History of the Canton of Lucerne
This article deals with the history of the Canton of Lucerne . The modern canton of Lucerne emerged from a city-state since the High Middle Ages , the largest extent of which largely corresponded to today's cantonal borders.
Pre-Lucerne period
colonization
The area of what is now the canton of Lucerne has been continuously populated since the Neolithic . Later Celts lived in the sunny and good locations of the canton , who lived between 800 and 300 BC. Immigrated to Central Switzerland. After the conquest by the Romans around 15 BC. The region was integrated into the Roman Empire and the Celts gradually Romanized. Apparently no prominent center was formed here at the time. Since the 6th century, the Alamanni invaded the rivers from the north and overran the existing population.
church
With Christianization in the early Middle Ages , the first traces of ecclesiastical organization can be felt, which, when they emerged, were usually based on given secular regional structures. It was granted an extraordinarily long aftermath. From the large valley parishes of Willisau , Ruswil , Sursee , Hochdorf and Lucerne , the medieval parish division, some of which is still valid today, developed. In the middle of the 8th century, the monastery in the courtyard in Lucerne was built, which was converted into a canon monastery in 1456, and the Beromünster monastery in the 10th century . Before 1183 the Johanniterkommende Hohenrain , 1194/1196 the Cistercian monastery St. Urban was founded. In the 13th century, the Cistercian women settled in Ebersecken (1275), the Reuerinnen ( Dominican women ) in Neuenkirch (1240/1282) and the Augustinian women in Eschenbach (1294). The Teutonic Knights Coming Hitzkirch came into being before 1237. All these monasteries went back to foundations of the local nobility . The Cistercian convent Rathausen owed its establishment in 1245 to a wealthy Lucerne citizen, while the building of the Franciscan monastery in Lucerne around 1260 involved the citizens and the nobility.
Noble
In the 12./13. In the 19th century, aristocratic rulers can be grasped in vague outlines. In the southwest the barons of Wolhusen dominated , in the Lucerne area the monastery Murbach / Lucerne together with the barons of Rothenburg and in the southeast the barons of Eschenbach . They all disappeared towards the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries. In the north, the Counts of Lenzburg dominated the area of the Beromünster monastery, followed by the Counts of Kyburg and Habsburg . In the 13./14. In the 19th century, almost the entire territory, and since 1291 also the former monastic rule of Murbach with Lucerne, was embedded in the young territorial rule of the House of Habsburg Austria.
The old Lucerne
From city to city-state
The settlement in the center of the monastery rule Murbach / Lucerne, which was conveniently located on the lake and the Reuss at the same time, developed from a market to a town around 1200. As a political and economic center between the Jura , the lower Aare valley , Brugg and the edge of the Alps, it gained some importance. The loose rulership structure of the 13th century enabled its own development (1252 jury letter), which continued to have an effect after it was incorporated into the great Austrian rulership in 1291. A few years later, striving to maintain a certain degree of independence forced the council to confront the Habsburgs, in the course of which Lucerne had to push aside its old reserves from its neighbors in the Alpine valleys. In order to get the support of the three forest sites, the city was more or less forced to make the union of 1332. From the middle of the 14th century the ties to the rule of Austria loosened noticeably faster.
Since the 13th century, resident ministerials and citizens held lords in the Lucerne area. In 1380, with the acquisition of Weggis, a real urban territorial policy began, which experienced the greatest thrusts with the acquisitions in the Sempach War (1386), the assumption of the office of Willisau (1407) and the conquest of the Aargau (1415). By 1480, the city took the last bailiwicks around Lucerne, which had previously been the private property of individual bourgeois families, into their own hands. Knutwil followed in 1579 , and in 1803 the canton reached its current size with the exchange of the Merenschwand (Aargau) office for the Hitzkirch office . Before 1798, the national territory included the city and office of Lucerne, the two country towns of Sempach and Sursee , which remained relatively autonomous within the Lucerne sovereignty, the large bailiffs of Willisau , Rothenburg , Entlebuch , Ruswil and Michelsamt , the small offices administered by large councils Habsburg , Merenschwand, Büron / Triengen , Malters / Littau , Kriens / Horw , Weggis, Knutwil and Ebikon , as well as the Wikon Castle and Seevogtei Sempach.
