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The fog hangs low over the seemingly endless forests and swallows up every view of the Schaffhauser Randen and the Appenzeller Alpstein. The wind is blowing hard, the air is moist and cool. Joseph Deiss (78) marches across the field above Bargen SH with a smile on his face. “This place is mysterious and historic at the same time.” He then points with his walking stick to a 50 centimeter high rectangular limestone sticking out of the ground and on which there are inscriptions.
The stone marks the border with Germany on the one hand and the northernmost point of Switzerland on the other. “I actually don’t like boundary stones. For me, boundaries are meant to be crossed.” The former federal councilor writes this in his new book ‘In all directions’, in which he connects the geographical extremes of Switzerland.
The CVP politician from Freiburg served in the Federal Council for seven years, from 1999 to 2006. First as Minister of Foreign Affairs, where he was at the forefront of the campaign for Switzerland’s accession to the UN. The economics professor then headed the economics department.
For ten years he did nothing about his pension from the Federal Council
From June 2010, he served as President of the UN General Assembly in New York for a year. “I financed my life there myself. For the first ten years after I resigned, I did not do anything about my Federal Council pension. I didn’t get them until I was 71.” Deiss emphasizes this fact because opponents in the voting campaign for the AHV initiative spread different information about him. The reason was the letter in which Deiss and four other former federal councilors such as Adolf Ogi and Doris Leuthard warned about the 13th AHV pension. “I still don’t feel like I did anything wrong,” Deiss says.
This article was first published in “Schweizer Illustrierte”. You can find more exciting articles at www.schweizer-illustrierte.ch.
This article was first published in “Schweizer Illustrierte”. You can find more exciting articles at www.schweizer-illustrierte.ch.
Such a letter from former ministers to the population is unusual and led to controversy. “I’m sorry that it became so emotional. It was never about knowing better.” As a former mayor, he knows people’s concerns and as a professor he has supervised poverty studies. “I maintain: the proposal is not social because the money goes to everyone instead of just the weak. But the people voted and I accept that.”
Agreement with the wife: go for a walk once a month
Deiss also enjoys expressing his beliefs on important issues in the country through literature. Since his retirement he has written about ten books, including From the Belly of the Sperm Whale, which he translated from French into German, containing anecdotes from his political life. There are also books about his travels to the South Pacific or his long-distance walk from Freiburg to Canterbury (GB). “Traveling, if possible around the world, is ingrained in my genes,” says Deiss.
Growing up in the city of Freiburg, in “a landlocked canton without foreign borders,” the son of a framer clearly remembers his first stay abroad. «I was 13 years old when I traveled to Italy for concerts with the boys’ choir of St. Michel College. When I saw the cathedral in Florence, a new world opened up for me.”
Since then he has traveled to almost every country in the world, most of them not as a federal councilor but as an ordinary tourist. “It doesn’t bother me if the people around me see this restlessness as pathological.” All he needs when traveling is a good bed and a shower. Often with him in the past: his wife Babette, with whom he collects menus from all over the world.
However, he prefers to go out alone. Especially because his wife no longer walks so well. “I have an agreement with her: once a month I can go for a walk for a few days.” The distance to his home in Freiburg was never too great for his latest book. The 1,700 kilometer long route to the four geographical extremes takes him in stages from the westernmost Chancy GE to the northernmost point in Bargen and from the easternmost peak Piz Chavalatsch in Graubünden to the southernmost point at Pedrinate TI. It started in June 2022 – in the middle of the pandemic. “Covid encouraged me to discover my country in new ways.”
The state of the world makes him depressed
Deiss travels between 15 and 35 kilometers every day, which amounts to a maximum of eight hours. The city map and information about the next overnight stay in the viewing bag are stored in the backpack, the Leica camera is ready to hand in the belly bag. When he walked to the “black Staa”, the boundary stone of Bargen, on January 20, 2021, there was no fog over the forest – but there was knee-deep snow in the fields. “I don’t forget that it is also the day that Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States of America, takes office,” Deiss writes in the book.
Today he looks anxiously at the US and the world. “Whether it is in the Middle East or in Ukraine: human rights are being violated. That depresses me.” He grew up in an era when humanity understood that war was harmful to everyone. Nowadays the escalation continues. “Instead of peace we talk about weapons production,” says Deiss irritated.
“I get up at 5 o’clock”
Writing and walking: the combination keeps Joseph Deiss’ body and mind fit. Since he was 24, he has been getting up at 5 in the morning. “Then I do 40 minutes of exercise, get dressed and go for another hour of running.” Then he has breakfast with his wife before going back to the office to write.
The former doctor’s assistant is always the first to read his text. “She has a feeling for what works well and what doesn’t.” As a former federal councilor, Deiss receives no special treatment from publishers. “I have to look for publishers just like everyone else.” His knowledge is in great demand among his seven grandchildren – the youngest granddaughter is already 18. “I went to school with all of them. The exchange with the boys is enriching.”
“Instead of one Minister of Foreign Affairs, we have 246”
In the town of Stein am Rhein, Deiss treats himself to a beer – as he often does after a walk. He writes down the impressions for his books on his mobile phone and sends them home by email. What stayed with him from his tour for ‘In All Directions’ was how ‘diverse and beautiful’ Switzerland is – and how much its population has changed. “Immigration has made Switzerland more dynamic.”
As a supporter of accession to the EU, he is closely following the newly started negotiations on the framework agreement. “I find it problematic that today every step in the negotiations is announced in advance in parliament and therefore in the media. Instead of one Minister of Foreign Affairs, we have 246. That weakens our negotiating position.” For his next project, Deiss will stay in Switzerland again – he will walk through the cantons inland. Without crossing boundaries.
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
