History of the Canton of Zurich

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The canton of Zurich bears the name of the city of Zurich , from whose territory it originated in 1803 (→  History of the City of Zurich ). Until 1798, the city republic of Zurich exercised sovereignty over most of today's cantonal territory, which it had acquired through purchase, pledging or military conquest. Although the city took over the government and administration of the various territorial units, there was no unified state power in the modern legal sense. Although the city had had a kind of written constitution since 1336 with the Brunschen guild constitution , which was laid down in so-called sworn letters, this was not valid for the landscape. There, until 1798, different statutes, privileges and special medieval rights were in force in the provincial and upper bailiffs, the individual corporations, landscapes, private persons etc. over the course of time from the owners of power such as the German kings, the counts of Kyburg , Habsburg , Toggenburg etc. . were granted. A canton of Zurich in the modern sense has only been possible since the mediation constitution of 1803.

Antiquity and early Middle Ages

Silex blade from the excavations in the vicinity of the so-called Kleine Hafner on the construction site for the Opéra car park in Zurich
Salbölfläschen from the Roman Vicus Turicum (Location: Thermengasse)
Villa Rustica near Seeb, Bülach- Winkel

The first traces of settlement in the area of ​​today's Canton of Zurich date from the 5th millennium BC. Chr .: In the area of ​​today's city of Zurich, these are the remains of wetland settlements of the Egolzwiler culture (4430–4230 BC), which can be detected in the area of ​​the western lake basin of Lake Zurich , as well as the settlement areas assigned to the Horgen culture . Most of these bank settlements sank into the lake in the Late Bronze Age, when the level rose from approx. 404 to approx. 407 m above sea level. M. rose, probably because the debris cone of the Sihl in the area of ​​the main station dammed the lake. The prehistoric sites Zurich-Enge-Alpenquai , Grosser Hafner and Kleiner Hafner in Zurich, Meilen-Rorenhaab , Erlenbach-Winkel , Freienbach-Hurden-Rosshorn , Freienbach-Hurden-Seefeld , Rapperswil-Jona-Technikum , Seegubel and Wädenswil Vorder Au are part of it the UNESCO world heritage Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps .

The area was settled by the Celts ( Helvetians ) in antiquity : Celtic oppida probably existed on the Lindenhof and on the Uetliberg . The strategically and technically favorable location as well as coin finds suggest the existence of a trading center. The Celtic settlement of about seven hectares was around the Lindenhof hill .

The Alamanni incursions into what is now Switzerland began in AD 260 . After the imperial reform of Emperor Diocletian from 286, the area around Zurich and Winterthur came to the province of Maxima Sequanorum in the diocese of Gallia . In the year 401 the forts were evacuated by the Roman troops like the whole area north of the Alps. There is no reliable information about the further fate of the Gallo-Roman population and the settlements. The local population probably mixed with the immigrating Alemanni. From the 7th century Alemannia became part of the Franconian empire of the Merovingians and later the Carolingians . The population of Eastern Switzerland was (again) Christianized and the administration was regulated by the introduction of the Franconian county constitution. The area of ​​today's Canton of Zurich was mainly part of the Zurichgau . Areas in the west and northeast belonged to Aargau and Thurgau, respectively .

middle Ages

When the Franconian Empire was divided, Zurich became part of the East Franconian part of Ludwig the German . The Fraumünster Foundation in Zurich, which he gave a rich gift , became the center of an extensive complex of the Königsgut. The Carolingian Palatinate on the Lindenhof in Zurich was expanded by the German kings in the 10th and 11th centuries. As a palatinate city, Zurich was one of the centers of the Duchy of Swabia. It was visited several times by German rulers and was the scene of several diets . After the last counts of Zurichgau, the Dukes of Zähringen, died out (1218), the city of Zurich became imperial immediately. The later cantonal area was a patchwork of mutually overlapping dominions of numerous local and regional lords as well as religious and secular monasteries. More important noble families were the Counts of Kyburg (ancestral castle south of Winterthur ), the Freiherren von Regensberg (ancestral castle northwest of the city of Zurich), the Freiherren von Schnabelburg (ancestral castle Schnabelburg near Rengg ), the Counts of Rapperswil (ancestral castle near Altendorf SZ ) and the Counts of Toggenburg . The most important spiritual landowners were the monasteries of Fraumünster, St. Gallen , Einsiedeln , Rheinau and Reichenau as well as the Bishop of Constance . After the Kyburger died out, their heirs, the noble family of the Habsburgs, became the leading regional power.

