Spiritual defence
Encyclopedia
Spiritual defence was a political-cultural movement in Switzerland which was active from circa 1932 into the 1960s. It was supported by the Swiss authorities, certain institutions, scholars, the press and intellectuals. Its aim was the strengthening of values and customs perceived to be ‘Swiss’ and thus create a defence against totalitarian ideologies. The movement first directed its attention towards National Socialism and fascism
; later, during the Cold War
, taking a stance against communism
. Even when the movement was no longer actively promoted by the authorities, it remained alive well into the 1980s; today Swiss politicians frequently still use terms and metaphors from the spiritual defence ideology.
, Fritz Hauser, put forward a postulate in which he called upon the Federal Council
to examine how the spiritual independence of culture in Switzerland could be defended in the face of the threat from fascist movements in Germany. One week later, the Swiss Society of Writers (Felix Moeschlin, Karl Naef) presented Federal Councillor Philipp Etter
with a proposal for a Swiss cultural policy. The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
gave its approval to the defence proposal - subject to the following condition: "Combating all trends in domestic politics which, in contradiction to the will of the Swiss people, aspire to a diminution of the democratic rights of freedom and self-determination of the citizens and the removal of the influence of the constitutional authorities over the state and its policy." The 1936 Social Democratic Party conference held in Zürich, however, rejected a defence loan. However, unconditional recognition of the legitimacy of national defence followed in January 1937 with the party’s adoption of the ‘Richtlinienbewegung’ (Movement of Guiding Principles).
was published on 9 December 1938 relating to the organisation and the task of safeguarding and promoting Swiss culture. This called for the creation under civil law
of a cultural foundation to be known as Pro Helvetia
, a body which would receive state subsidies. It would guarantee the defence of the common spiritual values of Switzerland in order to counterbalance ‘state sponsored propaganda from neighbouring countries'.
through radio and film originated in left wing circles and became all the more relevant with the rise to power of Hitler in 1933. The latter event completed the encirclement of Switzerland, for its neighbours, with the exception of France, were at that time all governed by authoritarian fascist regimes. In this first phase, spiritual defence had a definite anti-German tone: the specific Swiss character, as opposed to that of Germany, was to be given primary emphasis. A special form of spiritual defence was illustrated by the so-called 'Elvetismo' (cp. Helvetism
) movement in Canton Ticino which opposed Italian Irredentism
. Here the emphasis was placed on the specific character of Ticino as opposed to that of Italy.
The central thrust of spiritual defence was the creation of an ethnic community in Switzerland. This meant the overcoming of class antagonisms and the creation of a Swiss identity – a community of destiny – which would encompass the cultural differences and the four national languages. The term “Helvetic totalitarianism”, as expressed by the Swiss historian Hans Ulrich Jost, falls short for it refers solely to the civil form of spiritual defence. From 1938, the term was adopted officially by the Swiss Federal Council
. Federal Councillor Philipp Etter
in a pivotal paper placed his primary emphasis upon the affiliation of Switzerland to the three dominant European cultural spheres: cultural diversity, the federal nature of democracy and the reverence accorded to the dignity and freedom of man.
The Swiss National Exhibition held in Zürich
in 1939 is regarded as the most effective expression of spiritual defence. The so-called “Landigeist” (homeland spirit) flooded through the land and - coming shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War - gave people a feeling of an unbroken national will for independence against all the demands of Germany and the annexation
of the German-speaking cantons into a Greater German Reich. This was especially relevant now that Austria
and the Sudetenland
had been taken over.
The main problem faced by spiritual defence was the influx of state-directed German and Italian propaganda
- mainly in the form of radio broadcasts, books and magazines - which had an influence on Switzerland. To counteract these influences, private and governmental cultural institutions were created for the purpose of putting out "Swiss" propaganda: among these were "Pro Helvetia" [created in 1939], "Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft" ("New Helvetic Society") [created in 1914] and "Heer und Haus" ("Army and Home") [created in November 1939]. Furthermore, for the first time, the Swiss film industry was heavily promoted in order to cultivate the notion of spiritual defence among cinema audiences. The most important of such films were: "Füsilier Wipf" (by Leopold Lindtberge, 1938) and "Landammann Stauffacher (1941) as well as Franz Schnyder's "Gilberte de Courgenay" (1941). During the Second World War, spiritual defence was strengthened by censorship, which came under the "Abteilung Presse und Funkspruch" (Department of press and broadcasting).
