Supreme affair

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The Obersten Affair was a political affair that took place in Switzerland during the First World War .

Background of the affair

Chancellery of the Swiss intelligence service at the time of the First World War

Before and after the outbreak of the First World War, Friedrich Moritz von Wattenwyl and Karl Egli , both supreme members of the General Staff , supplied the military attachés of Germany and Austria-Hungary with the daily bulletins of the Swiss General Staff and with various telegrams of varying importance and confidentiality that the Swiss intelligence service had deciphered.

In the summer of 1915, the civilian cryptographer André Langie , employed by the intelligence service, succeeded in deciphering the secret code of the Russian Army . After Langie had noticed that encrypted telegrams of German origin referred directly to the secret daily bulletins of the General Staff, he suspected treason and informed the Vaudois editor and national councilor Édouard Secretan . In December 1915 he arranged a direct meeting between Langie and the then head of the military department , Federal Councilor Camille Decoppet . Thereupon the then acting General Ulrich Wille was requested by Federal Councilor Decoppet to punish the two general staff officers. Wille then transferred the two officers, but at the same time also two French-speaking general staff officers who had nothing to do with the case.

After parliamentarians, the press and the public had put pressure on the Federal Council, the latter ordered an administrative investigation on January 11, 1916. The two officers were, although the will was not very happy about it, on January 18 before the military court found. Wille refused to convict the Swiss army for fear of too much damage to the Swiss army’s reputation . The Federal Council initiated full legal proceedings on January 19. On February 28, the Division Court 5 in Zurich declared the two of them not criminally guilty and referred the case back to the military authorities for disciplinary assessment. General Wille punished the two officers with twenty days ' arrest each , and the Federal Council removed them from their functions.

Effects

In the German-speaking Switzerland the affair was talked up, unlike in the Romandie . The mild verdict and the sanctions were a major topic of discussion in the French-speaking Swiss media and thus triggered a crisis of confidence among the population. The French bourgeoisie tried to give in, but their confidence was also shaken. The socialists in particular sharply criticized the army and the government. The population felt that a large gap was opening between the language regions and that the social classes were separating from one another. Both intellectuals and politicians engaged in a debate about the value of Swiss neutrality that intensified because of the open outcome of the world war. The main point of criticism was the German-friendly attitude of the army command.

French plans

From late autumn 1915 the French General Staff worked out a so-called "Plan H (Helvétie)". This envisaged an advance by the French army through Switzerland to southern Germany, which, according to the historian Hans Rudolf Fuhrer, "should be legitimized as protection of French-speaking Switzerland and, if possible, triggered after a request for help from French-speaking Switzerland". After it became clear to the French army command that the advance would presumably come to a standstill on the line Les Rangiers , Olten and Gotthard , the commander-in-chief of the French army, Joseph Joffre , stopped the planning by pointing out that it had not succeeded, an influential one To find magistrates willing to call for French intervention.

literature

Movies

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel spokesman: The «Oberstenaffäre». Deciphering for the Central Powers. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . 19th December 2015
  2. ^ A b Hans Rudolf Fuhrer : «Oberstenaffäre». The danger from the west. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. January 13, 2016
  3. ^ Claudia Schwartz : Swiss eavesdropping. «Treason - How a French-speaking country saved neutrality in the First World War». In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. October 14, 2015