Riots in Göschenen in 1875

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The unrest in Göschenen took place on July 27 and 28, 1875 in the Swiss municipality of Göschenen in the canton of Uri , which had just become independent .

Riots

During the construction of the Gotthard tunnel , the population of Göschenen increased several times. The construction workers lived in precarious conditions.

On July 27, Italian tunnel workers went on strike, demanding higher wages and causing riot in the village. It was triggered by an argument between a station chief and the miners , who refused to continue drilling before the smoke cleared after the blasting. A battle of words then broke out until the miners, furious, left the job. On the way out, the rumor spread that a box of dynamite was burning. This meant that the rest of the tunnel team also ran outside.

The usual answer - «Nobody is forced to work in the tunnel. If you don't want to, you can get your wages tomorrow. " - from chief engineer Ernest von Stockalper did not work this time. The workers moved on into the village, where they stopped in front of the post office, where the mayor and postman lived at the same time , and vented their anger. Here Luigi Dissune presented the workers' demands to applause: one franc more wages per day, functioning ventilation and better safety regulations. The threat that no miner would go into the tunnel until this had been fully met was emphasized by taking up a post in front of the tunnel portal so that no miner was allowed into the tunnel at 10 p.m. when the shift changed. Some of them spent the night in front of the portal discussing and singing. Also on July 28th at 6 a.m. no miners were allowed into the tunnel, only the stone cutters and employees of the company.

intervention

Stockalper's chief engineer asked the mayor for help and telegraphed to the construction office in Altdorf . The telegram in French read “Mineurs font grève et empêchent travailleurs. Envoyez 50 hommes armés and Fr. 30,000. Stokalper. " In it he demanded 50 armed men and 30,000 francs. At the same time, the mayor Karl Arnold asked the Uri government to reinforce the Göschen vigilante commanded by a country hunter .

At eight o'clock the Landammann and the Governor decided to send all the Landjäger from the Altdorf to Amsteg stations with relief teams and weapons to Göschenen. The team should be engaged along the road. Sergeant Trösch led this vigilante group. In Altdorf he hurriedly gathered seven men and drove with the country hunters towards Göschenen, in Wassen another eight men were recruited. He arrived in Göschenen at 4 p.m. with 22 men. The workers resisted the first time they got to the post office, so that Sergeant Trösch had to withdraw. Only when the Göschen vigilante joined him did he dare to make a new attempt. At the time there were already injured people under the police.

The thirty or so men looked "a bit ridiculous in their hoods and military caps" and were outnumbered by the angry and stone-throwing demonstrators. It is not known why the first shot was fired and by whom it was fired, and no order to fire was given. The exact sequence of the shooting is also unclear. Afterwards the demonstrators dispersed. Among them were four dead and several injured. Depending on the source, two or three died on the spot, another succumbed to his injuries a day later, and according to the investigation report, the fourth only several days later.

After the strike, an active duty deployment of cantonal infantry took place in Göschenen from July 29 to August 2, followed by an unarmed federal intervention under the direction of a federal commissioner, Council of States and Colonel Hans Hold .

examination

The investigation reports of the canton of Uri required by the Federal Council were inadequate for him, precisely because practically only the criminal aspects of the strike were dealt with. The Federal Council therefore decided to carry out a supplementary investigation that included three main points: 1. the relationship between the company and workers, 2. the sanitary conditions, 3. the justification for the police and military measures taken by the canton of Uri. Hans Hold, who started work on September 23, was commissioned with this investigation.

Council of States Hold then submitted two reports to the Federal Council, one of which was printed in the Federal Gazette . In addition to the course of events, Hold described the difficult working and living conditions of the guest workers :

“Many workers who make cruets together feed themselves with an effort of daily Cts. 60-80, which, according to the doctors, is absolutely inadequate in the consuming tunnel work and gives rise to multiple symptoms of illness. "

- Hans Hold : Report of October 16, 1875

In the second, unpublished report, he criticized the inadequate rule of law and the sanitary conditions on the major construction site:

“Almost at the same time, a worker was found murdered at the entrance to the tunnel in Airolo . The name was not even determined, let alone further investigation plowed. "

- Hans Hold : Report of October 27, 1875

The Swiss envoy Giovanni Battista Pioda in Rome reported on December 29, 1875 that the published report by Colonel Hold initially satisfied the Italian government , which had previously announced demands for compensation for the bereaved and injured.

literature

  • Report of the Federal Commissioner Mr. Hold on the unrest in Göschenen on July 27 and 28, 1875. BBl 1875 IV 621 ff.
  • Investigation into the workers unrest in Göschenen. confidential letter from Hans Hold to the Justice and Police Department of October 27, 1875 (handwriting). Swiss Federal Archives , inventory E 53/166.
  • Tobias Kästli: The strike of the tunnel workers on the Gotthard in 1875. Sources and commentary. Z-Verlag, Basel 1977.
  • Konrad Kuoni: The construction of the Gotthard railway tunnel (1872–1881). In: Ferrum, Nachrichten aus der Eisenbibliothek , Volume 80 2008, pp. 99–112.
  • Alfred A. Häsler: Gotthard: When technology wrote world history. Huber, Frauenfeld 1982, ISBN 3-7193-0806-5 , pp. 163-172.

Individual evidence

  1. Laurenz Sonderegger and Hector Egger, report of March 30, 1876, printed in Edwin Hofmann: Medical historical contributions to the building history of the Gotthard Railway. Dissertation . Bern 1950, pp. 16-19, describe the workers' quarters as follows: "The corridors are as dirty as wet country lanes, there is rubbish in front of the doors, castings are stuck to some window parapets ..."
  2. BBl 1875 IV 623
  3. ^ Alfred A. Häsler: Gotthard. 1982, p. 169.
  4. ^ Alfred A. Häsler: Gotthard. 1982, p. 172.
  5. BBl 1875 IV 632-633
  6. ^ The Swiss envoy in Rome, GB Pioda, to the Federal Council in the Dodis database of diplomatic documents of Switzerland