, in June 1940) the Council adopted a more defiant tone immediately after the war, stating that the NS leadership must be ‘ruthlessly eradicated’. Echoing the anticommunist spirit of the times, emphasis was placed on a constitutional democracy and welfare state, and the part time ('militia-like') character of a powerful Swiss army.
Spiritual defence led increasingly to an attitude of mind known as bunker mentality
, a political and spiritual isolationism and a militarization of the civil society. Strong criticism from cultural and intellectual circles forced the Swiss authorities to abandon the official promotion of Spiritual defence after 1962. Nevertheless, the Swiss army kept up the pressure for a will of national defence, and propagated the notion of Switzerland’s unconditional dependence on a numerically strong and well equipped militia - this to exist alongside unconditional political and economic neutrality.
.) The celebrations in 1989 to mark the 50th jubilee of mobilisation continued in the same vein. The occasion of the 60th, diamond jubilee, was supposed to reawaken the spirit of the “active service generation” in advance of a ballot to decide on the procurement of new equipment for the army. In this connection it is significant that Switzerland was the only country to celebrate mobilisation rather than a peace settlement.
Political parties, too - primarily right wing parties such as the Swiss People’s Party - still make use of ideas from the Spiritual defence movement to oppose European integration
or any Überfremdung
of Switzerland. This happened during the referendum over the proposed adhesion of Switzerland to the European Economic Community
in 1992 and in the campaign against Swiss participation in the 2005 Schengen agreement
and Dublin regulation. Furthermore, other less known aspects of the post war Spiritual defence movement still survive unchallenged, namely the notion of a social market economy
or a social partnership
.
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
; later, during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, taking a stance against communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Even when the movement was no longer actively promoted by the authorities, it remained alive well into the 1980s; today Swiss politicians frequently still use terms and metaphors from the spiritual defence ideology.
History
On 19 June 1935, a social democrat member of the Basel National CouncilNational Council
-Conservation:* National Council for Science and the Environment, a US-based non-profit organization which has a mission to improve the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking...
, Fritz Hauser, put forward a postulate in which he called upon the Federal Council
Federal Council
-Governmental bodies:* Federal Council of Australasia, a forerunner to the current Commonwealth of Australia* Federal Council of Austria, the upper house of the Austrian federal parliament...
to examine how the spiritual independence of culture in Switzerland could be defended in the face of the threat from fascist movements in Germany. One week later, the Swiss Society of Writers (Felix Moeschlin, Karl Naef) presented Federal Councillor Philipp Etter
Philipp Etter
Philipp Etter was a Swiss politician.He was elected to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 28 March 1934 and handed over office on 31 December 1959...
with a proposal for a Swiss cultural policy. The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
gave its approval to the defence proposal - subject to the following condition: "Combating all trends in domestic politics which, in contradiction to the will of the Swiss people, aspire to a diminution of the democratic rights of freedom and self-determination of the citizens and the removal of the influence of the constitutional authorities over the state and its policy." The 1936 Social Democratic Party conference held in Zürich, however, rejected a defence loan. However, unconditional recognition of the legitimacy of national defence followed in January 1937 with the party’s adoption of the ‘Richtlinienbewegung’ (Movement of Guiding Principles).
Statement of the Federal Council regarding Spiritual Defence
A document of the Federal CouncilFederal Council
-Governmental bodies:* Federal Council of Australasia, a forerunner to the current Commonwealth of Australia* Federal Council of Austria, the upper house of the Austrian federal parliament...
was published on 9 December 1938 relating to the organisation and the task of safeguarding and promoting Swiss culture. This called for the creation under civil law
Civil law (area)
Civil law in continental law is a branch of law which is the general part of private law.The basis for civil law lies in a civil code. Before enacting of codes, civil law could not be distinguished from private law...
of a cultural foundation to be known as Pro Helvetia
Pro Helvetia
The foundation Pro Helvetia is a public foundation of Switzerland, held by Confédération Suisse.-Presidents:*From 1939 to 1943, Heinrich Häberlin.*From 1944 to 1952, Paul Lachenal.*From 1952 to 1964, Jean-Rodolphe de Salis....
