History of the Canton of Solothurn

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Territorial development of the canton of Solothurn

Human settlement in the Solothurn region dates back thousands of years (e.g. remains of a pile dwelling settlement near Aeschi ). The following chronicle only begins with the appearance of the first written evidence.

Roman times and Teutons

Solothurn (Salodurum), originally probably Celtic, was already a junction of large military roads in Roman times. The Pattusius stone inscription indicates that there was a Roman Temple of Apollon Augustus in Salodurum. At Schauenburg in the Selzacher Jura, not far from Solothurn, there is a yew that is said to have sprouted in Roman times. At the time of the Great Migration , Solothurn was the interface between the Germanic tribes of the Burgundians and Alemanni, who immigrated to Switzerland : Bellach seems to have been a Burgundian foundation with Gallo-Roman (old French) language, Lommiswil an Alemannic. Later, as far as Biel, Alemannic Old High German prevailed over Gallo-Romanic. The remaining parts of today's canton were largely Alemannic from the start.

The middle age

In 888 the area of ​​today's Canton of Solothurn came to the Kingdom of Burgundy and in 1032 to the Holy Roman Empire . In the Middle Ages , the canons of St. Ursus initially held all sovereign rights over Solothurn with the exception of the ban on blood ( highest jurisdiction ), but the citizenship gradually emancipated itself. The monastery had a rather extensive manorial rule in the outskirts of the city from an early age, the humble peasants of the small villages there were subject to a tithing obligation, and it exercised lower jurisdiction over them. Before the founding of the monastery in the 10th century, a monastery has been established around the 8th century.

After the Zähringers, who were the imperial vassals, died out (1218), Solothurn became imperial immediately , so over time it was allowed to choose its own mayor ( mayor ). In 1295 Solothurn concluded an eternal alliance with Bern and in 1318 had to face a siege by Duke Leopold I of Habsburg (who had been defeated by the Confederates at Morgarten in 1315) because it did not recognize Frederick the Fair as king. In 1344 the city of Solothurn acquired its first extra-urban territory (subject area), the lower Leberberg, which at that time was synonymous with the acquisition of high jurisdiction over it. 1375 raged Gugler in the region and destroyed the city directly adjacent villages Gurzelen and Wedelswil. A later attempt by the heavily indebted Count Rudolf von Neu- Kyburg to seize municipal pledges was thwarted ( Solothurn Murder Night from November 10th to 11th, 1382) and led to the Burgdorf War , in which Bern and Solothurn defeated the Count's house decisively.

Life in the Middle Ages

The baron and knight Hesso von Grenchen lived in the 12th century. He probably lived in Grenchen Castle with his family. He was most likely a vassal of the then imperial bailiff of this area, the Duke of Zähringen . In return for borrowing the area near Grenchen, Hesso occasionally had to do military service for the Zähringer and thus indirectly for the German Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa . Hesso was a Catholic, the area had been evangelized since the foundation of the Moutier-Grandval monastery in the 7th century. Very close by, on the Sigger near Flumenthal , ran the very important border between the dioceses of Basel and Lausanne , with Grenchen in the latter. When Hesso rode down the mountain with his entourage, then on the plains below, near Grenchen and across to the Aare , almost everything was just dense forest. The town of Grenchen was formed by a few thatched roof huts in which poor farming families lived. They owned a few fields in forest aisles, which they cultivated with simple tools and oxen. They had to hand over a considerable part (the tithe ) of their income, which in starvation years did not even suffice for self-sufficiency, to the knight Hesso, because they were his heirs , over whom he also exercised the lower jurisdiction . This situation did not change fundamentally in the centuries after Hesso, not even because of the Peasants' War .

