The dramatic rescue of the composer’s remains

Alberik Zwyssig’s father, a rough guy, got into a scuffle and was put under guardianship. He then hired himself out as a Dutch mercenary soldier, promptly losing his life in the field. Mother Zwyssig was alone with five children, including Johann Josef Maria Georg.

The boy grew up here and there with relatives. Then, at the age of 19, he found refuge in the world of a Cistercian monastery, where he became a monk and took the name Father Alberik or Albericus accepted – until his monastery in Wettingen was closed overnight in 1841.

The monks had to disappear from the canton of Aargau within 48 hours. Alberik Zwyssig fled to the canton of Zug and was given asylum together with his brother Peter until he had to sell his estate. Father Albericus then tried to found a new monastery in the former monastery with fellow members of the order from Wettingen Franciscan Monastery Werthenstein to settle in Lucerne. But that failed.

That is why Zwyssig enjoyed working as a music teacher in the Cistercian monastery Wurmsbach Monastery to be able to work in Rapperswil-Jona (SG). In 1854 he moved to the former with six priests and three brothers Benedictine Monastery Mehrerau near Bregenz. But just six months after the restart in Voralberg, Zwyssig died of pneumonia, a day after his 46th birthday.

In his turbulent life, Alberik Zwyssig probably only found peace in the music world, where he was not constantly chased away. He played piano, organ, violin, guitar and various wind instruments. And he composed, for example, in 1841 Swiss Psalm with the well-known lines “If you pass by at dawn, I will see you in the sea of ​​rays…”. The song outlived its creator and enjoyed great popularity at the numerous song festivals of the 19th century, even though it sounded more like a church song and also found its way into church hymnals.

Zwyssigs Swiss Psalm was a well-known song, but far from the Swiss national anthem. A first attempt failed spectacularly: in 1894 Swiss Psalm officially declared the national anthem of Switzerland, but the Swiss Singers’ Association was strictly against it because Zwyssig’s melody when singing “harmonic and rhythmic difficulties” to prepare.

So it became quiet around Zwyssig and his family Swiss Psalm. It was only during the Second World War that the composing monk made the news again. Because two events put Zwyssig and den in the spotlight at the same time Swiss Psalm. On the one hand, the song was 100 years old, and in Zug, where the psalm was first performed, the event was extensively celebrated. After all, the Second World War was raging at the time, so any reflection on Swiss affairs came in handy. In 1941, Nazi soldiers stormed the Gestapo and the SS the Mehrerau Monastery in Bregenz, where Father Albericus was buried. A priest watched “clumsy Lederhösler and ordinary citizens, men of the Innsbruck Gestapo and SS men”.

The preacher was subsequently given a ‘gau ban’ and had to leave the German Empire immediately because he allegedly opposed the ‘annexation’ of Austria to Nazi Germany. The Zug lawyer Paul Aschwanden (1911–1984) heard about it and feared that the body of the famous composer Zwyssig would be violated due to the invasion of the Mehrerau Monastery by the National Socialists. He wrote to Zug federal councilor Philipp Etter (1891–1977) and asked for something “for the repatriation of the remains of this great Swiss man to his homeland” To do.

Etter, responsible for the national spiritual defense, protected everything that could possibly be part of Swiss identity and culture – in this case including the bones of the long-dead composer. The Swiss consulate in Bregenz then became active and investigated on behalf of the Federal Council in Berlin whether such an extraordinary repatriation was possible.

The National Socialist Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no objection in principle to the transfer, as long as there was no political demonstration. Federal Councilor Etter agreed and interpreted it as a friendly act by the Germans. “what we should gratefully acknowledge”. Etter also proposed taking the remains from Zwyssig to Bauen on Lake Lucerne, where the monk was born in 1808.

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And indeed: the body was exhumed on Friday, August 14, 1942 at 4 p.m. in Mehrerau under the supervision of the medical officer of Bregenz and placed in a wooden transport box. Swiss Consul Carl Bitz then drove in a private car to Altdorf, where Zwyssig’s remains were placed in the Olivet Chapel. They then went to the parsonage in Bauen. Because there, in Zwyssig’s birthplace and residence, they would find eternal peace.

But until then, more than a year passed. It was not until November 18, 1943, the 89th anniversary of the composer’s death, that the second funeral took place in his hometown of Bauen, with state-supporting speeches by Federal Councilor Etter and Heiland Aschwanden, in a sensational glass sarcophagus, with the skull and bones of the famous Uri resident , also available to all attendees. This glass coffin was bricked into the parish church of Bauen and provided with a memorial plaque – although at the time the Swiss Psalm was still not the official anthem.

It was not until 1961 that Zwyssigs Swiss Psalm made the anthem of the Federal Council, but initially only on a trial basis for three years. After the deadline, twelve cantons voted in favor Swiss Psalm out, but six estates still refused; and seven argued for an extension of the probation period. In total, the trial period for Zwyssig’s song lasted twenty years (!), only then came the tribute: The Swiss Psalm was eventually declared the Swiss national anthem in 1981, exactly 140 years after its first performance.