Europe at Present [Spring 2003]

Religion

The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland started in 1518, when a country pastor named Huldreich Zwingli began to denounce the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church.

Subsequently, under Zwingli’s leadership, the city of Zurich revolted against church dogma by burning relics, banning the adoration of saints, and releasing clerics from their vows of celibacy.

Now Switzerland has strictly divided religion from the state. You can even find a record in a constitution that nobody is allowed to express his confession in public on penalty of fine or prison. According to that record, no priest is allowed to wear SUTANNA. Of course this record is not strictly obeyed, but the fact is that there are a few priests in SUTANNA walking the Swiss street.

Currency and banking

Switzerland has exerted a deep influence on European and international education for centuries. The academic excellence of Swiss universities, including those at Basel (founded in 1460), Lausanne (1537), Zurich (1833), and Geneva (1599), as well as the Federal Institute of Technology (1855) in Zurich, has attracted numerous foreign students. Education, particularly religious education, has been inspired in part by the French theologian John Calvin, who settled in Switzerland in 1536. Modern education has been largely influenced by the 18th-century Geneva-born philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The theories of Johann Pestalozzi, the 18th-century educational reformer who advocated that children should learn from their own experiences, have contributed to the development of education throughout the world. In more recent times, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget became widely recognized for his insights into the learning abilities and habits of children; and many of the early studies of Albert Einstein into relativity were carried out in Zurich.

The Swiss constitution of 1848 provided for free and compulsory education. Under the constitution of 1874, as amended in 1902, the federal government confined its efforts to higher education; the cantons and half-cantons were required to establish free, compulsory elementary schools with subsidies, but without control, from the federal government. These schools are taught in the local official language, but students may also study the other national languages as well.

Most cantons provide secondary schools for students aged 12 to 15, gymnasiums (college-preparatory schools), and teacher-training institutes, in addition to various institutions of higher learning and special schools. Illiteracy is negligible. In 1998-1999 primary schools in Switzerland had a total enrolment of 529,610 pupils; secondary schools had a combined attendance of some 544,433 students; and institutions of higher learning had an aggregate enrolment of 156,390 students.

When you think of Switzerland, you probably think of yodeling. But traditional Swiss folk culture includes also playing the alp horn and Swiss wrestling. You may also think of Milka chocolate, which is partly correct. Swiss chocolate is excellent by itself, and moreover is often used in desserts and cakes. But in fact Milka is a German chocolate! Typically Swiss ones are Toblerone, Maestrani and Holls.

When mentioning cuisine, it so worth mentioning that Switzerland doesn't have a great indigenous gastronomic tradition - instead, Swiss dishes borrow from the best of German and French cuisine. Moreover, Switzerland hasn’t always been that rich. In the past ages Swiss people were mostly extremely poor. That’s why the “national dishes” aren’t that sophisticated as originally French ones. Rosti (crispy, fried, shredded potatoes) is German Switzerland's national dish. Fondue is French one, made of melted Emmenthaler or Gruyère combined with white wine, garlic and pepper . Fondue is served up in a vast pot and eaten with bread cubes. There is a certain culture of eating fondue: first of all, you put your bread on the fork and stir with it in the pot with fondue, making in the cheese the shape of 8. There can be only one fork in the pot at one time! Secondly, when your bread falls into fondue while dipping, you have to give something to the people you eat fondue with. Today, when most Swiss are affluent, you can find many more sophisticated versions of fondue, like chocolate or kirsch one.

Culture

Hermann Hesse is the most famous naturalized Swiss writer. His novel Siddartha used to be a Bible for every Westerner heading on the hippy trail to India. German-Swiss dramatist and novelist Max Frisch was one of Europe's most respected authors in the 1950s, and his best novel was Homo Faber, later filmed by Volker Schlondorff under the title Voyager. The 18th-century writings of Rousseau, who lived in Geneva, played an important part in the development of democracy, and Carl Jung, based in Zürich, was instrumental in developing modern psychoanalysis.

CHAPTER II. Federalism

General information