Entry into the Swiss Confederation

As a loyal ally of Berne Solothurn had since the 14th century facing Place of Confederation , but was due to the resistance of the rural cantons until 22 December 1481 simultaneously with Freiburg recorded as the eleventh state in the alliance. Solothurn rounded off today's cantonal territory through conquests and acquisitions up to the 16th century (provisional division into 15 bailiwicks ). Some of the acquired villages such as Dornach or Gänsbrunnen had previously belonged to the Principality of Basel , so they were also secularly ruled by a bishop. In addition, the canton area at that time comprised a few more villages, such as Etzelkofen in Bern today at the heel of the Bucheggberg (which belonged to the St. Ursenstift as manorial estate since the High Middle Ages) or Oltingen near Kienberg in Basel .

Counter-reformation

Solothurn was hesitant towards the Reformation for a while, but after the Battle of Kappel the Catholics were about to destroy the Reformed minority with arms when the Catholic mayor Niklaus von Wengi stood in front of the muzzle of the cannons. This courageous move avoided a bloody clash. With the exception of the Reformed Bailiwick of Bucheggberg , in which Bern had high jurisdiction and church sovereignty , Solothurn remained Catholic and in 1586 joined the Borromean League (the Catholic places of the Old Confederation ).

Trade in the late Middle Ages and early modern times

Solothurn was not very successful in acquiring its territory - compared to Bern, for example - but its area was in a very convenient location. In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Olten in particular was a key point in north-south trade with the Lower Hauenstein . But Solothurn itself was strategically located: two of the three stretches of the partly international west-east and west-north traffic, namely the one via Neuchâtel-Biel and the one via Aarberg - Büren an der Aare , led via Solothurn. The city profited from considerable customs revenues, the trade (inns, farriers) also profited. This regardless of the fact that Bern occasionally tried to divert traffic - for example by means of massive tariff increases at the Aarberg bridgehead - to the purely Bernese stretch of road Burgdorf-Bern; to the disadvantage of Solothurn, but also of its own places Aarberg, Lyss and Büren.

The ambassador city

France's ambassadors (ambassadors to the Swiss Confederation) chose Solothurn as their regular residence in 1530. From its splendid court and the abundant flow of French pardons, the city drew a wealth that the nobility loved to develop in courtly festivities. Military service for the French king formed the main economic source of income. When the people stormed the Paris Bastille on the occasion of the French Revolution of 1789, the Solothurn patrician Peter Viktor von Besenval led a French regiment that took action from outside against rebels who demanded democracy, although he was unable to protect those trapped. In the years that followed, up to around 1797, many French nobles fleeing the revolution found refuge in Solothurn.

Territorial division in the Ancien Régime

Division of Solothurn into inner and outer bailiwicks in the 18th century

In the 18th century, the area of ​​the canton of Solothurn was divided into four inner and seven outer bailiwicks. The inner bailiwicks were administered by members of the small council who were elected for two years. The outer bailiwicks were given to state bailiffs who resided in the respective official castles and were elected for two to three years. In Olten, the mayor was at the same time governor of the so-called mayor's office in Olten. He was elected for six years. There were also three land clerks who resided in the Klus near Balsthal , in Olten and Dornachbrugg . The city area was administered by the mayor and the Thuringian bailiff.

Inner bailiwicks:

  • Bucheggberg
  • Flumenthal
  • Livers
  • Kriegstetten

Outer bailiwicks:

Helvetic, mediation and restoration

In Solothurn a hereditary patriciate had developed based on the French aristocratic model since the 17th century , whose absolutist rule only came to a temporary end on March 1, 1798 with the arrival of the French under the revolutionary general Napoleon . The Act of Mediation Bonaparte rose in 1803 Solothurn to one of 19 cantons, each with a representative constitution . After the definitive defeat of Napoleon and the arrival of the Austrians , the still living members of the old patrician councils seized the town hall on the night of January 8th to 9th, 1814, declared themselves in favor of the lawful government and put down an elevation of the landscape with Bernese help . As a result, the landscape (the entire canton area outside the capital) was only granted a third of the Grand Council.