Map of the development of the rule of the city republic of Zurich up to 1798

The imperial city of Zurich extended its power to the communities on Lake Zurich from the 13th century. In 1351 she entered into an eternal alliance with the Swiss Confederation and thus opposed the regional supremacy of the Habsburgs. Until the 15th century, practically the whole of today's canton of Zurich came into the possession of the city or the citizens of Zurich. In 1467 the city of Winterthur was also bought from the Habsburgs. The so-called Zurich landscape was divided into the Landvogteien Regensberg , Kyburg, Andelfingen, Grüningen , Greifensee and the Obervogteien Küsnacht, Horgen and Maschwanden-Freiamt. The Landvogtei Sax-Forstegg in the Rhine Valley , which today belongs to the canton of St. Gallen , was also owned by Zurich . The so-called municipal cities of Winterthur and Stein am Rhein were able to retain a certain degree of independence under the rule of Zurich . The city of Zurich took on various rulership rights in the acquired areas, so it was not free to exercise rulership, but was bound by the old written and unwritten rights. In the case of the municipal cities, it had to respect the letters of freedom and city rights given to the cities by their previous owners. Other parts of the canton had less autonomy and were administered directly by the city as "inner bailiwicks". A stronger standardization and tightening of the urban rule failed several times due to the resistance of the rural population (e.g. in the forest man trade )

Reformation and Ancien Régime

The administrative structure of the territory of the city of Zurich in the 18th century
Zurich gentlemen in the 18th century
Women's costumes in the 18th century

In 1525, the Council of Zurich, under the theological leadership of Ulrich Zwingli, introduced the Reformation in the city's territory and implemented it in part against strong resistance from Anabaptists and Catholics . In order to make the income of the monasteries and spiritual foundations usable again for their original purposes of pastoral care and poor welfare, the Zurich Council dissolved all spiritual bodies residing in its territory and took over their properties, goods and income. Only the monasteries outside the canton were allowed to keep their Zurich possessions and rights. The population of the countryside now had to hand over the taxes to the municipal monastery offices, which meant that the city council had huge annual income at their disposal, practically at will. Under Zwingli's successor Heinrich Bullinger , Zurich became a European center of Reformation intellectual culture. The admission of religious refugees from Ticino gave the textile industry and the textile trade important impetus. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the publishing system for the production and sale of textiles operated by city merchants became a source of wealth for the city and landscape. In the 1630s innovations such as the Schellenwerk (forced labor for minor offenses), a penitentiary and Profosen, a kind of police officer, were introduced. To finance the Profosen and the new city fortifications (built between 1640 and 1662), a wealth tax was levied in addition to the previous levies. This aroused resistance in particular around Wädenswil and in the Knonau office, which the Zurich military suppressed in September 1646 under the leadership of Hans Konrad and Hans Rudolf Werdmüller. Seven leaders were executed.

After the Confederation left the Holy Roman Empire in 1648, the former imperial city of Zurich and its territory became a sovereign city republic, similar to Venice and Genoa. In the 18th century the city of Zurich was a center of the Enlightenment with Europe-wide influence; Here people from Zurich such as Bodmer , Breitinger , Gessner and Pestalozzi as well as Germans such as Wieland worked , and reading societies promoted the education of the population. The contrary to this intellectual revival occurred political rigidity of the town governmental power structures and the economic and political discrimination against the country led 1794/ 95 to an unsuccessful uprising of the rural population, the Stäfa trade . In 1798 the city-state collapsed under internal and external pressure.

On February 3, 1798, a congress was held in Wädenswil, at which delegates from 72 municipalities met under the leadership of Johann Caspar Pfenninger , the leader of the countryside who had returned from exile , in order to put pressure on the government in the city. The city council then declared on February 5 that the city of Zurich, the countryside and the municipal cities of Winterthur and Stein am Rhein would be treated as equals . As a constituent assembly, a 176-member "state commission" was formed, which met from February 21, 1798 in the Gesellschaftshaus zum Rüden . An agreement between the aristocratic city government and the radical revolutionary landscape failed after just a few days. The previous government, which had remained in office as a provisional arrangement, was opposed to the "Meilen National Assembly" after the French troops marched into western Switzerland on March 6, 1798, consisting of representatives of the countryside in the state commission and the revolutionary committee from Küsnacht was composed. Since the provisional government was still not ready to compromise sufficiently, the National Assembly set troops from the countryside on the march against the city, after which the provisional government and thus the ancien régime finally abdicated. The 69th and last mayor of the Zurich city-state, Heinrich Kilchsperger , handed over government affairs to the state commission, which, as a "cantonal assembly " under the leadership of the governor Hans Conrad von Wyss , set about building the new state determined by France.

