European History Commons^™

Book Review:The Swiss And The Nazis: How The Alpine Republic Survived In The Shadow Of The Third Reich, Louis B. Kuppenheimer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

For hundreds of years Switzerland has been recognized as a nation committed to not being involved in military conflicts. However, in WWII it was confronted by the most serious and credible threat to its neutrality since the inception of the policy. To begin with, Switzerland's wartime population of 4,200,000 was outnumbered nearly eighteen to one by its most lethal contiguous neighbor, Germany. When Austria and Italy were thrown in, the ratio jumped to thirty to one. In addition, the Axis powers of Italy and Germany shared over seventy percent of Switzerland's border. And although her industrial production was of the …

Book Review: Churches And The Holocaust: Unholy Teaching, Good Samaritans, And Reconciliation, Joy Laudie

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Yad Vashem was created in 1953 by the Israeli parliament as a memorial to the Holocaust. Since its inception over 21,000 non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis have been singled out as "Righteous Among the Nations." Mordecai Paldiel has been the director of the Department for the Righteous at Yad Vashem for the past twenty-five years. His position has allowed him to monitor the investigations of cases in which men and women are nominated for recognition in saving Jewish lives. The work has opened his eyes to a new aspect of human behavior; caring for …

The Impact Of Swiss Exile On An East German Critical Marxist, Axel Fair-Schulz

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Among many East German Marxists, who had embraced Marxism in the 1930s and opted to live in East Germany after World War II (between the 1950s until the end of the GDR in 1989), was a commitment to the Communist party that was informed by a more nuanced and sophisticated Marxism than what most party bureaucrats were exposed to.

The Approach Of The Black Death In Switzerland And The Persecution Of Jews, 1348-1349, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

When the Black Death first arrived in Europe in 1347, it struck along the Mediterranean coast of Italy and southern France. In the following year, the plague swept into central Europe following major trade routes deep into the interior of the continent. The pestilence was one of the most virulent diseases ever to strike the human community, and its impact was devastating, because perhaps a third of the population of Europe died in the next several years. People were dying at an unprecedented rate, and no one knew precisely what the contagion was or how to stop it. 1 A …

Economic Complementarity And Political Solidarity: Concerning The Sources Of The First Treaty Of 1850 Between Switzerland And The United States, Cédric Humair

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The Civil War known as the Sonderbund and the institutionalization of the Federal State, in 1848, do not solely constitute important historical milestones in Swiss domestic politics. These events, which mark the advent of a modern Switzerland, also had repercussions upon Swiss international politics and diplomacy and, in particular, upon relations with the United States of America. Beginning in 1850, the new liberal-radical authorities concluded a General Convention of Friendship, Reciprocal Establishments, Commerce, and for the Surrender of fugitive Criminals with the "sister Republic."' For the first time in their histories, the two countries regulated several spheres of their relations …

Honorable Ancestors, Margot Ammann Durrer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The story of the Ammann family of Schaffhausen sketches a cross section of the history of that town from the middle of the 15th century into the end of the 20th. Likewise, the events of history as they played out in Schaffhausen during those times very much shaped the history of the Ammann family.

Book Review: Dr. Ernst W. Alther, Ahnentafel Van Burgern St.Gallischen Ursprungs Mit Ausliiufern Nach Genf, Nancy, Nurnberg, Ulm, Lucca Und Florenz, Mario Von Moos, Wolf Seelentag, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Review

To compile a pedigree chart of a few generations, and have it printed, might be considered a private and personal pleasure. However, if such a pedigree is set out to cover all ancestors as far back as the sources allow, the author has achieved something important not only for his family, but for his home town, the canton or even a larger part of the country. Swiss genealogists, especially Komad Schulthess, have started projects like this during the 1920's; in 1939 Eduard Riibel and Wilhelm H. Ruoff have set new standards with their Rubel-Blass genealogy, covering mainly Zurich and Bern …

Book Review: Jonathan Steinberg, Why Switzerland?, Jurg K. Siegenthaler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