Diocese reorganization

Before 1815, the territory of the canton of Solothurn belonged to three different dioceses. The area south of the Aare belonged to the diocese of Constance , the area between the first Jura chain and Aare west of the Siggern , i.e. today's Lebern district and the city of Solothurn, belonged to the diocese of Lausanne , the rest of the area to the diocese of Basel . After the Reformation, the city of Solothurn was brought into play several times as the bishopric for the diocese of Lausanne, most recently in 1714 by Charles-François de Vintimille, comte du Luc, 1708–1715 French ambassador in Solothurn, whose plan was also supported by Louis XIV ; but the seat of the Lausanne bishop remained in Freiburg in Üechtland since 1613 . In 1815 the entire canton of Solothurn became part of the reorganized diocese of Basel, and in 1828 the city of Solothurn was elevated to the seat of the newly founded diocese by a concordat between the cantons of Bern, Lucerne , Zug , Solothurn, Aargau and Thurgau .

Constitutional struggles

In 1830 the patriciate had to give in to the stormy demands of the countryside, to which the garrison soldiers had also joined, and agreed a new liberal-democratic constitution with the committees, which, although there were still 37 representatives in the capital, had 109 (i.e. too strong a Weight), was adopted on January 13, 1831 with a large majority. After the Zurich coup , the city's electoral prerogative was abolished and the number of members of the government reduced, whereupon the new constitution was adopted on January 10, 1841 and the liberal regiment was re-established through progressive elections. Therefore, despite its predominantly Catholic population, the canton was one of the most resolute opponents of the Catholic Sonderbund at the federal level and adopted the new federal constitution in 1848 with a large majority. Solothurn lost its national independence and became a federal member state.

Tithing

In the canton of Solothurn, as elsewhere, the system of inheritance of the farming families had existed since the early Middle Ages . H. their dependence on a landlord. One of the most famous was the already mentioned canon monastery of St. Ursen, but most of the aristocrats were also part of it (see Knight Hesso ), and after the rise of the city of Solothurn during the Middle Ages, she was also part of it as an institutional tithe mistress. The peasants were under the jurisdiction of the landlord and had to regularly deliver the tithe in kind (later also monetary interest). The liberal constitution of 1831 (like the Napoleonic-Helvetic constitution of 1798) provided for a right of ransom from these feudal burdens . It took some time before the farming families could financially afford to exercise this right. When the time came, they were free farmers who could sign contracts as tenants or buy a farm, as is still common today.

Constitutional revisions between 1851 and 1887

Two constitutional revisions (1851 and 1856) removed the long-held system of indirect elections (by electors) and the government's omnipotence in local affairs. After a referendum and initiative and thus direct democracy had been introduced in 1869 , the entire constitution was revised in 1875. In addition, the cantonal death penalty was abolished in 1874.

In 1887, the cantonal government resigned after it had exposed itself to a bank swindle through the involvement of several of its members. The people passed a new, purely democratic constitution on October 23 of that year. This introduced the popular election of the government council and nationalized the cantonal bank.

Kulturkampf

In the meantime, the conflict between the Basel diocesan cantons and Bishop Eugène Lachat , who resided in Solothurn, had broken out, in which Solothurn joined the majority and the police forced the bishop to vacate his official residence after his dismissal (see Kulturkampf in Switzerland ). At the same time, on behalf of the estates, the government initiated a sensational trial against Lachat for the improper use of important legacies, which the High Court decided in their favor in 1877. One consequence of this conflict was the abolition of a number of church foundations on September 18, 1874, whose assets, approximately four million francs, were used for school and health funds. The new Christian Catholic diocese also found state recognition in Solothurn, but both the government and the Roman Catholic clergy avoided an open break, and the latter also submitted to the periodic re-election by the communities provided for in the constitution in 1879. In 1885 peace with the curia was established by re-establishing the diocese of Basel and the cathedral chapter in Solothurn, where the new bishop Friedrich Fiala took his seat.