Population and economy
The city of Lucerne experienced rapid population growth during the early urban development from around 1200 to 1350 and will eventually have over 4000 souls. A decline occurred in the 15th century, which should have bottomed out around 1470. It wasn't until 1800 that Lucerne had a population of 4,300 again. The number rose to 11,000 by 1850 and then strived for the highest level to date with over 70,000 inhabitants by 1960/1970. Around 1450, when the population density of the landscape was severely thinned, the entire canton probably had only around 15,000–16,000 inhabitants. But then the number grew again, reaching around 26,000 150 years later and around 1800 (including Hitzkirch ) over 90,000, in 1850 133,000, 1900 146,500 inhabitants. In our century it has more than doubled and reached 326,000 inhabitants in 1991.
The economic structure of the canton was shaped by agriculture until the threshold of the last century . Up to around 1870/1880, a distinction was made between three regions, namely the zone of single farm settlements with predominantly cattle farming in the south, the belt of field grass cultivation in the middle and the village settlements with their arable farming in the northern third of the canton. Crafts and trades developed like everywhere in the cities. In the countryside, they developed from the peasant side trades, which only became independent in the Ancien Régime and gave rise to guild organizations. Trade was mainly carried out in the city of Lucerne, but the greatest activity occurred in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, which was due to the first noticeable upswing in freight traffic over the Gotthard . Trade and craftsmanship, which had achieved a certain importance especially in metalworking , declined the more councilors and citizens found employment in the administration of the territory.
Homework in the linen trade, soon also in cotton and silk processing, spread in the 17th and 18th centuries in the valleys running out to the north and in Entlebuch , with a layer of small-scale publishers developing, alongside those better equipped and larger publishers from neighboring Bern or the near Zurich area. The Lucerne Council also promoted home work, but with little success. In spite of this, several independent Lucerne publishers who operated silk production in the valleys around Lake Lucerne in the 18th century gained some importance.
Old constitution
The formation of groups within the city and especially within the councils was forbidden. This prohibition went back to the jury's letter of 1252, in which the council and the citizens together with the Vogt of Rothenburg fixed the city's right to peace. This urban constitution was valid with modifications and extensions until the early 19th century. The Pfyffer-Amlehn trade, which took place in 1569, was rated as a serious offense. The council brought four mayors and leading councilors to account for making secret agreements about the occupation of offices and the distribution of pensions, and punished them and deposed them. In the 18th century, several state trials were carried out in the Schumacher-Meyer trade , in which the conservative, ecclesiastical-minded Schumacher family and the Meyer von Schauensee family, as representatives of the investigation, uncovered mutual misconduct in the performance of public offices and, with the help of case law, uncovered each other up to extremely fought.
The Small Council, which always consisted of 36 members, and the Great Council, initially with a hundred, but since the end of the 15th century, 64 members were recruited from the circle of citizens of the city of Lucerne. So the designation council and hundred became common. As in hardly any other city, the Small Council in Lucerne was able to cement its role as a determining body both vis-à-vis the citizens and vis-à-vis the Great Council. He has always complemented himself while reluctantly allowing both councils to work together in the elections to the Grand Council. The community of citizens was excluded from the right to vote, but not from the right to stand. When the epidemics ceased in the 17th century, the number of failures decreased and the previous fluctuation among the sexes did not materialize, the patriciate closed itself and monopolized the regimental capacity for a precisely defined group of families. The Lucerne patriciate thus followed the trend of the time towards aristocratization of rule. At the same time, access to civil rights was first made more difficult, then made completely impossible (Fundamental Law 1773). Revolts like the burger trade of 1651/1653 failed to bring about any lasting change in this practice.
