Export hit Confederation: why there are almost 200 Swiss countries worldwide

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They are located in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and America: according to a survey by the Swiss Tourism Association, there are about 200 Swiss countries in the world.

We know Saxon Switzerland in the East German mountains or Rantasipi Switzerland in Finland. There are also ‘Switzerlands’ in Namibia – near Keetmannshoop in the south of the country – in eastern Mongolia, in Haiti, Martinique, in New Zealand and several in the US, including Little Switzerland in North Carolina. The name refers to the surrounding mountains, which are reminiscent of Swiss peaks.

Most of Switzerland is in Germany

Luxembourg, Greece, Spain, Colombia, Bhutan, Tibet – they all have their ‘Little Switzerlands’. Most foreign Swiss are found in Germany: landscapes with the suffix Switzerland in the name are Holstein, Franconian or Mecklenburgian Switzerland.

Even the flat Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia has its Switzerland, just like Dithmarschen on the North Sea – where it fits with many cows – or the Ruhr area, where Elfringhauser Switzerland extends.

If you include unofficial Switzerland, there are 130 national confederations in Germany alone, the German daily “Welt” calculates.

“Romantically transfigured” country name

For an area to become Switzerland, “it doesn’t need mountains, just pleasant scenery,” is the attempted explanation. The name Switzerland stands for ‘that which is actually beautiful, or the longing for it’.

The many little Switzerlands around the world represent “the short pause; a romantic transfiguration,” it says. For “feelings that people have on all continents”.

Source: Blick