industrialization

If the canton of Solothurn was a pure agricultural canton until the 19th century - apart from a few exceptions such as Von Roll'schen Eisenwerke or the commercial handicrafts - then rapid industrialization then continued with the active support of government councilor Wilhelm Vigier a. At the end of the 19th century, the canton was one of the most industrialized in the country. Vigier, a renegade patrician and staunch liberalist, pursued the promotion goal partly without considering social issues, which earned him the wrath of the labor movement (with the first founding of regional unions). The rise in the level of education after 1830 with the introduction of compulsory elementary school and the establishment of cantonal schools and vocational schools made a significant contribution to the industrial boom. In the 19th century in the Jura near Bärschwil , iron ore , which is now completely missing from the national territory, was mined. Statistics from 1907 show that the Lebern district had the highest number of industrial jobs, mainly thanks to the Grenchen watch industry and the large Langendorf watch company Lanco. Today the service sector outweighs the industrial sector in terms of number of employees, but the latter is still relatively large. The best known are probably the Grenchen watch industry (in a tradition since the middle of the 19th century), Stahl Gerlafingen AG (formerly von Roll), the Bally Schönenwerd shoe factory that no longer exists , that of Roll-Isola in Breitenbach , and the Gösgen nuclear power station -Däniken and - in the services sector - the Olten railway junction . The population development: 1850 70,000 inhabitants, 1950 170,000, 2004 249,700.

Asylum Policy and Tolerance

Christian Solothurn offered asylum for many. Many persecuted people found refuge in the valleys and on the farms that were difficult to manage. However, Jews also met with rejection for a long time in the canton of Solothurn: Despite a long tradition of attendance, they were only granted freedom of settlement in the 1860s due to religious and other aversions.

Beginnings of the automobile

The railway had already found its way into the canton of Solothurn with industrialization, and at the beginning of the 20th century the automobile became increasingly fashionable. From the official village chronicle of Dornach we can learn that the first municipal traffic regulations were created there in 1922, with many driving bans and a maximum speed in town of just 15 km / h. However, there were only inadequate control options, and many complaints had been received about “ racing drivers in their luxury bodies ”.

The world wars

A defining event of the First World War 1914 to 1918 was, in addition to mobilization and border occupation in the districts of Dorneck and Thierstein, above all the nationwide general strike at the end of the war, during which the army shot three striking watch workers in Grenchen. The military situation for World War II in 1939 was similar to the previous war. However, this time there were specific simulation games by the German military for an attack on Switzerland, in which the Zuchwil weapons factory was one of the main targets. The Federal Councilor Hermann Obrecht from Grenchen is credited with one of the most courageous public statements against annexation to Hitler's Germany. However, he died shortly after the outbreak of war. The canton of Solothurn also had to cope with certain internal National Socialist activities from 1933 to 1945 , but these were never able to fundamentally threaten the democratic system. The Solothurn law student Ubald von Roll, for example, was the head of the Bern local group of the National Front in the 1930s and spoke, for example, of the fight against “ Judaism and all the worms that go with it ”.

These times of crisis also left their mark on the intellectual life of Solothurn. In the lecture program of the Solothurn pottery company during the First World War, it becomes clear that there - in complete contrast to the rest of German-speaking Switzerland - sympathy was more with the war party France, which was strongly related to the ambassadors tradition (see above). From today's perspective, the invitation from Freiburg's Mussolini admirer Gonzague de Reynold in 1937 was undisputedly problematic for the subsequent Nazi era . And the lecture about the Roman emperor Augustus at the end of Hitler's first year of expansion in 1938 was probably not entirely by chance. Even a presentation by Government Councilor Urs Dietschi in the war year 1941 was not entirely free from problematic contemporary word creations, for example the phrase “Solothurn race”.

