Cultural property dispute between Zurich and St. Gallen

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The focus of the dispute: the St. Gallen globe in the Swiss National Museum

The so-called cultural property dispute between the cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen was caused by the Toggenburg War (April 12 to August 17, 1712) and was settled on April 27, 2006.

In the course of the Second Villmerger War ( Toggenburg War ), various cultural assets from the St. Gallen Abbey Library were brought to Zurich, among other places. After the peace treaty of Baden was signed in 1718, Zurich arranged for a large part of these cultural assets to be returned to the abbey of St. Gallen two years later . The cultural assets remaining in Zurich are around 100 manuscripts, printed works, paintings, astronomical devices and a terrestrial and celestial globe , the so-called St. Gallen globe . Some of these objects are in the possession of the Zurich Central Library and are exhibited in the Swiss National Museum.

The fact that the canton of Zurich had not returned all the items stolen from the St. Gallen monastery gave rise to the so-called “ cultural goods dispute” between the cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen from 1996 onwards . The canton of St. Gallen asked Zurich to return the items ( protection of cultural assets ), but in 2002 agreed to a mediation procedure by the Swiss Federal Council . On August 27, 2004 a procedure for resolving the conflict was established.

Settlement of the cultural property dispute

Signatures under the contract that seals the end of the cultural property dispute between Zurich and St. Gallen: Kathrin Hilber , District President of the Canton of St. Gallen; Markus Notter , Government Councilor of the Canton of Zurich; Hardy Notter, President of the Catholic Administrative Council ; Andreas Türler, Zurich City Councilor; Regine Aeppli , Government Councilor and President of the Zurich Central Library and Pascal Couchepin , Federal Councilor

Based on the proposals of a mediating body of the federal authorities, the responsible political authorities of both cantons and the city of Zurich as well as the St. Gallen Abbey Library and the Zurich Central Library Foundation reached a fundamental agreement on March 6, 2006. This was signed by the responsible political bodies and authorities on April 27, 2006.

The agreement provides: St. Gallen recognizes Zurich's claims to ownership of the cultural assets, Zurich on the other hand recognizes the “ relevance to the identity of the cultural assets in question ” and leaves 35 and 40 valuable manuscripts belonging to the central library to St Gallen, for an indefinite period and as a free loan . A change or termination of the agreement would be possible for the first time after 38 years. The Canton of Zurich is also donating the “Vita vetustissima Sancti Galli” to St. Gallen from the holdings of the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich . For the St. Gallen Globe, this meant that the original would remain in the possession of the central library in Zurich and can be viewed in the State Museum. In return, the canton of Zurich had a true-to-original copy made: the replica, which took around 7,000 hours of work and cost 860,000 Swiss francs , was released on August 21, 2009, in the presence of Federal Councilor Pascal Couchepin and representatives of the two cantons, in St. Gallen handed over.

The manuscripts were handed over to the St. Gallen Abbey Library on September 25, 2006. This created high-quality digital recordings of all loaned manuscripts for the Zurich Central Library Foundation . The loan conditions were regulated in a jointly developed agreement. The selection of the loaned cultural assets was made within the framework of the key criterion of identity relevance for St. Gallen, i.e. H. the manuscripts are independent intellectual and artistic achievements by St. Gallen monks from the Middle Ages and early modern times, liturgical manuscripts with a specific St. Gallen calendar of saints and the St. Gallen church service order as well as the oldest texts written or copied in St. Gallen.

The mediation of the federal government in the cultural goods dispute between St. Gallen and Zurich is a first-time application of Article 44 paragraph 3 of the revised Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999. The successful conclusion was with a joint meal, a new edition of the Kappeler milk soup , officially in Bern with attendance celebrated by Federal Councilor Pascal Couchepin .

Monastery treasure of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Rüti (ZH)

Even if the conflict over the cultural assets stolen from the St. Gallen Abbey during the Toggenburg War has been resolved after 300 years, an almost five hundred year old difference of opinion between the Zurich municipality of Rüti ZH and the St. Gallen city of Rapperswil-Jona currently remains a political issue, that those involved try to resolve more with humor than in an argument.