"Any decent biography," a New York Times book reviewer recently remarked, "is a work of drama." Jonathan Steinberg's Why Switzerland? is truly a biography of Switzerland, and the story often has the substance of drama. Since the book has no subtitle, the author explains the three ways in which he is intending to answer the question "why." Why has a place such as Switzerland come about? Why should readers abroad care? And why should Switzerland continue to exist? "No country is more frequently visited but less known" (p. 4). What Steinberg manages to do very well is to provide answers …

Religious Tolerance In Sixteenth-Century Switzerland, Edmund J. Campion

Swiss American Historical Society Review

People do not generally associate the sixteenth century in Europe with religious tolerance and such an attitude is understandable, but it overlooks the small but relatively tolerant country of Switzerland. Elsewhere in Europe there was then, in fact, a great deal of religious intolerance and persecution. A few examples will illustrate very nicely how intolerant other European countries were at that time toward other religions.

Erasmus And Switzerland, Edmund J. Campion

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Although Erasmus (1467?-1536) lived in Switzerland for ten years, a longer period of time than in any country except his native Holland, and was, in fact, buried in Basel, scholars have written very little of substance on his lengthy connections with Switzerland and Swiss intellectuals and publishers. This is surprising because links between Erasmus and specific European countries have attracted a great deal of interest from leading Erasmus scholars. In his 1954 book Erasme et l 'Italie, Augustin Renaudet examined the important connections between Erasmus and Italian theologians and philosophers. Not only did Erasmus earn his doctorate in sacred theology …

The Battles Over Swiss Liberty, Marc H. Lerner

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Between the French Revolution and the Revolutions of 1848, the European conception of freedom and liberty changed dramatically. Likewise with Switzerland, between the Helvetic Republic and the Sonderbund war of 1847, the conceptions of true Swiss liberty underwent radical alteration. In Zurich, Schwyz and Vaud a growing individualistic sense of liberty challenged a collective sense of freedom. To some extent an emphasis on guaranteed individual rights replaced the emphasis on local autonomy and self-rule. The changing understandings of Freiheit or liberte in Zurich, Schwyz and Vaud reflect the changes that occurred throughout Switzerland as well as Europe. The battle over …

Review Essay: What Did You Do In The "Good War"?, Robert Messer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Klaus Umer, "Let's Swallow Switzerland": Hitler's Plans Against the Swiss Confederation (Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland, 2001)

Stephen Tanner, Refuge from the Reich: American Airmen and Switzerland During World War II (Sarpedon Publishers, Rockville Center, New York, 2000)

Angelo M. Codevilla, Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today (Regnery Publishing, Washington, D.C., 2000)

If, as in Tom Wolfe's phrase, the 1970s were the decade of the "me generation", perhaps the 1990s could be termed the "mea culpa" decade. The United States government belatedly and properly apologized and paid reparations to thousands of …

Magnificent Obsession: Switzerland's Role In The Future Of The European Union, H. Dwight Page

Swiss American Historical Society Review

History books generally refer to the golden age of French civilization in the seventeenth century as the Age of Louis XIV or the Age of the Sun King, yet, were there any justice, it would be more appropriate to refer to that historical era as the age of Colbert, for it was Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of finance, whose wise management of the financial machinery of the French state and whose policy of economic self-reliance delivered France from the chaos of the religious and civil wars, stabilized the country and thereby provided the foundation for France's world empire and …

Letter From South Carolina, 23, 1737, Johann Ulrich Giezendanner

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Introductory Note:

Johann Ulrich Giezendanner ( 1686-173 7) of Lichtensteig, Canton St. Gallen, Switzerland, by profession a gold- and silversmith, had briefly studied at the University of Marburg in Germany and had become one of the 'awakened' in the spirit of Pietism which was then influencing the various Christian denominations. (The movement minimized the difference between clergy and laity and stressed religion as a matter of experience and deeply-felt piety rather than as doctrine and as a set of rules to be obeyed.) Between 1 715 and 1720 J. U. Giezendanner preached to large crowds, but was silenced by offical …

Review Essay: Life-Saving Diplomacy, Tadeusz Debski

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Leo Schelbert, ed., Switzerland Under Siege 1939-1945: A Neutral Nation's Struggle for Survival. Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 2000.

Theo Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy. The Story of Carl Lutz, Rescuer of 62,000 Hungarian Jews. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 2000.