All initiative and all decisions were reserved by the Small Council, which had emerged from the medieval bailiff and developed further. Lucerne's community of citizens only met with the council. It only acted at its instigation and passed resolutions on matters in which the entire community bound itself under oath , such as internal and external security , territorial acquisitions, tax collection and contracts and alliances. The supreme power of Lucerne was exercised by the joint committee of the Small and Large Councils, Rät und Hundert , which secured support from the community in important matters. But even the Grand Council only had a limited impact. According to a formulation of the 18th century, it was only used "for important state and country transactions, deals with foreign powers, maleficent cases and appeals, etc." called in. The head of the two councils and thus the head of the state was the mayor, but the formal council presidency was exercised by the council judge, who had been appointed every six months since 1428 and who remained in the background in the representation. The two councils divided the more and more numerous part-time official positions among themselves, the sack master as well as the Zoller or the sub- street master , while the less coveted offices were left to the citizens. The town clerk was also not allowed to belong to the councils because he had to be from the community.
From territorial rule to the state
The territorial rule was always with the city of Lucerne until 1798. This commissioned their bailiffs to exercise the rulership rights over the landscape, which changed from office to office. The Small Council was faced with a large and closed territorial complex relatively early on. As early as 1400 , and increasingly since 1415, he had to put his sovereignty on a more solid basis. In this process, it was essential that Lucerne was able to shed its lordly ties as an Austrian country town in 1415 and King Sigismund declared the city to be imperial . In 1420/1421 the council extended the Lucerne city peace to its entire landscape. The preservation of the peace was only possible if the city, as mistress of the landscape, was able to ensure protection and protection. This task provided the basis for, in a lengthy process of consolidation, first the rule of the country, in the 16./17. To enforce sovereignty in the 19th century and the absolutist state since the end of the 17th century.
In the last third of the 16th century, the exercise of sovereign functions experienced an intensification. The fear of the intervention of the reformed places promoted the expansion of the military organization, which presided over a council of war, probably the first permanent commission of Lucerne. In order to maintain federal neutrality , Lucerne took part in the Defensionale from the middle of the 17th century and repeatedly sent troops to the Basel area to take part in the occupation of the borders. In the 18th century the conscripted crew was divided into brigades and companies. Another task that began to oppress town and country in the last third of the sixteenth century was the increasing number of the poor, which betrays the rapid growth of the population. The many poor were perceived as a plague and began to provide care for the local poor and to send away the foreign poor. In order to cope with this urgent task, the council as authorities was challenged. The alms council, which was made up of clergymen and councilors around 1600, and only councilors in the 18th century, cared for the local poor, and the foreigners were expelled from the canton's large-scale country hunts organized by the authorities. In the middle of the 18th century, Lucerne distributed Harschiere or Landjäger in the countryside and set up a city garrison of company size to protect the capital.
The number of official special commissions, councils or chambers increased especially in the 18th century. This is how Leu named the building commission, the recruitment chamber, the salt and medical commission, which survived in today's medical council, and the civil chamber created in 1714 in his lexicon in 1757/1788. In 1762 the State Economics Commission was set up with a view to a kind of economic development . This was followed by the School Council, the Mint Chamber, the State Commission, the City Garrison Chamber, the Griesenberg Commission, the Orphanage Commission, the Neualpkommission, the Hunters Chamber, the Classification Chamber, the Felling Commission, also the Landsfriedliche Kommission, the Viktualienkammer, the City Police Commission and finally the Timber Commission.
The treasure lords or deputies exercised special supervision ad aerarium (state treasure), others over the court church treasure, still others were delegated to accept the monastery accounts or to inspect the court organs. Nothing could better illustrate the extent to which state and communal urban tasks were mixed up and developed broadly. The councilors were obviously very busy, because there was also a growing number of state and municipal offices that were reserved for small and large councilors and that continued to exist.
Mastery of the landscape
With a few exceptions, the bailiffs did not reside in their bailiwick , but administered them from Lucerne. Exceptions were the castle bailiff at Schloss Wikon , the sea bailiff in the Seevogtei in Sempach and, since the Peasants' War of 1653 , the bailiff in the bailiff's castle in Willisau . As a rule, the bailiffs appeared only sporadically in the countryside, for example at the appearance and on the day of oaths or periodically on certain days of judgment. In their place, the Weibel or Untervögte supervised the behavior of the population in everyday life . Since around the 16th century, the town and office clerk of Willisau and the official and district clerk of Beromünster were taken from the number of the city councils of the city of Lucerne. Local clerks worked as land clerks in Entlebuch and as official clerks in Ruswil . In the 17th / 18th In the 19th century, as we can see from the valid copies, almost every municipality had its own, mostly rural scribe. Meetings of the official and Twing communities were only allowed with the consent of the bailiff and had to be limited to official or community matters.
