History of the Canton of Glarus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prehistory and early history

Bronze Age (13th – 9th centuries BC) finds are the first evidence of human presence in today's Canton of Glarus . Archaeological finds and place names speak for the Celtic settlement (3rd century BC). The name of the valley river Linth is derived from the Celtic Linta , which means the sleek or snake, dragon.

Roman time

Remains of Roman buildings can be found at Lake Walen and Kerenzen. At the beginning of our era, the Glarnerland belonged to the province of Raetia .

Christianization

The first valley church was built in Glarus in the 6th century . The Alemanni immigrated around 700, but their language did not become generally accepted until the 11th century. At that time, the Glarnerland was subordinate to the Säckingen monastery .

The way to the Confederation

In the 13th century it came under Habsburg supremacy, which the Glarus people tried to shake off. They had a certain independence, after all , as documented in 1282 by the community of men from the entire Glarus valley . In 1351 they allowed themselves to be conquered by the people of Zurich and Central Switzerland and on June 4, 1352 they formed an alliance with Zurich, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden - but not with Lucerne, Zug and Bern and erected a last wall below Näfels , of which remains can still be seen today. The treaty of 1352 was unilateral. The confederates were only obliged to provide assistance within the narrow Glarus borders and under certain formal conditions; they could even refuse to provide assistance and freely enter into alliances. The people of Glarus, on the other hand, were obliged to provide assistance immediately and at their own expense, without examination and without spatial restrictions, and to have alliances approved.

Shortly afterwards, however, the people of Glarus came back to the Habsburg Duke Albrecht by train in the Brandenburg Peace of September 14, 1352, named after Margrave Ludwig . Only after the defeat at Sempach in 1386 did they make a new attempt and conquered the town of Weesen , which was lost again in a treacherous night of murder in February 1388. This was followed on April 9, 1388 by the victory of the Glarus near Näfels , which was followed by independence and equal membership in the Swiss Confederation. Since then, the Näfels ride on the first Thursday in April has been a reminder of this event. In the Sempacher letter of 1393 Glarus was considered for the first time on an equal footing in a fixed relationship with the Confederates, in 1473 a better federal letter, dated back to June 4, 1352, replaced the original treaty.

At the first extensively documented rural community they gave themselves their own statutes in 1387 and thus laid the foundation for today's democratic constitution.

In 1395 they bought themselves off from Säckingen, but paid the women's monastery a perpetual annual interest until the fall of the 18th century .

Reformation and Confessionalism

Even before 1530, the majority of the people of Glarus had been reformed. Ulrich Zwingli had worked as a pastor in Glarus for ten years and dedicated his Reformation pamphlet to the interpretation or justification of the theses or Article 1523 Ammann, Rat und Gmeind des Lands Glaris . At the beginning of the church reform in 1525, the state of Glarus invited the city of Ilanz / Glion to the parish festival, which sent a delegation of 200 young people from the Gray League . In their reply, the people of Ilanz expressed their interest in having talks with the predicant and farmer Anselm Bäbler . In the same year the people of Glarus stopped the annual pilgrimage to Einsiedeln and the parish decided in 1528 and 1529 to allow free preaching. The congregations were now free to choose whether or not to accept the new faith. Only Näfels and Oberurnen remained with the old faith and a few other communities became equal . However, the Catholic towns wanted to force a re-Catholicization of Glarus and thus triggered the so-called Glarus trade or « Tschudikrieg » 1560–64, which brought the Swiss Confederation to the brink of another religious war. In the 2nd Glarus State Treaty of 1564 it was stipulated that the Catholic minority was not allowed to be disadvantaged in the allocation of offices and that the Bailiffs of Gaster and Uznach, along with the bailiffs sent from Glarus, had to be Catholic, but the Bailiwick of Werdenberg was reformed.

However, the first principles of religious freedom failed to prevent tensions between the denominations. At least the simultaneous relationship at the Church of Glarus survived: until the consecration of the Catholic Fridolinskirche in 1964, both denominations used the same church; even the devastating fire of Glarus (1861) was unable to change this. However, state power was divided. There were three rural communities: one of each of the members of the two faith groups and the common one. The courts, the military and postal services and the salt trade also separated. In the case of the military, this is still visible today through the powder tower in Schwanden for the reformed part of the country.

Schwanden pulvoturo 087.jpg

Powder tower

Mail was also delivered separately to Catholics and Protestants. Because the Reformed people rejected the Gregorian calendar , two calendars were even valid for a century. In 1836 the new cantonal constitution abolished this denominational division of the country.

