Author: Maarten Koning

Multilingual Switzerland

“Les langues ne sont pas neutres. Elles incarnent des cultures, elles imprègnent les mentalités, elles engendrent des affinités, elles aiguillonnent des susceptibilités, elles expriment des sensibilités, elles traduisent des manières de raisonner, de penser, de vivre et elles influencent et déterminent même la conception que les citoyens ont du rôle de l’État par rapport aux individus et à la société”. (José Ribeaud, La Suisse plurilingue se délingue. Plaidoyer pour les quatre langues nationales suisses, Neuchâtel, 2002).

Four national languages

Switzerland is the only European country with four national languages: Italian, German, French and Romansh.

Switzerland occupies a unique position on a small territory (approximately 41,000 square kilometres) within the European labyrinth of languages and cultures.

More than 5 million German speakers (and their many dialects, including Schwyzertütsch, which is mostly the vernacular), 1.5 million French speakers in the Romandie and the bilingual cantons of Wallis, Bern, and Freiburg, 350,000 Italian speakers in Tessin and Graubünden, and around 60,000 Romansh speakers in Graubünden.

Additionally, there is a large number of foreigners who speak languages other than English. The four languages are recognised as official languages in the Constitution of 1848  and 1938 in the case of Romansh.

Federal level

Civil servants and members of the parliament at the federal level speak at least two languages, German and French and/or Italian (or Romansh).

The 200 members of the National Council (Nationalrat) debate in their own or one of the other languages, often without using the available simultaneous interpreters.

The Senate (Ständerat) does not use interpreters. The 46 members use the languages of their cantons or one of the other languages.

The parliamentary documents appear mainly in German and/or French. Improvements are possible, but multilingualism generally functions well at the federal level.

English sometimes becomes a universal language. Fewer and fewer young people are proficient in their country’s other languages.

The (limited) student exchange occurs mainly between French and German-speaking Switzerland and hardly with Italian-speaking, let alone Romansh-speaking areas.

Cantons

There are also discussions in the cantons about the education and teaching of languages. Is English more important than French/German in German-speaking or French-speaking cantons?

That also applies to regions in Graubünden, where Romansh or Italian is the first language. German is always obligatory as a second language, but what about French or English?

Conclusion

Even in multilingual Switzerland, harmonious coexistence and integration are not self-evident. The constitutional, pedagogical, and local structures and mentality require ongoing attention.

Suchard and Neuchâtel

For 164 years, the scent of cocoa could be smelled in the Serrières valley (commune of Neuchâtel). The book (in French) is an invitation to (re)discover the history of the famous Neuchâtel chocolate factory and explore the Serrières valley.

It is the colour purple and the Milka cow that the eye associates with a bar of milk chocolate, as advertisers at the beginning of the 20th century succeeded in establishing this brand to the public.

From the small family business to the multinational, the existence of the chocolate factory is punctuated by ups and downs, visionary strategies and missed opportunities. Still, it constitutes a piece of the industrial history of the utmost importance, which has created the worldwide reputation of Neuchâtel in the same way as the watchmaking industry.

Since 1989, chocolate is no longer produced in Serrières and in 1996, Suchard left the site for good. Today, Suchard remains a name, a brand, products, a rich archive and an important industrial site.

(Claire Piquet, Un parfum de chocolat, sur les traces de Suchard à Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, 2022).

Basel Infinity Festival

The Basel Infinity Festival combines classical music with literature, folk music and dance. The festival draws from baroque, classical and romantic to contemporary music.

Binningen, Schlosskeller, Katarina Leskovar (Cello), Nejc Grm (Accordeon)

The festival’s fourth edition started in February 2023 with a small tour in Canton-Basel-Landschaft. On 8 February, the renovated and recently opened Schlosskeller in Binningen featured music from Hungary to South America, a journey through the worlds of tango and rhapsodies with cello and accordion. Other concerts and workshops took place in Dornach and Liestal. Two more concerts will take place in Allschwil on 18 and 22 March.

As the name suggests, Basel is the festival’s main venue. From seven March to five April, there are numerous concerts.

The Männerstimmen in the Pauluskirche. Foto: Basel Infinity Festival

Infinity Basel starts with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s (1749-1832) famous verses from “Walpurgisnacht”, a scene from Goethe’s Faust. They inspired 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) to compose his light-hearted and euphoric String Octet opus 20 in 1825. The string octet by Romanian George Enescu (1881-1955) is a good complement. At 19, he composed his Octet opus 7 in late 1900, which fascinates by its pulsating rhythms and dark sounds.

Alain Claude Sulzer (Text), Anna Gagane (Klarinette), Sherniyaz Mussakhan (Violine) and Denis Linnik (Piano), 17 March, Jazzcampus Club Basel

(Source and further information: Basel Infinity Festival)

24 February 2022

The Swiss churches organised an ecumenical gathering under the auspices of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft christlicher Kirchen in der Schweiz (AGCK, Association of Christian Churches in Switzerland) on 24 February, one year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The event took place in Bern’s Münster, with representatives of the Ukrainian community and dignitaries from Switzerland in attendance. National Council President Martin Candinas represented the Swiss Federation.