The position of the landscape in relation to the city and the council was remarkable and should not be underestimated. The area of office of the landscape superiors was strictly limited to the respective office, but at the official level they were used to performing management tasks. It was therefore inevitable that there would be periodic clashes between the urban rulers and parts of the landscape that could take on very dangerous proportions and which the council was occasionally only able to cope with with the help of the neighboring cantons. The offices each invoked their traditional rights and defended themselves against new requirements imposed by the authorities, which always resulted in a further consolidation of state sovereignty. As early as the last decade of the 14th century, Lucerne had to explain to the people of Entlebuch who was in charge of the country.
When Lucerne began to expand its sovereignty after 1415 and began to tighten the screw slightly, there was immediate protest. In 1434 the people of Entlebuch had to take punishment again. When their self-confidence had grown in the Burgundian Wars , they let themselves be roused by the Obwalden; In 1478 preparations were made for the uprising, and Peter Amstalden von Schüpfheim was executed. The landscape rose from Willisau in the Onion War of 1513 and moved in front of the city. The herring war of 1570, which was sparked off by new taxes and buses, was limited to the Rothenburg office . After it had fermented here and there during the Thirty Years 'War, the largest of all Lucerne uprising movements broke out in 1653 in the wake of a severe economic recession: the Peasants' War not only seized large parts of the Lucerne landscape from Entlebuch , but also the Bernese and Solothurn neighborhoods. A last major movement emerged during the Second Villmerger War in 1712, when the landscape, under the influence of the federal states and clerical circles , rejected the peace treaty that the council had negotiated with Bern and Zurich and forced an armed conflict with the Bernese. The defeat was followed by the criminal court. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the council was still fearful and vigilant about all changes in the landscape that led to the opposition.
Lucerne in the Confederation
Together with its landscape, Lucerne was involved in the late medieval conflicts of the Swiss Confederation , both internally and externally. On behalf of the empire, the city took part in the conquest of Aargau in 1415 . Some of these conquests remained in Lucerne hands, but the free offices and the county of Baden , in 1460 also the Thurgau region and later the Rhine valley and Sargans became common lordships in which Lucerne ruled partly until 1712, partly until 1798. The power of expansion of the Schwyz towards the Mittelland got Lucerne in the 14./15. It was felt in various ways in the 19th century, for example in the Küssnacht area and in the dispute with Weggis , who fought against the rule of Lucerne, but also in the Old Zurich War . The ennetbirgischen conquests of the 15th century to Ashenvale ( Domodossola ), and in today's Ticino made Lucerne to vorderster front, until finally in the early 16th century, the Ticinese municipalities and Pieven were finally federally; Lucerne took part in their administration. The high point of the military involvement was the Burgundian War (1474–1477). They ran out finally in the Italian campaigns of the early 16th century and made in the following centuries the mercenary services space.
When Basel and the larger midland cities of Zurich and Bern , in which a livelier spirituality was alive than in Lucerne, with their extensive territories, accepted the Reformation , Lucerne and the rest of central Switzerland remained with the old faith. This gave rise to a wide range of management responsibilities that were previously unknown to Lucerne. Politically, the booth became a suburb of the Catholic places that had their backs to the wall of the Alps and felt the fear of isolation. As a consequence, when the denominational antagonism intensified in the last third of the 16th century, the Catholic towns leaned on the powers in the south, on Savoy , on Spain , which Milan held, on Austria and on the papacy . Most of the dust was raised by the conclusion of the Golden Covenant, in which the seven towns were combined in 1586 to safeguard the Catholic faith. While the provincial towns in the Kappelerkriegen ( First Kappelerkrieg 1529 / Second Kappelerkrieg 1531) still significantly contributed to the fight against the Reformed, Lucerne was largely on its own in the later denominational wars , the two Villmerger Wars of 1656 and 1712.