The canton of Glarus gained inglorious importance in legal history when the last execution of witches in Central Europe took place here in 1782 with the beheading of Anna Göldi . Also unique in Europe, torture was officially abolished as a means of judicial truth-finding in the canton of Glarus in 1851 .

Napoleonic period

In 1798 the French invaded Switzerland. In March, under pressure from France, the Helvetic Republic was proclaimed in Aarau . The state of Glarus became the canton of Glarus, the canton boundaries were redefined. Johann Melchior Kubli was elected Senator to represent Glarus. From 1789 to 1803 Glarus briefly belonged to the canton of Linth . The man from Glarus was elected President of the Senate of the Helvetic Republic in October. In 1799, the Glarus region became a theater of war for foreign armies. The French forced the Russians , who had advanced over the Pragel Pass and the Klöntal, under General Suvorov, to retreat over the snow-covered Panixer Pass, which was costly . 1200 children from the starving country moved to other cantons where they had to find food and help.

Modern times

In 1968, the Glarus women received partial voting rights. In 1972 the first women participate in the rural community on an equal footing . In 2006 the Landsgemeinde decided to reform the municipal structure. 25 congregations become three unified congregations. On January 1, 2011, the reform will finally be implemented.

Economic history

Alpine farming

The canton of Glarus is the most industrialized canton in Switzerland . A look at economic history shows that the people of Glarus were no longer self-sufficient early on. As early as the 15th century, they secured their livelihood with cattle exports and trading in dairy products, to which the Glarner Schabziger was already a part. Alpine farming is still important today. The 96 Alps are grazed by 125 Sennten with almost 14,000 animals. Around 4,000 tons of milk are processed each summer in the Alps.

Traveling

From around 1500 to 1800, traveling was one of the main sources of income for the people of Glarus. Almost 1,000 made it to the officer in foreign service, some also to fame, reputation and fortune; and lost their lives far more than soldiers. Kaspar Freuler's seat of power testifies to the possibilities of a military leader at that time. Today this most beautiful town house in Switzerland from the 17th century houses the museum of the country Glarus which is well worth seeing (with textile printing , skiing , military and weapons departments ).

Commercial production

In the 16th and 17th centuries there was trade in commercial products ( slates and tables, pencils , knitted stockings, caps, matzo weaving goods ) and later, in a time of no merit, hand spinning .

Factory industry

Around 1740, the factory industry found its way into the valley with the first fabric printing shop, which led to the fact that weaving was started. In times of decline - because of machine spinning and weaving - there were waves of emigration. In the middle of the 19th century , every twelfth person left the Glarus region. The " New Glarus " settlement in the state of Wisconsin / USA , which was built in 1845 by emigrants from Glarus and with which good relations still exist, is a reminder of these dire economic situations . A few years later (around 1865) the “Glarus economic miracle” occurred. The population grew rapidly. The textile industry offered over 10,000 jobs and its products made it to every corner of the world because of their excellent quality, local market research and extensive network of trading branches.

Industrial renewal

The decline of the printing and textile industries towards the end of the century hit the country hard. However, as the figures mentioned above show, the Glarus economy managed to undergo structural change. Today, for example, there are high-tech companies in the listed “ hanging furniture ” wooden tower - on and in which the colorful printed cloths were once hung to dry. The versatility gained made the Glarus economy more resilient; What remains is the enormous dependency on exports.

Social legislation

Accustomed to co-determination in the rural community since time immemorial, the Glarus workers, together with pastors and socially minded doctors (e.g. Fridolin Schuler ) shaped social legislation in the 19th and 20th centuries . For example, in 1856 factory work was banned for those under the age of 12 and in 1864 the first democratically enforced factory law was passed. It reduced the daily working time to twelve hours (in 1872 to eleven hours), banned night and child labor, prescribed occupational safety and hygiene measures, and provided modest maternity protection. In 1916 the Landsgemeinde approved the creation of a cantonal old-age and disability insurance.

This first compulsory social insurance only found an equivalent at federal level with the AHV in 1948. It was also the Glarner Landsgemeinde that was the first of its kind to pass the law on unemployment insurance in 1925. In Schwanden, 200 residents founded the Schwanden share bakery in 1839 . As a self-help organization for the provision of bread, it was a forerunner of the consumer associations.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Martin Bundi, Cristian Collenberg: Rhaetian Alpine Passes / Vias alpinas reticas. Somedia book publisher. Glarus / Chur, 2016, ISBN 978-3-906064-54-3 , pp. 64f.
  2. Schwanden GL: history