, a body which would receive state subsidies. It would guarantee the defence of the common spiritual values of Switzerland in order to counterbalance ‘state sponsored propaganda from neighbouring countries'.
- "While the armed defence of the nation, together with the preparation and organisation of such defence, is exclusively a matter of the state - indeed its primary duty - we wish to leave the spiritual defence of the nation primarily in the hands of the citizen. The state should have the necessary means at its disposal, and retain the right to oversee the use of these means. But apart from this, the spiritual forces of the nation should mobilise and deploy themselves in a common defensive front."
National Socialism and the Second World War
The call for a spiritual defence of Swiss democracy against fascismFascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
through radio and film originated in left wing circles and became all the more relevant with the rise to power of Hitler in 1933. The latter event completed the encirclement of Switzerland, for its neighbours, with the exception of France, were at that time all governed by authoritarian fascist regimes. In this first phase, spiritual defence had a definite anti-German tone: the specific Swiss character, as opposed to that of Germany, was to be given primary emphasis. A special form of spiritual defence was illustrated by the so-called 'Elvetismo' (cp. Helvetism
Helvetism
Helvetisms are a large group of words typical for Swiss Standard German, which do not appear in either of Standard German or Standard German dialects...
) movement in Canton Ticino which opposed Italian Irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
. Here the emphasis was placed on the specific character of Ticino as opposed to that of Italy.
The central thrust of spiritual defence was the creation of an ethnic community in Switzerland. This meant the overcoming of class antagonisms and the creation of a Swiss identity – a community of destiny – which would encompass the cultural differences and the four national languages. The term “Helvetic totalitarianism”, as expressed by the Swiss historian Hans Ulrich Jost, falls short for it refers solely to the civil form of spiritual defence. From 1938, the term was adopted officially by the Swiss Federal Council
Swiss Federal Council
The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss collective head of state....
. Federal Councillor Philipp Etter
Philipp Etter
Philipp Etter was a Swiss politician.He was elected to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 28 March 1934 and handed over office on 31 December 1959...
in a pivotal paper placed his primary emphasis upon the affiliation of Switzerland to the three dominant European cultural spheres: cultural diversity, the federal nature of democracy and the reverence accorded to the dignity and freedom of man.
The Swiss National Exhibition held in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
in 1939 is regarded as the most effective expression of spiritual defence. The so-called “Landigeist” (homeland spirit) flooded through the land and - coming shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War - gave people a feeling of an unbroken national will for independence against all the demands of Germany and the annexation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
of the German-speaking cantons into a Greater German Reich. This was especially relevant now that Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
had been taken over.
The main problem faced by spiritual defence was the influx of state-directed German and Italian propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
- mainly in the form of radio broadcasts, books and magazines - which had an influence on Switzerland. To counteract these influences, private and governmental cultural institutions were created for the purpose of putting out "Swiss" propaganda: among these were "Pro Helvetia" [created in 1939], "Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft" ("New Helvetic Society") [created in 1914] and "Heer und Haus" ("Army and Home") [created in November 1939]. Furthermore, for the first time, the Swiss film industry was heavily promoted in order to cultivate the notion of spiritual defence among cinema audiences. The most important of such films were: "Füsilier Wipf" (by Leopold Lindtberge, 1938) and "Landammann Stauffacher (1941) as well as Franz Schnyder's "Gilberte de Courgenay" (1941). During the Second World War, spiritual defence was strengthened by censorship, which came under the "Abteilung Presse und Funkspruch" (Department of press and broadcasting).
Cold war
After the Second World War, the movement remained active with its thrust directed towards the danger of communist infiltration. Whereas the Federal Council had adopted a relatively muted and accommodating approach to National Socialism before 1945 (as exemplified by the ominous speech of the Federal President, Marcel Pilet-GolazMarcel Pilet-Golaz
Marcel Pilet-Golaz was a Swiss politician.He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on December 13, 1928 and handed over office on December 31, 1944...
, in June 1940) the Council adopted a more defiant tone immediately after the war, stating that the NS leadership must be ‘ruthlessly eradicated’. Echoing the anticommunist spirit of the times, emphasis was placed on a constitutional democracy and welfare state, and the part time ('militia-like') character of a powerful Swiss army.