The society of that time grew into stricter standards of intellectual and moral behavior, which Lucerne was able to follow only with difficulty. The Council's obvious will to reform remained conceptless for decades and only developed concrete ideas after the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Diocesan Synod of Constance in 1567 and the appearance of the Nuncio (1579). The new orders were also permeated by the spirit of reform, although they came to Lucerne with reluctance: in 1574 the Jesuits took over the higher education system, and in 1583 the Capuchins took over the pastoral care of the people. The originally consensual work of the nuncio and council in the common concern of ecclesiastical and religious reforms drifted apart in the 17th and even more so in the 18th century. This created a real competitive situation for which the sensational Udligenswil trade of 1725 was a striking, but not the only expression. The advance of the Enlightenment also played a role here, deepening old contrasts and awakening new ones. It intensified the old antagonism between town and country and between clergy and council, which in 1712 already grew into a rebellion in the Second Villmerger War. The opposition between the state and the more enlightened urban society to the church and religious groups harbored the germ of the hateful political disputes of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The canton of Lucerne
Helvetik: The break and its long-term effects
The Helvetic meant in the history of Confederation as the state Lucerne the deepest break their previous whole development. The ruling classes were well aware that the loose federal government, like the individual states, was in need of reform. However, the states did not find the strength of themselves to bring about a fundamental reorganization. A new, rationalist concept of the state had to be imposed from outside, which was only prepared in the minds of an elite . The aftermath was profound. At the same time, however, resistance was also great, so that it took half a century to process the impetus and to re-establish a more stable political system that approximated the requirements of the time.
The city and landscape of Lucerne were able to hear the developments in France from 1789 onwards, partly from the stories of eyewitnesses and those affected. Soldiers and officers with different, even contradicting experiences as well as anti-revolutionary emigrants conveyed the information . Nine years after the outbreak of the French Revolution , an army approached the country's borders to put pressure on the old confederation . Here, too, the political achievements of the revolution should be realized. The threatening gesture was enough because the Lucerne councilors were familiar with the new ideas and the younger generation of councilors in particular liked them anyway. In January 1798 the council initiated the first measures for a nonviolent reform of the state system, and an alarming report by the Lucerne ambassadors in Basel was enough to induce the patriciate to abdicate on January 31, 1798 . Appealing to human rights , which are essentially non-statute-barred and inalienable in the common sense of the people, the mayor and councilors laid the power in the hands of the astonished and unprepared people and laid down the modalities of the transition. The immediate consequence of the abrupt abdication was the disintegration of all authority . The attempt to reorganize the state structures of the canton of Lucerne on its own could not be completed in view of the rapid advance of the French army. As requested by the French representatives, the unified Swiss constitution was adopted in the original assemblies on March 29th.
The canton of Lucerne remained. However, it only became an administrative district of the one and indivisible Helvetic Republic, which had to carry out the centrally issued orders. It was divided into nine districts, namely Lucerne , Hochdorf , Sempach , Beromünster , Sursee , Altishofen , Willisau , Ruswil and Schüpfheim . The districts were made up of municipalities. The separation of powers was carried out for the first time, the contours of which, however, became somewhat blurred again after the failure of the Helvetic Republic and which did not break through again until 1829/1831.
The unified state , which was grafted on in 1798, encountered and stirred up a largely unprepared state people. It remained an experiment ; Nevertheless, it shook the foundations of the political and social structures and became a beacon that, despite all opposition, pointed the direction of the future state structure. “1798”, however, could neither be reversed nor ever realized in its extreme form. Decades of wrestling began at the cantonal and federal level. Familiar old federal structures were brought out again, but the break in the continuity that Helvetic created had completely changed their substance. The mediation constitution dictated by Napoléon Bonaparte returned to the federal structure of the Confederation. The canton of Lucerne became largely independent again within the confederation. The dominant influence of the landscape was preserved in the canton. But this was pushed back with the coup d'état of 1814, so that the prerogative of the capital came back into play during the restoration period .