Martin Candinas, Chairman of the parliament (Nationalrat/Conseil fédéral)

The meeting began with a wish for peace in the four languages of Switzerland and Ukrainian. After a year full of unimaginable suffering, destruction and disruption of millions of lives, and after a year defined by this (new) war on the European continent, unthinkable until 24 February 2022, there is anger, sadness, despair, bewilderment and powerlessness. Still, there is also hope, trust, solidarity and compassion.

People need faith in a happy ending and peace in these times. Faith and gatherings, performed with symbols and words spoken and sung, feed this hope. And many of these small streams can eventually become a stream on the way to (long-term) peace.

The gathering provided a glimpse into the future, offering a realistic view (without naive or false pacifist hopes and initiatives) of the present. The “Dona nobis pacem”, the lighting of candles and the olive branch were expressions of this future.

(Source and further information: Arbeitsgemeinschaft christlicher Kirchen in der Schweiz)

The Monuments of Serrières

The name Serrières (today a district of the city of Neuchâtel) derives from the Latin word serra, saw, which in ancient times denoted a place with many sawmills. The town lies on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel. This region was already inhabited in prehistoric times and the centuries before the Roman occupation (15-13 BC).

The Roman villa of Serrières was discovered in 1908 during the construction of the houses of the cité Suchard, the world’s first chocolate multinational. The complex was located on the banks of the lake (the level of the lake was lowered by metres in the 19th century).

The lake’s richness in fish, combined with the Region of the Three Lakes network (comprising the lakes of Neuchâtel, Biel/Bienne, and Morat/Murten), and the River Aare, explains the presence of a Roman settlement and a large villa.

Excavations in 1908 revealed that the Chocolat Suchard factory was visible. 

The other Roman buildings are on the hillside. The layout of the baths was primarily determined by the height of the heating systems (praefurnium/a), which produced hot water that circulated through the floors (hypocauste). This water gradually cooled and exited the building into the lake and the small river Serrière.

This village was still inhabited in the Merovingian period (6th-7th century). There was a small church and a cemetery. More than 200 graves have been discovered.

The Carolingian church of St. Jean, dating from the eighth or ninth century, also indicates permanent habitation, centuries before the foundation of Neuchâtel and Peseux, unlike medieval Cormondrèche and Corcelles, and the Gallo-Roman sites of Auvernier and Colombier.

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

The Planetary Path in the Jura

A walk to the planets is an ambitious plan. Mercury is closest to Earth but still 155 million kilometres away; Neptune is more than four billion kilometres from Earth. The other five planets, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, orbit the sun at a distance between these two extremes.

Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on 2 March 2023. Next conjunction in 2039 

The Planetary Path (Der Planetenweg) takes the hiker past the eight planets and the sun. The dwarf planet Pluto is not forgotten. This planet is the farthest from Earth and was discovered in 1930.

At the beginning of the Planetary Path is, of course, the sun. Information boards present the main facts about the solar system, including its origin, which dates back about 4.5 billion years.

The universe started with the Big Bang and is about 14 billion years old. The scholars have yet to figure out exactly how and why. The famous English physicist Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) said, at some point, you have to stop thinking, in his case, about the origin of the ‘pinhead’ before the Big Bang.

The Planetary Path is considerably shorter than the distance to planets, but it does give a good picture of the solar system. Moreover, the Jura and its surrounding areas, including meadows, forests, villages, streams, and breathtaking views, are always worth a visit. And again, every Swiss town has something special.

The Glasshütte in the nineteenth century

The Birs

The Glasshütte

For example, the small village of Bärschwil (canton Solothurn) has a fascinating industrial history. The town along the river Birs had a thriving glass factory for centuries. Today, the Glasshütte is a restaurant. Opposite the Glasshütte was the lime and gypsum factory ‘Hydraulische Kalk- und Gipsfabrik Baerschwyl’, since 1988 the Firma Carlo Bernasconi.

In addition, a little further on is the monumental Laufner Ziegelscheune. This tile and brick factory dates back to the 16th century and operated until 1920!

This beautiful area has, of course, also produced poets and writers, including father (Albin Fringeli (1899-1993) and son Dieter Fringeli (1942-1999):

“Zeit ist’s ein Lied zu singen von jeden Liedern die nicht gesungen wurden als es Zeit war ein Lied zu singen von jener Zeit” (Dieter Fringeli).

A less pleasant circumstance was the frontier with occupied France in the First (1914-1918) and Second (1939-1945) World Wars, literally the difference between war and peace. Grellingen and Bärschwil had military garrisons and defences during this time. Switzerland, however, remained neutral.

Laufen (Canton Basel-Landschaft)

The town of Laufen emerged unscathed and has a lot of authentic (cultural) history to offer, from Celtic and Roman times, the Merovingians and Carolingians, two Burgundian kingdoms, the Basel bishopric, the (revolutionary) French era and annexation to France from 1793 to 1813 and the period with the canton Bern from 1815 to 1994. Laufental chose to join the canton of Basel-Landschaft in a referendum in 1994.