Even the new canton could not do without the experienced magistrates of the old city republic. The former mayor Heinrich Kilchsperger was elected President of the Cantonal Assembly, which until April 14, 1798 combined both the executive and executive powers of the canton. On March 29th and 30th, so-called primary assemblies were held in the canton, at which the Swiss constitution was voted on. Although only the Basel version was accepted, the original Paris version had to be put into effect in Zurich as a result of pressure from France. At the end of April, French troops occupied the canton and ended the autonomy of the emerging canton of Zurich. With the election of the municipality of Zurich on April 26, 1798, the administrative unit of the city and the countryside ceased to exist. The area of ​​the canton of Zurich was only an electoral, judicial and administrative district of the centralized Helvetic Republic .

Witch trials

Between 1478 and 1701, 84 witch trials with fatal consequences took place in the ruled area of ​​the city of Zurich . For a long time it was assumed that there were only 79 such trials (75 women and 4 men) for alleged witchcraft. According to research by the former state archivist Otto Sigg in 2019, the number of victims had to be increased to 84. The 7 victims from the 1618/9 witch trials in Rheinau are not counted among the 84 victims, as Rheinau has only been part of the canton of Zurich since 1803.

From the location of today's Zwingli monument near the Wasserkirche , those accused of witchcraft were transferred to the Wellenberg tower in the Limmat, imprisoned and tortured before they were burned alive on a gravel bank in the Sihl . Wasterkingen was the site of the last witch hunt in the canton of Zurich: On April 19, 1701, the Eglisau governor Johann Jakob Hirzel wrote to the Zurich authorities about the accusations made by villagers about the witchcraft in their community. After a lengthy witch trial , the Zurich Council sentenced seven women and one man (12 Wasterking citizens were charged) to death for alliances with the devil . District President Markus Notter and Church Council President Ruedi Reich condemned these judicial murders in 2001 ; so far the only rehabilitation attempt of the witchcraft accused in the canton of Zurich.

The Mediation Constitution of 1803

Map of the canton of Zurich during the mediation period in 1813

The Helvetic Constitution guaranteed the legal equality of rural people and townspeople and reduced the cantons to administrative units that were administered by governors on behalf of the Helvetic central government. Uniform laws now applied to the entire canton , which on the one hand gave the country equal rights, but also abolished all traditional regional and local special rights. 15 districts (Horgen, Mettmenstetten, Zurich, Regensdorf, Bassersdorf, Bülach, Uster, Fehraltorf, Grüningen, Wald, Elgg, Andelfingen, Benken, Meilen and Winterthur) took the place of the bailiffs and judges. Stein am Rhein, Ramsen and Dörflingen were assigned to the canton of Schaffhausen. Rheinau and Urdorf were newly added to the canton of Zurich. The Fahr monastery remained as an enclave in the canton of Baden .

In 1803, after lengthy disputes between centralist (Unitarians) and federalist- oriented circles, Napoléon Bonaparte invited representatives from all the cantons of Switzerland to the so-called Helvetic Consulta in Paris. At this meeting, through Napoleon's mediation, a new federal constitution for Switzerland and its cantons was drawn up. The modern canton of Zurich was founded through this so-called mediation constitution . A “Big Council” and a “Small Council” were set up as cantonal authorities. The two councils were chaired by two “mayors”. The members of the Grand Council were not elected in constituencies but in political guilds. Each district was divided into 13 political guilds. For the right to vote, a census of CHF 500 in assets (approx. The value of a house) was introduced. In addition, only independent men fit for military service over thirty were eligible to vote. As a result of this measure, well over half of the men were probably excluded from the right to vote. Since a significantly higher proportion of eligible voters lived in the cities, the political influence of the cities against the rural residents was strengthened again.