The fronts initiative at federal level, which for example called for a “leader democracy”, was clearly rejected by the canton. However, the Thal district narrowly agreed and the Thierstein district clearly agreed with high abstentions.

post war period

The three Federal Councilors Walther Stampfli (FdP), Willi Ritschard (SP) and Otto Stich (SP) were politically influential in the post-war period in Solothurn . Then there was the definitive loss of the absolute majority in the governing council of the Free Party in 1952, a few minor state affairs and in the 1990s the cantonal bank debacle. In 1964, the VEBO cooperative , an integration workshop for the disabled, was founded.

In 1971 the right to vote and to vote for women was introduced at cantonal and communal level . In 1986 the electorate accepted the total revision of the canton's constitution.

In 2007, for the first time, the FdP, which was also a state sponsor in the canton of Solothurn, won only one of seven seats in the National Council . In 2007, the canton was the second most frequent scene of illegal right-wing extremist incidents, although foreigners were largely responsible. In 2008, Solothurn was the guest canton on Zurich's Sechseläuten .

Women in Solothurn History

In the Middle Ages and the early modern period around 70 women were burned as witches in the canton of Solothurn. Only a few women found their way into the canton's history. In 1798 Maria Schürer, with a few other men and women and the most modest armament, opposed the French revolutionary troops marching in from Biel. She apparently managed to kill one or two of her opponents before she was shot herself. She received a memorial stone in Grenchen. On June 6, 1971, the canton introduced women's suffrage . The liberal Cornelia Füeg was Solothurn's first national councilor from 1975 to 1983 and also the first member of the Solothurn government from 1987 to 1997.

See also

literature

  • Bruno Amiet , Hans Sigrist, Thomas Wallner: History of Solothurn. Edited by the government council of the canton of Solothurn. - Vol. 1: Bruno Amiet: City and Canton of Solothurn from prehistory to the end of the Middle Ages. 1952. Vol. 2: Bruno Amiet and Hans Sigrist: City and Canton of Solothurn from the Reformation to the height of the patrician regime '.' 1976. Vol. 3: Hans Sigrist: The late period and the end of the patrician regime. 1981. Vol. 4.1: 'Thomas Wallner:' History of the Canton of Solothurn, 1831–1914: Constitution, Politics, Church. 1992. Vol. 4,2: André Schluchter : History of the Canton of Solothurn, 1831-1914: Landscape and population, economy and traffic, society, culture. 2011. ISBN 978-3-905470-51-2 .
  • Urs Amacher: Holy Bodies. The eleven catacomb saints of the Canton of Solothurn. Knapp, Olten 2016, ISBN 978-3-906311-29-6 .
  • Werner Meyer : Millet porridge and halberd. On the trail of medieval life in Switzerland. Walter, Olten 1985, ISBN 3530567078 .
  • Hermann Büchi: The tithe and basic interest payment in the canton of Solothurn . Buchdr. Gassmann A.-G., Solothurn 1929 (also in: Yearbook for Solothurn History . Vol. 2, 1929, pp. 187-300 doi: 10.5169 / seals-322437 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz, Vol. 6, Neuchâtel 1931, pp. 414f.
  2. ^ Franz Wigger: The diocesan conditions in the canton of Solothurn before 1815 . In: Yearbook for Solothurn History . tape 31 , 1958, pp. 21–50 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-324081 .
  3. ^ Thomas Wallner: The Canton of Solothurn and the Confederation 1841–1847 . In: Yearbook for Solothurn History . tape 40 , 1967, p. 5-273 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-324362 .
  4. ^ Catherine Arber: Frontism and National Socialism in the City of Bern. Much ado, but little success. In: Bern journal for history. 65th year 2003, issue 1 ( online ( memento of the original from October 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bzgh.ch
  5. ↑ Urs Dietschi: Solothurner Geist , 1941
  6. ↑ Hans Sigrist: From the Solothurn legal and cultural history. Chapter: The last burning of witches in Solothurn . In: Yearbook for Solothurn History . tape 52 , 1979, pp. 256-267 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-324709 .