It all seems like a lot. But what does it mean in the history of 14 billion years of the universe and 4.5 billion years of Earth? However, the sky is the limit in Switzerland in many aspects.

The Swiss Alpine Club

The Swiss Alpine Club (Schweizer Alpen Club, SAC/Club Alpin Suisse, CAS) organises hiking trips in this region (and elsewhere). The SAC also organises ski tours, mountaineering and other sports in the Alps.

Source and further information: www.baerschwil.ch

Val Poschiavo and Poschiavo in Graubünden

Val Poschiavo (Puschlav), Valle (Val) Mesolcina (Misox), Val Calanca and Val Bregaglia (Bergell) together with the village of Bivio (Beiva in Romansh) on the Julier Pass form the Grigione Italiano, the Italian-speaking part in the trilingual canton of Graubünden.

The Lago di Poschiavo (Lake Poschiavo) separates the upper and lower valleys of Puschlav; the main town of Poschiavo lies in the upper valley, and the municipality of Brusio in the lower valley. As early as the 12th century, the municipalities of Poschiavo and Brusio had their independent administrative structures.

Lago di Poschiavo

Poschiavo

Together with the Veltlin, the Val Poschiavo was donated by Charlemagne (748-814) to the monastery of St. Denis near Paris. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the lords of Matsch-Venosta held lordship over the valley rather than the abbey of Saint-Denis. At the same time, the city of Como also extended its power over the valley. When Milan subjugated Como in 1335, the Puschlav also came under the rule of the Duke of Milan, the Visconti, in 1350.

In 1408, the inhabitants rose against the duke. They joined the Lega Caddea (the League of the House of God, also known as the Gotteshausbund). From then on, Poschiavo and Brusio shared the fate of the Three Leagues (Drei Bünde).

From this time, Poschiavo and Brusio were also governed by a common constitution, the “Comungrande”. It was a free and independent territory. In 1524, the region was incorporated into the Free State of the Three Leagues (Freistaat de Drei Bünde) and, in 1803, into the Canton of Graubünden. The separation into two autonomous municipalities, Poschiavo and Brusio, occurred in 1851.

Already in the 14th century and later during the occupation of the Valtellina by the Three Leagues (1512-1797), the Valposchiavo played an essential role in transalpine trade traffic. The Bernina Pass was one of the principal traffic axes. Today, the traditional mule trails (säumerpfade) are made accessible by the “Via Valtellina” cultural hiking trail.

Tirano was the starting point of the winegrowers of the Veltliner: the famous “Veltliner” grew and still grows here. Tasting the Valtellina specialities (wines, bresaola and cheese) and visiting the Palazzo Salis is still possible! Tirano is also the starting point of the Italian continuation of the Via Valtellina, as the Via Terrazzamenti to Morbegno begins here.

Napoleon Bonaparte united the Veltlin with the Cisalpine Republic in 1797. The Puschlav was assigned to the Helvetic Republic (Helvetische Republik). This separation considerably weakened the local economy. The poor economic conditions forced many people from the valley to emigrate.

The construction of the Bernina road (1842-1865), the railway, and the realisation of hydroelectric installations in the Brusio power plants from 1906 to 1910 altered the economic situation.

The opening of the Grand Hotel Bagni in Le Prese followed on the shores of the Lago di Poschiavo. The village of Poschiavo became a small town. A series of stately buildings were erected, including the museum (Museo Poschiavo) in the Palazzo de Bassus-Mengotti and the Casa Tomé. Other destinations and beautiful natural areas are also worth visiting.

Smuggling remained a significant economic activity until the 1970s. One of the most important routes was the hamlet of Viano above Brusio. From here, the old smugglers’ trails led across the border to Roncaiola and Baruffini in the neighbouring Valtellina. The smugglers’ paths can still be walked today.

Source: Historisches Lexicon der Schweiz, Arno Lanfranchi, Puschlav, translation Pia Todorovic Redaelli, 29.09.2011; www.valposchiavo.ch

The Poschiavo

The new beautiful Village Hospental

Hospental (canton of Uri) was recognised in January 2023 by the organisation ‘The most beautiful villages of Switzerland’ (Die schönsten Schweizer Dörfer) as one of the most beautiful villages in the country. The name Hospental comes from the Latin word for an inn.

The village was located on the Säumerweg (transporting goods on mules and other animals) over the Gotthard Pass. From the 13th century, the town lived on toll revenues and the Gotthard pass transport. The village also experienced a harsh winter climate and war campaigns. For example, the Russian general Alexander Suworow took on Napoleon in this region in 1799.

Many houses still date from the late Middle Ages. The tower was built in the 13th century. Zumdorf also belongs to the municipality of Hospental. Zumdorf is the smallest village in the Andermatt region and has the smallest number of permanent residents (only four people) in the country. Hospental itself has 190 inhabitants.

(Source and further Information: Die schönsten Schweizer Dörfer; Gemeinde Hospental)