Grütli Union

Last updated April 05, 2019

The Grütli Union (German : Grütliverein; French : Société du Grütli) was a political party in Switzerland.

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in western, central and southern Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The sovereign state is a federal republic bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km² (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8.5 million people is concentrated mostly on the plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva.

History

The Union was established in Geneva on 20 May 1838 by Johannes Niederer, and was initially a discussion club for tradespeople. The name was taken from Rütli, an important location in establishing the Old Swiss Confederacy. The organisation initially focussed on education, but later started political activity, playing a leading role in the establishments of trade unions and health insurance. However, it declined after the 1860s following the establishment of the International Workingmen's Association.

Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous city of the Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.

Rütli mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland

Rütli or Grütli is a mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, in the Seelisberg municipality of the Swiss canton of Uri. It is the site of the Rütlischwur in traditional Swiss historiography, the oath marking the foundation of the original Swiss Confederacy. As such it is treated as a national monument of Switzerland. Since 1860, the Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft (SGG) has organized a celebration at the site on Swiss National Day, since 1994 recognized as a public holiday.

The Old Swiss Confederacy was a loose confederation of independent small states within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland.

In 1878 the Union agreed to adopt a socialist platform,^[1] although it refused to merge with the Swiss Workers' Federation. By 1890 it had around 16,000 members, and was far larger than the newly-established Social Democratic Party (SP).^[2] In 1892 some members helped establish the Bauern- und Arbeiterbund party in Basel-Landschaft, and in 1901 the Union merged with the SP, an event known as the "Solothurn Wedding". By that time the two organisations had a roughly equal number of members.^[2]

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is a political party in Switzerland. It has been represented by two Federal Councilors since 1960 and got the second-most votes in the 2015 national elections.

Solothurn is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains.

Differences with the SP led to the Union breaking away in 1916. In the 1917 elections it won three seats; August Rikli in Bern-Oberaargau, Arnold Knellwolf in Bern-Seeland and Hans Jakob Wirz in Zürich-Süd. All three joined the SP faction in the National Council. In the 1919 federal elections the Union won two seats in the National Council, gaining representation in Bern and Zürich.^[3] However, it lost both seats in the 1922 elections, and also failed to win a seat in the 1925 elections, in which it received just 427 votes. That year it rejoined the SP and was formally disbanded.

The National Council is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the upper house being the Council of States. With 200 seats, the National Council is the larger of the two houses.

Related Research Articles

The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council that constitutes the federal government of the Swiss Confederation and serves as the collective head of state and of government of Switzerland.

Felix Calonder member of the Swiss Federal Council

Felix Louis Calonder was a Swiss politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1913 to 1920, and President of the Confederation in 1918. He was affiliated to the Free Democratic Party. During his tenure of office, he held the Department of Home Affairs from 1913 to 1917, and the Political Department from 1918 to 1919. As of 2017, Felix Calonder has been the Federal Council's only native Romansh speaker.

Christoph Blocher is a Swiss politician, industrialist, and former member of the Swiss Federal Council heading the Federal Department of Justice and Police (2004–2007). He served as vice president of the Swiss People's Party until 24 March 2018. As an industrialist, he became very wealthy as CEO and majority shareholder in the EMS-Chemie corporation, now run by his daughter, Magdalena Martullo-Blocher.

The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.

The Swiss People's Party, also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre, is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Albert Rösti, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 65 members of the National Council and 5 of the Council of States.

The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian-democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 28 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 13 seats. It has one seat, that of Viola Amherd, on the Swiss Federal Council.

The Free Democratic Party or Radical Democratic Party was a liberal political party in Switzerland. Formerly one of the major parties in Switzerland, on 1 January 2009 it merged with the Liberal Party of Switzerland to form FDP.The Liberals.

The National Labor Party was formed by Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes in 1916 following the 1916 Labor split on the issue of World War I conscription in Australia. Hughes had taken over as leader of the Australian Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia when anti-conscriptionist Andrew Fisher resigned in 1915. He formed the new party for himself and his followers after he was expelled from the ALP a month after the 1916 plebiscite on conscription in Australia. Hughes held a pro-conscription stance in relation to World War I.

The Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland is a Christian-right, national conservative political party in Switzerland. Founded in 1975, the party's current president is Hans Moser. The UDF is a eurosceptic political party.

The National Front was a far-right political party in Switzerland that flourished during the 1930s. At its peak the group had as many as 9,000 members, according to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, and "may have had a membership of 25,000 or so", according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007. For the 48th legislative term of the federal parliament (2007–2011), voters in 26 cantons elected all 200 members of the National Council as well as 43 out of 46 members of the Council of States. The other three members of the Council of States for that term of service were elected at an earlier date.

The Green Liberal Party of Switzerland, abbreviated to glp, is a centrist green-liberal political party in Switzerland. Founded in 2007, the party holds seven seats in the Federal Assembly as of 2017.

The Alliance of Independents, Ring of Independents, or National Ring of Independents, was a social liberal political party in Switzerland that existed between 1936 and 1999.

Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland political party

The Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Since the 2015 General election, the BDP has had seven members in the National Council and one in the Council of States.

FDP.The Liberals is a liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and the largest in the Council of States.

Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 27 October 1872. The Radical Left remained the largest group in the National Council.

Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 30 October 1881. The Radical Left remained the largest group in the National Council, regaining the majority they had lost in 1863.

An election for all seven members of the Federal Council, the government of Switzerland, was held on 9 December 2015, following the federal election on 19 October 2015.

Emil Walter was a Swiss Grütli leader and Social Democratic Party politician.

References

↑ Donald F Busky (2002) Communism in History and Theory: the European experience, Greenwood Publishing Group, p61
1 2 Gregory M Luebbert (1991) Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy : Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe, Oxford University Press, p51
↑ Distribution of mandates in the elections to the National Council from 1919 to 2003 Federal Assembly

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Donald F Busky (2002) Communism in History and Theory: the European experience, Greenwood Publishing Group, p61

[GML-2] 1 2 Gregory M Luebbert (1991) Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy : Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe, Oxford University Press, p51

[3] Distribution of mandates in the elections to the National Council from 1919 to 2003 Federal Assembly