The Suppressed Civil War

150,000 men under arms. propaganda lies. arson. attacks on women. And not just anywhere: exactly 175 years ago, between November 3 and 29, 1847, the Sonderbund War raged in this country. Seven Catholic-conservative cantons led by the Lucerne government council Constantin Siegwart-Müller fought for a confederation of independent theocracy – the liberals, on the other hand, for a modern form of government.

The Sonderbund War is one of the most important events in the history of the Confederacy. Only the victory of the Liberal Party made possible the creation of the current federal state. In later years, for understandable reasons, politicians have made every effort to banish war from the culture of remembrance. It is not what separates that should be emphasized, but what unites. The oaths of Rütli and Wilhelm Tell, symbols of liberal ideals and traditional values, have indeed helped to heal the wounds of the past. In the fall of 2022, however, it is worth looking back at the year 1847 in many ways.

Historians emphasize that hostilities were relatively light: 93 soldiers were killed and 510 were wounded. In the 1990s, American history professor Joachim Remak made a comparison with the American Civil War, which took 600,000 lives around the same time: “That means every 50th American died, while in Switzerland there was one death for every 24,000 inhabitants. The main reason for the war – to preserve the unity of the federation – was the same.”

All historians of the Sonderbund War emphasize the role of Guillaume Henri Dufour. The Commander-in-Chief of the Liberal Armed Forces was charged with vanquishing the enemy, not destroying it. Upon his appointment as general, Dufour promised, “I will never deviate from the limits of moderation and humanity.” Still, after the successful battles, he had to admit: “The Sonderbund War was not free of excesses.”

In general, the war was just the end of a protracted crisis. In previous years there had been repeated bloody clashes. In March 1845, several thousand liberals from the cantons of Bern and Aargau moved to Lucerne to overthrow the government there. More than 120 people died.

Yes, it was about ideologies, ideas and identities. However, what is happening can only be understood against the historical background. The confederation of the time was a collection of small states, each with its own currency, postal, and customs system. Industrialization plowed through this cantonal patchwork – at full throttle and at a dizzying pace. Life, work and commerce became faster and the world smaller accordingly. And Switzerland split into a camp of progress and one of fear.

At the same time, all of Europe was experiencing economic difficulties in the second half of the 1840s. A series of bad harvests led to “food and money shortages”. And as the “NSZ” knew in March 1847: “Where hunger and want play a part, everything is possible in the end.” In essence, it was this existential upheaval in an already turbulent time that resulted in civil war in our country and in neighboring countries France, Germany and Austria in revolts against the authorities.

A structural change that leads to deep political rifts worldwide, to fear of loss, political fanaticism, to the hateful search for scapegoats. In addition, inflation is pulling the rug out from under the feet of many families: unfortunately that sounds all too familiar to us. We will certainly be much more comfortable in the fall of 2022 than we were 175 years ago. Switzerland is still doing much better than other countries. Yet history should teach us that this relative tranquility is not self-evident. And that we should not be indifferent to what is happening in the world.