David Kranzler, The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mante/lo, El Salvador, and Switzerland's Finest Hour. Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust Series, Alan L. Berger, ed. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2000.

Review: Lionel Gossman, Basel In The Age Of Burckhardt. A Study In Unseasonable Ideas, Benn Williams

Swiss American Historical Society Review

"Monotonie sans egale" or sanctuary for "unbridled thinkers"?

Being human and prone to forming first impressions, this reviewer glanced at the full title of the text under review, and saw red flags rising. First, in the spirit of full disclosure, this non-Swiss reviewer has only "visited" Basel once: an unpleasant-and unexpected-wintry layover courtesy of a French rail strike. Second, seeing "unseasonable ideas" in the same title as anyone other than Nietzsche raises one's hackles. Third, while the works of Burckhardt enjoy renewed interest among art historians and publishers, he remains largely ignored by "new" cultural and intellectual historians and humanists …

A Business Economist With Swiss Heritage Looks At Switzerland, Donald P. Hilty

Swiss American Historical Society Review

For many in the United States, the word "Switzerland" conjures up pleasant thoughts of cows, mountains, Heidi, democracy -- maybe also a proud heritage and some dear friends -- but, perhaps, a country that is a bit dull. The purpose here is to alert this audience: Switzerland is not dull. It is in the big leagues of international business. This small country in the middle of Europe has gained the stature of an economic giant, not just in relation to its size but in absolute terms.

Hans Heinrich Felder, Jr., Captain In South Carolina's Revolutionary Army, 1778, Walter Lips

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The progenitor of the American Felder family was Hans Heinrich Felder who was born in Wiedikon, Canton Zurich, Switzerland, about 1701. He, his wife Ursula, and their ten-year old son Hans Heinrich, Jr., later John Henry, settled in Orangeburg Township, South Carolina in 1735. The family was granted 350 acres of land, that is more than half a square mile, on September 17, 1738 by King George II of England. Hans Heinrich Felder, Sr., however, died that same year, and his wife passed away a year later in 1739. Their son John Henry Felder was only 14 years old when …

Memories Of World War Two, Alice Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Each family was obligated to get a plot of land in order to grow vegetables, potatoes, and Indian corn. I abhorred working in field and garden, but luckily my younger sister enjoyed such tasks. Therefore I did the household chores, mended clothes and, for instance, spent hours undoing the runs in nylon stockings with a special hair-thin hook. The stockings were so expensive, so special, and so dearly beloved, yet one was not to wear them with runs.

Gertrude Hofmann Langer. The Story Of A Life, Edward G. Langer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

I was born on May 1, 1911 in Kttsnacht, Canton Zttrich, Switzerland. That day is a national holiday in Switzerland which is their equivalent of our Labor Day. It certainly was Labor Day for my mother, Marie Walder Hofmann. (December 22, 1890 - August 23, 1959). The name Kttsnacht means a kiss in the night. My name was a very common name in Switzerland at the time. I had no middle name. The Swiss spelling of my name is Gertrud.

Kyburz, Ca 95720, Usa, Martin Hochstrasser

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Lake Tahoe is situated in the California Sierra Nevada on the border of the state of Nevada. One who travels from here over the gently descending Western slope of the mountain range to the California capital Sacramento or further to San Francisco, will choose US highway 50. After a few dozen kilometers drive through mountainous forested areas which have a few small settlements the traveler will come upon a group of buildings which obviously stem from stage coach times.

Book Review: Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War Ii., Karl Wood

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Stephen P. Halbrook's 1998 book, Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II is a well-narrated account of the Swiss preparedness to resist any possible invasion by a hostile power, but most especially by the Nazis, through the critical years of the 1930s and 1940s. The author brings to bear his considerable skills of persuasion and journalistic perception, reminiscent of the late William Shirer, of whose work he makes extensive use for historical perspective. He offers an argument that the "true Swiss experience in the war" lay not in the recently much-discussed accommodations made to the Nazis, "a regrettable …

Off To Dallas, Felix P. Bentz

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The nine short stories which you will read below represent "Chapter V" of my Memoirs. I began to write down the story of my life in 1991 after finishing my last project as a consultant. The initial reason for this was to tell my children and grandchildren about their ancestors and what it was like to be growing up in Switzerland.

The Golden Age Of Roman Helvetia, H. Dwight Page

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Any traveller who had visited the region of present day Switzerland in the first century before Christ and who could have returned there three centuries later at the end of the second century of the Christian era would have been astonished by the differences between the two periods. Whereas the pre-Roman country of the Helvetii had been a vast forest whose inhabitants had lived in rudimentary hilltop oppida and had spent their lives hunting, fishing and tilling the soil of small farms, the Roman province of Helvetia in the third century after Christ was a prosperous nation whose citizens lived …

A Final Visit To The Land Of My Birth Baselland, Switzerland June 1994, Ernest Albert Thurkauf

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Mother was exiled 30 years in America -- so I spent 30 days in Liestal, one for every year she was isolated and banished! My mind was constantly on such thoughts as I daily walked the streets of Liestal. Tired as I was, I never reached the point of exhaustion such as she did - - especially when she walked behind the harrows with a four-horse team [One Small Lifetime, page 79.] My 30 days for her 30 years was poor compensation for a devoted mother who almost died to bring me into the world! [One Small Lifetime, bottom of …

A Return Visit To The Land Of My Youth Alberta, Canada, Ernest Albert Thurkauf

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In my old years, I often had the urge to revisit the scenes of my youthful days in Alberta, Canada. Florence, my beloved wife, and I had hoped to do it together, but because of her failing health and serious strokes, it was never to be. After her passing in 1985, I purchased a new auto with intentions of_ making a North-Western journey alone. But after numerous trips -- up to North Carolina and New York State -- in the two years after her death, I began to have serious misgivings about a long journey alone. My two sisters, as …

History Of The Kieburtz/Kyburz Family, R. Bruce Kieburtz

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The origins of the Kieburtz family are found in Switzerland, Canton Aargau, in the town of Oberentfelden. According to the Familien-Namenbuch der Schweiz, a set of books that list family names who possessed rights in a Swiss community as of 1962, the Kieburtz family, historically spelled Kyburz, had citizenship rights prior to 1800 (that qualifies it as an old family) in the towns of Erlinsbach, Oberentfelden, Suhr, Unterkulm, and Niedererlinsbach. The name, and citizenship, has diffused therefrom to at least six other cantons and eleven towns in Switzerland, and the name has migrated to an unknown number of foreign …

The Crisis Of Switzerland On The Threshold Of The European Union, H. Dwight Page

Swiss American Historical Society Review

During the fifty years since the conclusion of World War II in 1945, Europe has undergone more radical changes than during the three preceding millennia. The Treaty of Maastricht, prepared by the twelve members of the European Community in December, 1991, legalizes a process of European social, economic and political unification and homogenization contradicting the evolution of European politics and societies since the fall of the Roman Empire. The majority of the nation states of Western Europe have been generated by a concerted struggle against amalgamation into large transnational empires. Notable examples are France, formed by the dissolution of its …

Book Review: Literary Freedom And Social Constraints In The Works' Of Gertrud Leutenegger., Laura Villiger

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In and around Switzerland Gertrud Leutennegger ranks among the wellknown contemporary Swiss writers. As yet, however, her work has not been translated and its reception has therefore been limited to German-speaking countries. Margrit Zinggeler' s study thus comes as a welcome introduction to Leutenegger' s writings that is designed for a general as well as specialized readership. As Zinggeler makes clear at the outset of her investigation, when Gertrud Leutenegger first started to write in the early 1970's, her artistic independence signaled a turning point in Swiss women writing. Luckily, the author has never since compromised her inner vision and …

Book Review: Geneva, Zurich, Basel: History, Culture And National Identity, Marion S. Miller

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The idea of identity with Europe is central to the studies of the cities in the two volumes under review. As Carl Schorske suggests in his introduction to Geneva, Zurich, Basel: while Switzerland voted against European unity, these three cities, despite diverse but strong local identities, endorsed the unity concept when a referendum was undertaken in 1992. In a similar vein, James Cracraft, in an essay which surveys the historical background of Peter the Great' s rationale for the building of St. Petersburg in the eighteenth century, is hopeful that the city, reclaiming its original name after the demise of …