. Kunst im Austausch/Suisse-Pays-Bas. Échanges aristiques (Switzerland-Netherlands. Artistic exchanges).

The last Prince of Neuchâtel

Neuchâtel was a remarkable new canton of the new Swiss Confederation in 1815. The Prussian King William III (1770-1840) was still the legitimate ruler of this canton.

This history dates back to 1706, when Marie de Nemours (1625-1707) of the French d’Orléans-Longueville dynasty passed away without a legitimate heir.

This family had governed the county of Neuchâtel since 1504. After her death, the three estates of Neuchâtel chose the Prussian Protestant King Frederick I (1688-1740) as their Prince.

Neuchâtel has been Protestant since 1530, and Berlin was much further away than Paris. Moreover, Bern wanted to curb the influence of the French king.

Several palaces in Neuchâtel remind us of the Prussian period. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770-1840) exchanged Neuchâtel for Hanover in 1806. The French Marshal Louis Alexander Berthier (1753-1815) became the new Prince of Neuchâtel (1806-1813). Due to Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, the King regained Neuchâtel.

The canton (particularly the industrial cities of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle) was a superpower in the watch industry. These cities rebelled against the royal patricians of Neuchâtel. After a failed revolt in 1831, the revolution succeeded in 1848, and the republic was proclaimed.

The Prussian king protested and even threatened to intervene. However, he had to deal with uprisings and unrest in his kingdom.

However, the King had a mighty ally in the canton: the patriciate of Neuchâtel, which had always benefited from Prussian military careers, trade, and economic possibilities.

After a failed monarchist coup in 1856, military threats by the Prussian king, and the mobilisation of troops by the Swiss Confederation, the king finally renounced his rights in 1857 (Treaty of Paris). In compensation, the king retained the titles “Prince of Neuchâtel and Count of Valangin.” The last royal left Switzerland in 1857.

Virtual Reality Glacier Experience

The Morteratsch Glacier near Pontresina  (canton Graubünden) shows the consequences of global warming. In recent decades, the masses of ice have been shrinking at an ever-increasing annual rate. High moraines characterise the landscape and show where the glacier was in 1850. The virtual reality stations show where it will be in 2100. Over the past 170 years, this glacier has shrunk three kilometres, nowadays  44 metres per year.

But there is (Swiss) hope and innovation (see under projects: “Mort Alive”, www. mortalive.ch). An interactive exhibition in Diavolezza near Pontresina (canton Graubünden) space shows the theme of the melting of the glaciers and climate-related changes in the high mountains. Information boards and extensive documentation give the visitor a scientifically substantiated insight into this multifaceted subject. Seven virtual stations show which scenarios are possible in the future.

(Source and further information: www.glacierexperience.com).

The French-Swiss Relationship and the eternal Peace Treaty of 1516

The relationship between France and Switzerland has many facets. An estimated 175,000 French citizens currently work in Switzerland. The largest Swiss contingent living abroad resides in France.

France is the fourth-largest export market for Switzerland, while Switzerland is among the top ten economic partners of France.

The two countries have numerous cultural, scientific, social, and political connections. More than 1.3 million Swiss citizens speak French.

Until the sixteenth century, the French Kingdom was much smaller and was militarily, culturally and politically overshadowed by the Dukes of Burgundy and the Habsburgs.

Alsace, Lorraine, Franche-Comté, and Savoy were not part of the kingdom yet, and the Reformation  (after 1517) had not divided Switzerland and France.

Fifteenth century

A conflict (Zürcherkrieg) in the Confederation  (Zurich, supported by Habsburg) against Bern, Zug, Lucerne, Schwyz, Glarus, Unterwalden and Uri) caused an intervention by the French king Charles VII (1403-1461) against the Eidgenossen.

The Eidgenossen lost the war (the battle of St. Jacob on the Birs in 1444). The French king was so impressed by the Swiss soldiers’ fighting power, spirit, and mentality that he offered the Eidgenossenschaft a favourable peace (Treaty of Ensisheim, 28 October 1444).

The eternal peace

It began a friendly relationship of almost 350 years (until Napoleon’s invasion in 1798). Around one million Swiss soldiers served in the French military, an essential Swiss export product for centuries.

In 1453, the French king Charles VII (1403-1461) and the Swiss Confederation, comprising eight cantons, concluded the first treaty of the ‘paix éternelle’, or the Treaty of Eternal Peace. This treaty would be ratified with great regularity until 1798. The French interest was the disposal of Swiss mercenaries and a neutral neighbour.

Swiss merchants had access to French markets and enjoyed a privileged status compared to other foreign merchants.

This alliance was a blessing for France. The Eidgenossenschaft defeated the mighty Burgundian Duke in 1476 (Grandson and Murten) and again in Nancy (1477).

The Habsburg emperor Maximilian (1459-1519) also benefited, and he married Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482), the daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold.

The ‘paix éternelle‘ was at risk when some, not all, cantons occupied the Po valley and threatened the duchy of Milan. The Confederation was a military superpower, but it lacked internal cohesion.

Marignano

The outcome was the defeat in September and October 1515 (a.o. at Marignano). The French king recognised the importance of a good relationship with the Eidgenossenschaft, and another ‘paix éternelle‘ was signed on November 29, 1516, and confirmed on May 5, 1521, in Lucerne.

The Reformation complicated the situation, but the “paix éternelle” and the good relationship lasted until 1798.

(Source: G. Miège, A.-J. Tornare, Suisse et France. Cinq cents ans de Paix Perpétuells 1516-2016, Freiburg 2016).