The Helvetic districts were combined into five districts (Horgen, Zurich, Bülach, Uster and Winterthur). The canton's territory was finally determined in its current dimensions. New still came Schlieren , Dietikon , under- oetwil and Hüttikon to Zurich. Attempts to win the Kelleramt, Fahr Monastery, Stein am Rhein, Ramsen and Dörflingen were unsuccessful. A serious conflict arose between the cantonal government and the rural population because of the replacement of the old basic interest and tithes, which for a short time even led to an uprising by the rural population, the so-called buck war . The cantonal government put down the uprising with the help of a federal intervention force and enforced the new order by force.

The Restoration Constitution of 1814

Peasant woman from the canton of Zurich from 1817
Zurich Cantonal Military (around 1820) on Paradeplatz in Zurich

After the French defeat at Leipzig on December 23, 1813, the Napoleonic order in Switzerland collapsed. In view of the situation, the Swiss Federal Diet transferred the role of suburb to the Canton of Zurich . The then mayor of Zurich, Hans von Reinhard , therefore, as chairman of the daily statute, played a major role in maintaining Switzerland in the tricky situation between 1813 and 1815.

Since the mediation constitution had also been declared repealed in Zurich, a secret constitutional council discussed a new state order from January 1814. The secret procedure provoked the protest of the citizens of the city of Zurich, who said that the old order from the time of the city republic had automatically come into force again. However, the government was able to hold on to power thanks to the support of the countryside's officials and militia. On June 6, 1814, the Great Council met in Zurich to examine the new constitution. The constitutional amendments were approved with 105 to 62 votes and entered into force without a referendum. The envoys of the allied European great powers had given their approval beforehand. As a decisive change, the composition of the Grand Council was changed so that 130 of the 212 councilors came from the city of Zurich. The new constitution was rejected in particular in Winterthur, which was not allowed to have any influence even remotely proportionate. In contrast to the old constitution from before 1798, the country town was no longer protected from the Zurich rule by special rights. Power in the canton of Zurich was now in the hands of the urban and rural aristocracy, in line with the Restoration Period and the Congress of Vienna . The separation of powers and popular sovereignty were abolished again. The formative conservative politician of the Zurich Restoration was Hans Konrad Finsler , member of the Grand and Small Councils and the Council of State, who at times dominated Zurich politics at will. He only had to resign when his brother's banking house went bankrupt in 1829 and the scandal made his position untenable.

The administrative division of the canton has also been reorganized in line with the restoration . Eleven regional offices were established, the main locations of which were determined by historical tradition (Wädenswil, Knonau, Zurich, Regensberg, Embrach, Andelfingen, Winterthur, Kyburg, Greifensee, Meilen and Grüningen). The senior bailiffs were elected by the small council for six years and took their seat in the old government offices and governor's palaces.

The Liberal Constitution of 1831

The meeting in Uster on November 22, 1830 on a contemporary picture
Cantonal-Zurich military around 1830 on Paradeplatz in Zurich

Although the population of the canton of Zurich seemed to accept the conservative constitution well, the calm surface was seething. The young liberal and radical opposition organized itself in rifle clubs and choirs or in reading circles.

After the French July Revolution of 1830 , the Grand Council, which was still aristocratic and dominated by the city of Zurich, wanted to forestall any unrest by commissioning a council commission with a constitutional revision on November 1, 1830. However, the initiative came too late and the envisaged reforms were inadequate. The leading liberal and radical heads of the landscape, Ludwig Snell and Johannes Hegetschweiler , in competition with the council commission convened a rural community in Uster on November 22, 1830 , in order to emphasize the demands of the opposition for a total renewal of the constitution. The " Ustertag " was a great success. More than 10,000 people from the countryside and from the city of Winterthur, who had rejected a pact with Zurich, came together and approved a catalog of demands for the attention of the "high-born, highly respected Junker mayor" and the "highly respected, honorable gentlemen and superiors", known as the " Memorial von Uster »went down in history. Although a proposal for a partial revision of the constitution was submitted by the Council Commission on November 25th, the memorial, which had been approved by the people, dominated the discussion.