Spiritual defence led increasingly to an attitude of mind known as bunker mentality
Bunker mentality
Bunker mentality is a slang phrase for a phenomenon that occurs when an individual or group stops taking into account new, pertinent information and begins viewing outsiders as enemies due to an isolation resulting from being under attack...
, a political and spiritual isolationism and a militarization of the civil society. Strong criticism from cultural and intellectual circles forced the Swiss authorities to abandon the official promotion of Spiritual defence after 1962. Nevertheless, the Swiss army kept up the pressure for a will of national defence, and propagated the notion of Switzerland’s unconditional dependence on a numerically strong and well equipped militia - this to exist alongside unconditional political and economic neutrality.
After effects
The Federal Council continued to use the term Spiritual defence in its vocabulary and pictorial language during the campaign leading up to the 1989 referendum to decide whether Switzerland should retain an army or become demilitarised. (see Group for a Switzerland without an ArmyGroup for a Switzerland without an Army
The Group for a Switzerland without an Army, is a group working to reduce the military activities of Switzerland. The Group was created in Solothurn on 12 September 1982 by 120 people...
.) The celebrations in 1989 to mark the 50th jubilee of mobilisation continued in the same vein. The occasion of the 60th, diamond jubilee, was supposed to reawaken the spirit of the “active service generation” in advance of a ballot to decide on the procurement of new equipment for the army. In this connection it is significant that Switzerland was the only country to celebrate mobilisation rather than a peace settlement.
Political parties, too - primarily right wing parties such as the Swiss People’s Party - still make use of ideas from the Spiritual defence movement to oppose European integration
European integration
European integration is the process of industrial, political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe...
or any Überfremdung
Überfremdung
Überfremdung , literally "over-foreignization", is a German-language term used in politics to suggest an excess of immigration. The word is compounded from über meaning "over" or "overly" and fremd meaning "foreign".-Political uses:...
of Switzerland. This happened during the referendum over the proposed adhesion of Switzerland to the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
in 1992 and in the campaign against Swiss participation in the 2005 Schengen agreement
Schengen Agreement
The Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It was supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement 5 years later...
and Dublin regulation. Furthermore, other less known aspects of the post war Spiritual defence movement still survive unchallenged, namely the notion of a social market economy
Social market economy
The social market economy is the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It is based on the economic philosophy of Ordoliberalism from the Freiburg School...
or a social partnership
Social Partnership
Social partnership is the term used for the tripartite, triennial national pay agreements reached in Ireland.The process was initiated in 1987, following a period of high inflation and weak economic growth which led to increased emigration and unsustainable government borrowing and national debt...
.
- Imagination is also quite a rare gift. In the years to come, the majority of our people will not wish to consider – no more than was the case in 1920, 1930 or even later – if and how our nation could again be threatened. What we have done, especially since 1933, to arouse our nation from its lethargy and to call upon its conscience and its vigilance will have to be done again and again.
- – General Henri GuisanHenri GuisanHenri Guisan was a Swiss army officer, and held the office of the General of the Swiss Army during World War II. He was the fourth and the most recent man to be appointed to the rarely used Swiss rank of General, and was possibly Switzerland's most famous soldier...
See also
- Cabaret CornichonCabaret CornichonThe Cabaret Cornichon was a Swiss cabaret company.It existed from 1934 to 1951 and was founded by Otto Weissert, Walter Lesch, Emil Hegetschweiler and Alois Carigiet. They were later joined by, among others, Max Werner Lenz, Elsie Attenhofer, Voli Geiler, Margrit Rainer, Heinrich Gretler, Zarli...
- Gilberte de CourgenayGilberte de CourgenayGilberte de Courgenay is a 1942 Swiss biographical film directed by Franz Schnyder and starring Rudolf Bernhard, Anne-Marie Blanc and Zarli Carigiet. It was based on a novel by Rudolf Bolo Maeglin and was based on the life of a real figure...
(German :de:Gilberte de Courgenay) and (French :fr:Gilberte de Courgenay) - National RedoubtNational RedoubtA national redoubt is a general term for an area to which the forces of a nation can be withdrawn if the main battle has been lost—or even beforehand if defeat is considered inevitable...
(Switzerland)