The restoration regime grew into an opposition from young friends of progress in the councils, who in 1829 had to be granted a first constitutional revision. What they did not achieve here, they were able to enforce in the course of the broad popular movement in the autumn and winter of 1830/1831 in the regeneration constitution. After progressive laws and institutions had already been created during the time of the Restoration, the Liberals pursued a zealous reform course in the 1930s, particularly in terms of church politics ( Baden article ). A growing opposition to this policy grew out of religious-conservative and political-democratic peasant circles, who liked to orient themselves towards the original cantons . In 1840/1841 this steered the due revision of the constitution in its tracks. The conservative regime installed in 1841, startled and cornered by the Aargau abolition of the monastery in 1841 and the storm of indignation against the Jesuit appointment (1844), turned against all efforts to revise the federal treaty of 1815. The two free parades of 1844 and 1845 were able to achieve this Do not force liberal upheaval, but strengthened the defensive reactions of Lucerne, which joined forces with like-minded Swiss estates, Freiburg and Valais, together in the Sonderbund . In November 1847 he was brought to his knees in a short campaign by the majority of the Diet.
Although a liberal regime was now established, as in the 1930s, Lucerne was basically insecure in its internal constitution until well into the 20th century and externally marginalized. The conservative turnaround of 1871 did nothing to change that. On the contrary, the predominant political tendency showed some difficulty in taking up contemporary political, economic and social postulates in good time. A relaxation did not occur until as since the 1950s, the economic boom in the boom provided the persisting strength in question, then pushed aside and finally the dogma of their place of innovation continued. This was accompanied by increasing social permeability and mobility . The awakening in the Second Vatican Council also had a relieving effect , in the wake of which, however, a real breakthrough in modernization shook the previously conservative Catholic Lucerne society, in some cases secularized it, and brought new polarizations to what remained connected to the Church.
Constitutions and state organization in the 19th and 20th centuries century
The canton of Lucerne carried out no fewer than nine constitutional revisions in the 19th century. They were mostly associated with political upheavals. The constitution in force today - which has since been revised many times - dates from February 28, 1875.
The state and administration were reorganized after the disappearance of the Helvetic Republic in 1803. Pre-Helvetic institutions were actually reintroduced in name only. However, your order and its contents were completely changed. This also largely applies to the restoration period. The trend throughout the 19th century was towards popular sovereignty , representative democracy and legal equality . The form of government was that of a unitary republic . In 1803/1804 the canton was divided into five offices that still exist today, namely Lucerne , Hochdorf , Sursee , Willisau and Entlebuch . These were administrative districts which over time were also used as court districts and grand council electoral districts. The offices in turn consisted of the municipalities and 33 municipal courts, which were replaced by district courts in 1814. In 1913 the 19 district courts were abolished and six local courts created. The number of municipalities leveled off at 107 by 1889 and remained unchanged until 2004. The first merger of the new merger project took place on September 1, 2004 (see community mergers in Switzerland ): Schwarzenbach was merged with Beromünster to form the new Beromünster community , which Gunzwil will join. Further mergers were completed in early 2005 and early 2006 or are in preparation. A major merger of 11 communities around Hitzkirch failed in the spring of 2006 at the ballot box .
The Grand Council, which had 60 members in 1803 and 100 in 1814 and now has 120, was now the bearer of legislative power. The electoral process was involved for a long time, and only a part - admittedly growing - was directly elected by the people. In the 1940s, elements of direct democracy penetrated for the first time and the Grand Council was appointed by popular vote. From among its members the big one chose the small or daily council, which soon had 15, now 36 members. The two mayors were at the head of both councils . The Small Council, which has been called the Government Council since 1841, was divided into a series of fixed commissions (chambers or councils), which were also called dicasteries, and which prepared the business. There were those for diplomacy , the military , finance and the state economy, the administration of justice , the police and public security and state administration. Other commissions such as the Education Council, the Chamber of Commerce or the Sanitary Council are composed partly of small councilors and specialists, partly only of specialists. The system of the dicasteries was replaced by the departmental system in 1848, in which each councilor presided over one or more departments. The Court of Appeal (called the Supreme Court since 1841) as the highest body of judicial power consisted entirely of members of the government during the Restoration period. In 1829 the separation of powers between the executive and judiciary came into play again, but it was not until 1976 that the incompatibility of membership in the Supreme Court and the Grand Council was enshrined in the constitution.