After intense debate, the Grand Council decided on November 27th to dissolve and to have a constituent assembly elected, two-thirds of which should be made up of representatives from the landscape. This new Grand Council met on December 14, 1830 and had a commission of thirteen members draw up a new constitution on the basis of the Uster Memorial. The new, liberal constitution was adopted on March 10, 1831 in the first cantonal referendum with 40,500 votes to 1,700. On Sunday, April 10th, 1831 the constitution was put into effect by the swearing of the oath of the population of the whole canton in the parish churches. The canton of Zurich thus became a representative democracy with popular sovereignty , freedom of belief, of the person, of the press, of trade and commerce. The census for active and passive voting rights was abolished, the separation of powers was introduced and the principle of public access to state affairs was introduced.

In addition, real equality between urban and rural residents and the removal of soil burdens were enforced. On the basis of the liberal constitution, the school system was also secularized and reorganized. A teachers' seminar was founded and in 1833 the University of Zurich .

From 1830 onwards, Zurich was one of the liberal, "regenerated" cantons. After the Zurich coup of 1839, the conservative opposition only regained the upper hand temporarily. The liberal, more modern constitution did not bring about a fundamental reorganization of Zurich's administrative division, but the modern term "district" replaced the outdated "Oberamt" and the district capitals now came to places with central locations and economic importance. So lost Wädenswil (in Horgen ) Grüningen (at Hinwil ) Greifensee (in Uster ), Knonau (in Affoltern am Albis ) Embrach (at Bülach ) Regensberg (in Dielsdorf ) and Kyburg (to Pfaeffikon ) its position as administrative centers.

The liberal constitution on the test bench: machine attackers, Züriputsch and September regime

Fighting on the parade ground between government troops and rural rebels during the Zurich coup in 1839

The conservative rural population welcomed the radical-liberal innovations on the one hand (abolition of feudal basic burdens, equal rights between urban and rural areas) on the other hand, they saw themselves literally overwhelmed by the accelerated modernization. Several areas can be identified in which the liberal renewal met with strong resistance: The mechanization of the textile industry challenged the textile workers, who expected the government to ban mechanical weaving and spinning machines. The resistance of the hand weavers and spinners was expressed as early as 1832 in the so-called " Fire of Uster ", in which the Corrodi & Pfister factory, equipped with modern machines, was burned down by an angry crowd. On the other hand, conservative circles were bothered by the school reform, which took the school system out of the hands of the rural pastors with the aim of secularization. Everywhere in the canton, after 1830, teachers in elementary schools took the place of pastors who had been trained in the teachers' college. It was therefore feared that the morality and religion of the students would be seriously endangered. The conservative opposition organized itself in tightly managed faith committees throughout the canton, so that in 1839, in the so-called Züriputsch, it was able to seize power in the canton in a flash.

A provisional council of state took over after the coup. It included leading members of the conservative opposition such as Hans Jakob Hürlimann-Landis . Impending intervention by other radical-liberal cantons or by the Diet was to be averted by a guarantee from the 1831 constitution. In a tumultuous meeting on September 9, 1839, the State Council unconstitutionally decided to dissolve the Grand Council of the Canton of Zurich and called new elections. Within ten days, a new, conservative Grand Council met, which, according to the election call, should not consist of "scientifically educated" but of "godly men". The council - also unconstitutionally - filled all authorities with reactionary heads. The so-called "September regime" did not last long, however. As early as 1845, the Liberals took power again in the canton.

The second liberal era 1844–1868

Alfred Escher , the "King of the Railways"
The old building of the district school Zurich at Rämistrasse, 1842 by Gustav Albert Wegmann built
The Zurich Cantonal School on an aquatint from the 19th century

The second liberal era from 1844 to 1868 was shaped by the politician and business leader Alfred Escher from Zurich. He dominated the so-called "System Escher", a dependent network of liberal politicians and business leaders who held the canton's political system firmly in their hands. This system also included the writer Gottfried Keller , who held the office of state clerk of Zurich from 1861–1876. For a time, Alfred Escher ruled like a little king in the canton of Zurich - which is why the vernacular gave him nicknames such as "Alfred I." or "Tsar of all Zurichers". He drew his power from an unprecedented accumulation of offices: canton council, education council, church council, government council, national council, school council of the ETH , chairman of the board of directors of the Nordostbahn , chairman of the board of directors of the Swiss credit institute , the board of directors of the Swiss life insurance and pension institution and finally also the president of the Gotthard Railway Company . Only a few members of the opposition such as Karl Bürkli or Johann Jakob Treichler dared to oppose the "system".