Crook and miter from the Rüti monastery treasure
Cross particle monstrance from the monastery treasure of the former Premonstratensian Abbey of Rüti

The last abbot of the Rüti monastery , Felix Klauser, fled from the Zurich reformers to the neighboring Catholic town of Rapperswil on April 21, 1525 . In the abbot's luggage was the monastery treasure - including his miter , the crook , a cross-particle monstrance , writings from the monastery library plundered in the iconoclasm and pontifical insignia - which have since remained in the possession of the local community of Rapperswil and the Catholic parish. After Klauser's death around 1530, the sacred objects should actually have returned to the Rüti monastery, although Rapperswil is also able to prove legal ownership: in 1561 the monastery treasure is said to have been bequeathed to the Rapperswil parish church by the last Rütner conventual, Sebastian Hegner, in a will. Because the monastery was also secularized on June 17, 1525 , the staunch Catholics of Rapperswil saw no reason to hand over the treasures entrusted to them to the city-state of Zurich.

On the occasion of the 1200th anniversary of Rüti, the mayor asked for the monastery treasure to be returned as a gesture of friendship. His official colleague in Rapperswil accepted the request with goodwill, but referred him to the local community and the Catholic parish as the legal owner of the cultural assets and to the Rapperswil City Museum , where some of the items are kept. After the mayor of Rüti was informed of written legal claims, the former Zurich city archivist came to the conclusion, after extensive study of the sources, that the Rüti monastery had never been abolished from a formal legal point of view, but only " abandoned to the Reformation " - which means that in Rüti, at least in theory, a monastery with legal claims exists. Like St. Gallen, which was satisfied with the replica of the celestial globe, the mayor of Rüti wanted to follow this example and also content himself with copies of the sacred objects or, if necessary, demand that the originals be handed over “ as part of a solemn procession from Rapperswil to Rüti ”. Even if not yet as a definitive agreement, the Rütner monastery treasure was exhibited on loan from September 26, 2009 until the end of the year in the Rüti office as part of the exhibition “Exile - first home leave”.

See also

literature

  • Hans-Peter Höhener: The St. Gallen Globe . In: Alfred Cattani , Bruno Weber (ed.): Zurich Central Library. Treasury of Lore . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989. ISBN 3-85823-252-1 , pp. 59–61, 167 f.
  • Karl Heinz Burmeister , Rainer J. Schweizer and Kay Hailbronner : St. Gallen's claim to the restitution of its cultural assets from Zurich: Expert opinion on behalf of the government and the Catholic College of the Canton of St. Gallen. Schulthess, Zurich 2002. ISBN 978-3-7255-4449-3 .
  • Marie Theres Fögen : Fetish Property. On the cultural goods dispute between St. Gallen and Zurich . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung No. 44 of February 22, 2003, p. 41.
  • Robert Nef: Cultural goods and uncompromising property. Legal and political thoughts on the dispute about cultural assets . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung No. 103 of May 6, 2003, p. 45.
  • Andrea Raschèr , Markus Bucheli: The agreement on the “cultural goods dispute” Zurich - St. Gallen from 2006: Approaches to finding solutions in other contexts? In: KUR - Art and Law , Volume 21, Issue 2 (2019), p. 54. doi : 10.15542 / KUR / 2019/2/2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernese milk soup for Zurich and St. Gallen , NZZ November 16, 2003
  2. ↑ a b c EDI , press release of April 27, 2006: Kulturgüterstreit St. Gallen - Zurich: Successful completion of federal mediation , accessed on November 29, 2017
  3. ↑ St. Galler Tagblatt of January 20, 2009: With Dürer's palette and computer , accessed on February 18, 2009
  4. ↑ 20 minutes online from August 21, 2009: Robbed 297 years ago - "returned" today , accessed on August 21, 2009
  5. ↑ St. Gallen Abbey Library: Manuscripts from Zurich ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2007 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. , accessed November 14, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stiftsbibliothek.ch
  6. ↑ NZZ Online of January 17, 2008: Abbot Klauser's legacy causes displeasure , accessed on March 21, 2008
  7. ↑ Zürcher Oberländer from January 15, 2008: The monastery treasure should finally be returned to Rüti , accessed on November 14, 2008
  8. ^ Website of the municipality of Rüti: Chronicle / Local Museum, accessed on December 8, 2009