Society and economy in the 19th and 20th centuries century
The two centuries since the upheaval that became manifest in Helvetic Republic brought new and ever faster developments in all areas of life. The arguments between more doctrinal supporters of state intervention in church life and their more pragmatic opponents intensified in the 19th century and became a major theme in the party struggle between liberals and conservatives , which took on a profile around the middle of the 19th century and only after last council ebbed. Besides these, other parties struggled to distinguish themselves. The Christian Socials were co-opted by the Conservatives under the common guise of Weltanschauung, while the Social Democrats, who had outgrown the Liberal Party, always remained a small group. Other questions such as environmental protection, security of the social network and gender equality have come to the fore since the 1970s and have given rise to new political groups.
From a social perspective, the proportion of the agricultural population steadily decreased; it was marginalized numerically, but not politically. The workforce that became available first migrated mainly to industry and later to services . In economic terms, the canton lost the character of a farming country with small farmers in the foothills of the Alps and in the arable farming area who were looking for an indispensable additional income from home work , and large farmers in the field grass growing zone. In the 1870s and 1880s, agriculture declined sharply because modern means of transport brought cheaper agricultural products to the table, and gave way to cattle and dairy farming . Because the labor force was also becoming scarce, the mechanization of everyday farming life and with it the debt took on an ever faster pace. In the wake of the enormous expansion of traffic routes, tourism in the Lucerne and Lake Lucerne area became an important economic factor , although it was subject to strong fluctuations and, not least, was sensitive to international political events such as the world wars and other crises. The establishment of industry, with a focus on the Lucerne region and in the north of the canton, was slow. It was not actively promoted by either liberal or conservative governments.
Integrations
The canton of Lucerne followed its path to the present within the federal framework. A comparison with other former city-states shows that Lucerne integrated the new political achievements into its constitution more sustainably than others. The federal treaty of 1815 replaced the Napoleonic mediation act. Its revision (1833) was actively promoted by the government in Lucerne, but failed in the referendum. The approval of the Federal Constitution of 1848 was anything but spontaneous. The interdependence with the federal government has intensified at an increasing pace since then. More and more decisions were made at the higher federal level, less and less autonomously at the cantonal level. The sovereignty shifted increasingly from the cantons to the federal government. The internal opening of the Swiss economic area in 1848, the subsequent development of traffic with the railways and road construction and, since 1945, the advance of the welfare state were essential elements of this shift, which directly affected the population. Today we are closer to the unified Swiss state of 1798 than to the federalist state before 1848.
Those areas of responsibility that remained for the cantons made higher demands over time. Since the end of the 19th century, attempts have been made to meet these demands through increased cooperation among the cantons. In addition to the conferences of the members of the government, the Concordats, particularly in the school sector and in the penal system, bear witness to this . In the education sector, the canton of Lucerne, as the location canton of the Central Switzerland Technical College (Central Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, today: Lucerne University of Applied Sciences ) took on supraregional tasks. The efforts to establish a university were delayed by the negative referendum of 1978 and only succeeded in 2000.
Just as the canton of Lucerne demonstrated enormous effort in the 19th century to fit into the new federal state, just as hard it is for the Swiss Confederation as a whole to decide in the present to think about a newly shaped Europe. The interweaving with European upheavals was already felt painfully in Helvetic Republic. And the fall of Napoleon (1813/14) cleared the way for the abolition of the mediation constitutions; the July Revolution in Paris in 1830 triggered political changes in most of the cantons. The Federal Constitution of 1848 is again integrated into a European year of revolution. Since then, this interdependence has also intensified politically, economically and socially. This did not prevent the country from staying out of the European wars and the two world wars and from maintaining neutrality as a maxim of its foreign policy in the post-war period.
Text based on permission from the Lucerne State Archives
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Jacob Leu : General Helvetian, Federal or Swiss Lexicon. Volume 12, Zurich 1757, p. 276
- ^ Hans Jacob Leu: General Helvetian, Federal or Swiss Lexicon. Volume 12, p. 295 f. Supplement, part 3, Zurich 1788, p. 596 f.
- ^ Eduard His , Lucerne Constitutional Law. der neuern Zeit (1798–1940), Luzern undated [1944] (= Luzern Geschichte und Kultur 3/2), p. 37.
- ^ Lucerne municipal reform
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