The city of Zurich owes its status as the economic and banking metropolis of Switzerland to Alfred Escher. The founding of the Nordostbahn (1853), the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (1856) and the Gotthardbahn-Vereinigung (1863) go back to him.

In the Sonderbund War of 1847, Escher, and thus Zurich, clearly stood on the side of the liberal victors. In 1848 the canton of Zurich became part of the new, liberal Swiss federal state, which replaced the centuries-old confederation. As a result, Zurich lost its suburb status to Bern, which was declared the seat of the federal authorities. To compensate for this, Escher was able to secure the establishment of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in the city of Zurich in 1854 .

From 1863 the opposition to the "Escher System" began to make itself felt more and more. The government was accused of behaving like the old governors and of having established a new aristocracy with its bureaucracy. As in 1798 and 1830, the impetus for a renewed change in the system of rule and government came from the middle class and from rural towns and cities such as Winterthur, Uster or Bülach. The dissatisfaction with the political system also had economic reasons. The rapid economic rise of Zurich and its canton also had losers. The chronic credit crunch ( credit crunch ) made the entrepreneurial middle class, the farmers and the trade to create. In addition, as a result of the American Civil War, there was an economic downturn in the silk and cotton industry, which led to short-time work and mass layoffs. Combined with the high rise in prices and the outbreak of cholera, this crisis ultimately led to Escher's fall.

The opposition rallied as a “democratic movement”. Its leading figures were the Mayor of Winterthur Johann Jakob Sulzer , the publisher of the Winterthur messenger Salomon Bleuler , the doctor Fritz Scheuchzer from Bülach and Rudolf Zangger , director of the veterinary school and the controversial people's leader and lawyer Friedrich Locher . They aimed at an end to the rule of the city of Zurich liberals and, above all, at an expansion of the people's democratic rights of participation. In 1865 she was able to achieve the introduction of the constitutional initiative, which opened up the possibility of further partial or even a total revision of the cantonal constitution in a democratic way.

Obligation of CHF 350 from the Swiss Transport Insurance Company dated September 1, 1871
John Syz-Landis, first president of the Switzerland Transport Insurance Company and the Insurance Association

Various insurance companies were born in the canton of Zurich in the middle of the 19th century. In 1857 the Swiss Pension Fund came into being in Zurich; In 1863 the foundation stone for the Swiss Reinsurance Company was laid; Again six years later, the Switzerland Transport Insurance Company followed, and in 1872 the small branch of the Insurance Association arose from it , which would then grow up to become Zurich .

The 1869 Constitution

In December 1867, the opposition organized “Landsgemeinden” in Zurich, Uster, Winterthur and Bülach, which turned into mass demonstrations against the system. Unlike in 1830, the masses did not have to overthrow the system. Thanks to the new political rights, the system change was brought about at the ballot box. In April 1869, the electorate approved a new constitution, which supplemented the representative system by giving the people a direct say in the referendum. The election of the canton's government and councilors was withdrawn from the cantonal parliament and handed over to the people. Furthermore, the death penalty was abolished, freedom of belief, worship and teaching in church matters was introduced and freedom of association was expressly guaranteed. A progressive income tax, a progressive wealth tax and an inheritance tax were introduced. In order to eliminate the “credit crunch”, the Zürcherische Kantonalbank was founded, which had to grant agriculture and trade the necessary loans at affordable interest rates. The turnaround meant the end of the political power of the "system" and with it the economic oligarchy in Zurich. All government posts have now been taken over by the Democratic Movement.

The constitution of 1869 was direct democratic, left-liberal for the terms of the time . The replacement of the strictly representative order by the extensive popular rule and its social features were groundbreaking for Swiss democracy, and the Zurich Constitution, through its exemplary effect, laid down the basic political framework in the other cantons that is still valid today. Before Zurich, no canton had made such a radical change from a purely representative system to a model with far - reaching direct democratic elements .

From today's point of view, a curious effect of the disputes between the “System Escher” in Zurich and the democrats from Winterthur was the establishment of the Swiss National Railway , which, as the “People's Railway ”, was supposed to break the monopoly of the “Herrenbahn”, Alfred Escher's northeast railway . The national railway was to use municipal funds to create a direct connection between Lake Constance and Lake Geneva, bypassing the hated Zurich. In parts, the tracks were laid parallel to the Nordostbahn, for example at Effretikon and in Kemptthal . However, the fall of the “railway king” Escher failed miserably. After a few years, the national railway had to file for bankruptcy and was swallowed up by the Nordostbahn. The participating municipalities retained the loss of CHF 28 million. Until 1960, Winterthur still paid off the debts from the National Railway adventure.

