Friday, October 30, 2020

What is the capital of Switzerland?

By Dennis Wege

No. Nononono. NO! Don’t correct textbooks if your answer is Bern(e). Well, you’re not bad, but not really correct either.

Switzerland became a modern nation in 1848 and, due to its many members which were seen as equals, it became a federal state. Being true to the concept, Switzerland chose to have no capital - this is (de jure) still true today. However it had to choose a city for the seat of its government, which became Bern(e), it is hence often called the federal city. Bern is the German name, Berne the French one, it gained this position because it’s in a bilingual canton (county/state), which is also called Bern(e). It is hence often seen and handled as the de facto capital - but again, only de facto.

By the way this federalism can be seen in other examples as well: The federal supreme court is located in Lausanne, Vaud (west, French), its two branches for (social) insurances are located in Luzern/Lucerne (central, German), the federal criminal court is in Bellinzona, Ticino (south, Italian) and the federal administrative court is in St. Gallen (east, German). Also the seven federal councillors should be as well mixed as possible, now there’s four native German speakers (two from bilingual cantons), two native French speakers (one from a bilingual canton) and one native Italian speaker.

No comments: