Letter from Basle

Switzerland resembles an enlarged city of eight million people, with a wonderful landscape of large, beautiful parks, mountains and lakes; there are five big agglomerations with universities. Geneva and Basle are located on its periphery opening towards other countries (France and France/Germany). Geneva's features are determined by the United Nations, Basle's by its chemical industry. Zurich functions as a cultural and commercial metropolis. Berne provides a kind of centre with the federal government there. Lausanne could possibly be called the provincial twin sister of Geneva. Switzerland's existence is not geographically, ethnically, or culturally determined and secured. A latent sense of threat is combined with a reactive guardedness. The boundaries of Switzerland and its neutrality have been dictated from outside by the Vienna Congress in 1815. Neutrality was a condition to prevent the passage through the Alps being dominated by one party. Viewed from the outside, Switzerland thus represents a kind of “road watch” on a major north-south transit through the Alps. In the idealized self-understanding of the Swiss, however, the Alps are often viewed more like their very own bastion. Switzerland engages in a skilful handling of minorities and offers them good protection. Its culture of compromise is exceptionally helpful but also slows down a lot of (progressive) steps. Big conflicts tend to be transformed into small and predictable ones. As a result many latent problems only become manifest after some time.

The proud myth of Switzerland as independent, autonomous, completely free and unconnected is linked to the knowledge that this is true for only a very small area. “The home of Switzerland is Europe”, says Peter von Matt, a prominent Swiss historian and literary scholar. This, however, refers to a Europe which, until the end of World War II, had been an agglomeration of antagonistic national states; presently, Europe is in the process of a