The constitution of 1869 also abolished the death penalty in the canton of Zurich. The last qualified execution took place in 1810 when a habitual thief was hanged in Zurich and left on the gallows for several weeks. After that, the death penalty was only carried out by beheading. In 1835 government councilor Ulrich Zehnder (1798–1877) tried to completely delete the death penalty in the course of drafting the penal code, but failed due to resistance from the Grand Council. At least he managed to acquire a guillotine , with which from 1836 the beheading should be carried out more humanely. In 1855, the President of the Government Council, Jakob Dubs, wanted to ban the death penalty in his draft of a new penal code because it excluded the appeal of revision. However, this second attempt to abolish the death penalty failed twice because on the one hand the commission of experts who examined the draft disagreed with regard to the death penalty and on the other hand because the whole proposal in the Grand Council failed. Two executions in 1859 (Jakob Kündig, double murder) and 1865 (Heinrich Götti, sixfold murder) in front of a large audience - around 15,000 onlookers - caused a change among the experts. Justice Director Rudolf Benz no longer provided for the death penalty in his draft of a new penal code. After the political change of 1867/69, however, this draft was no longer implemented. However, the Democrats added in Article 5 of the new cantonal constitution that criminal law should be based on humane principles and that death and chain punishment were prohibited. With the adoption of the constitution by the people on April 18, 1869, the canton of Zurich became the third canton in Switzerland to abolish the death penalty. At the federal level, the death penalty was not abolished until 1874, with the exception of military criminal law. Although an initiative to reintroduce the death penalty was taken in Zurich in 1879 under the impression of several serious crimes, the people rejected the lifting of the ban on the death penalty in the vote on the necessary constitutional amendment in 1885, which means that this type of punishment is definitely not in the canton of Zurich to this day more was used.

Proportional suffrage and women's suffrage

In connection with the shocks of the First World War , proportional representation was introduced for the cantonal council in 1916 , which reduced the previous dominance of liberalism and, in particular, helped social democracy to gain greater representation. The introduction of women's suffrage, on the other hand, failed in 1920 and several times afterwards, until it was finally introduced in 1963 at the ecclesiastical, 1969 communal and 1970 cantonal level (at the federal level 1971).

Economic growth and urbanization

The economic upswing continued unabated and found expression in 1910 in the establishment of Zurich-Dübendorf Airport, which was replaced by Zurich-Kloten in 1948 . The urbanization since the last decades of the 20th century includes almost the entire canton, leaving only a few remote traffic moderate (yet) areas in southern Knonauer office in wine country and in the higher elevations of the Zurich Oberland really a rural appearance. Today the agglomeration of the city of Zurich encompasses significant parts of the canton and its western and southern neighboring areas. However, the city of Winterthur has its own agglomeration and does not belong to the city of Zurich agglomeration.

The 2005 Constitution

Consolidation of constitutional law

On February 27, 2005, the Zurich electorate approved the new cantonal constitution; it came into force on January 1, 2006. The Zurich-based company approved the revision mandate on June 13, 1999, and at the same time commissioned a constitutional council to be elected by the people, which submitted the revised constitution to the electorate at the end of October 2004.

As with the reform of the federal constitution and most of the other cantonal constitutions in the current period, this new version is primarily intended to formally consolidate constitutional law, which has become confusing due to numerous partial revisions over the past 130 years. For political reasons, effective constitutional reforms are currently being carried out in the context of partial rather than total revisions, as this avoids the accumulation of very different oppositions.

Current constitutional discussion

Mid September 2012 criticized the senior committee of the Zurich Mayor Association (GPV) that although the Cantonal Council is indeed obliged to comply with the order of the voters, the disregard of this obligation remains for newly applicable law (the Constitution) but without consequences. Up until the end of 2009, a (compulsory) referendum must automatically be held in such cases.

In 2013, the Greens of the Canton of Zurich criticized the fact that the preliminary advisory commission of the cantonal council deliberately dropped this right, as can be seen from the minutes of the commission deliberations. Their reasoning was that a parliament cannot be forced to pass a bill - which is, however, no reason to cancel the mandatory referendum for this case.

