Divided neutrality 1914 - 1918 : the impact of the First World War on Swiss Francophone and Swiss Germanophone opinion

Abstract

This thesis has shown that while neutral Switzerland had its own experience of the First World War, simply opting out of the maelstrom that swept Europe as a whole was not a possibility. Despite neutrality, the war was refracted into Swiss opinion from every angle. Nuanced affinity but not division defined Franco-German allegiance in the prewar period. The traditional multiplicity of allegiances (primarily linguistic and religious) in Switzerland prevented the development of a clear cut division of public opinion. Initially at the outbreak of the war the dominance of Germany's influence in Swiss trade, banking and migration informed a logical preference for German victory. However, unlike the outbreak of the war, the invasion of Belgium provoked deep division between the francophone and germanophone communities during August 1914. This change found expression within the Swiss press. Francophone response was defined by its condemnation of German atrocities and sympathy for neutral Belgium's plight. It was point of principle which the germanophone community had refused to acknowledge. Despite public declarations of Swiss unity by members of the Swiss Federal Council, political unity was beset by divisions, owing to the lack of proportional representation, the rise of support for socialist and Christian right parties, the dominance of the Radical Party and the deepening linguistic divide. At the Swiss Party Congress, 1914, Germanophone Swiss socialists were supportive of the German Social Democrats' decision to abide by the Burgfrieden political truce and support the war, but the francophone Swiss objected. Yet, when a referendum on the introduction of Swiss war tax, was held June 1915, the overwhelming majority of citizens voted in support. While the linguistic division could be described as a Swiss experience of the divisions of the war by proxy this suggests that Swiss politics experienced a union sacrée/Burgfrieden by proxy too. For the rising political parties of the right and left; "the war between nations has quietened the class war between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat". For the Christian right the unanimous vote was an example of a "godly peace" in Swiss politics. However the germanophone military spying scandal in 1916 was met with francophone outrage which once again exposed the fragility of the image of unity of the Swiss union sacrée. The germanophone high command's handling of the affair and their reluctance to prosecute the colonels involved displayed the sense of exceptionalism that had developed in the Swiss military. Senior press and political figures from the francophone community viewed the germanophone officials' response as corrupt, and evidence of the "morally corrupt response of germanophone officials towards the violation of Belgian neutrality ...