See also

literature

  • Gordon A. Craig: Money and Mind. Zurich in the age of liberalism 1830–1869. Translated from English by Karl Heinz Siber. CH Beck, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-33311-7 .
  • Niklaus Flüeler, Marianne Flüeler-Grauwiler (Ed.): History of the Canton of Zurich , 3 volumes. Werd, Zurich 1994–1996. ISBN 3-85932-158-7 (Vol. 1) / ISBN 3-85932-159-5 (Vol. 2) / ISBN 3-85932-155-2 (Vol. 3).
  • Brief Zurich Constitutional History 1218–2000. Published by the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich on behalf of the Directorate of Justice and the Interior for the day the Zurich Constitutional Council was constituted on September 13, 2000. Chronos, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-905314-03-7 .
  • Paul Kläui, Eduard Imhof: Atlas on the history of the canton of Zurich 1351–1951. Second, revised edition, Orell Füssli, Zurich 1951.
  • Alfred Kölz : The democratic awakening of the Zurich people. A source study on the development of the Zurich constitution of 1869. (Materials on the Zurich constitutional reform, 1), Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-7255-4001-2 .
  • Stefan G. Schmid: The Zurich canton government since 1803. (Zurich studies on public law, 154). Dissertation University of Zurich, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-7255-4590-1 .
  • Sigmund Widmer: Zurich. A cultural story. 11 volumes, Artemis, Zurich 1976.

Web links

Commons : History of the Canton of Zurich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Ruoff: "The bank settlements on Zurich and Greifensee". In: Helvetia Archaeologica , 12/1981–45/48, pp. 19–70; Pp. 21-23.
  2. Conrad Schindler : "Geological documents for assessing archaeological problems in the lakeside areas". In: Helvetia Archaeologica , 12/1981 - 45/48, pp. 71-88; P. 84.
  3. Website palafittes.org: Swiss sites in the UNESCO World Heritage Site ( Memento of the original dated May 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Rapperswil-Jona / Hombrechtikon-Feldbach ( Seegubel , CH-SG-01), Rapperswil-Jona-Technikum (CH-SG-02), Freienbach-Hurden-Rosshorn (CH-SZ-01) in connection with the prehistoric and historical Sea crossings , accessed February 15, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.palafittes.org
  4. UNESCO World Heritage Center website (June 27, 2011), press release Six new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List , accessed February 15, 2013
  5. ^ Dölf Wild et al .: City walls. A new image of the city fortifications of Zurich. Document for the exhibition in the Haus zum Rech, Zurich, 6 February to 30 April 2004 . (City history and urban planning in Zurich. Writings on archeology, monument preservation and urban planning, 5). Zurich 2004, p. 10.
  6. Baukultur in Zurich. Buildings worthy of protection, city history and projects for the future. City center, Altstadt / City. City of Zurich, Office for Urban Development (ed.) NZZ, Zurich 2008, p. 15f.
  7. ^ Historicum.net: Witch persecutions in Zurich, Otto Sigg, December 11, 2012
  8. Witch pursuit: Drowned, burned, forgotten In: Landbote from May 31, 2019 (only available behind Paywall)
  9. Hélène Arnet, Tages-Anzeiger (November 5, 2013): Memorial to the Zurich victims of witch persecution , accessed on November 6, 2013
  10. ^ Otto Sigg : witch trials with death sentence: judicial murders of the guild city of Zurich . 2nd Edition. Self-published, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-907496-79-4 .
  11. On the Wasterkingen witch trials: Eduard Osenbrüggen, Studies on German and Swiss Legal History (1868), Publisher: Fr. Hurter, 1868, pp. 414–418 ( online )
  12. ^ State constitution for the federal state of Zurich of March 10, 1831.
  13. Luke Leuzinger: The day on which Zurich opts for a "truly democratic" constitution In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 17 April 2019
  14. ^ Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of Zurich of April 18, 1969.
  15. NZZ of April 17, 2019: The day on which Zurich opts for a “truly democratic” constitution
  16. ^ «Abolition of the death penalty in the canton of Zurich. A product of the cantonal constitution of 1869 ». In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. April 22, 1994.
  17. ^ Constitution of the Canton of Zurich of February 27, 2005 on the website of the Canton of Zurich - www.zh.ch
  18. a b Stefan Hotz: A loophole in the political right? , NZZ , July 4, 2013.