Central Switzerland

Canton of Uri

Canton of Schwyz

Canton of Obwalden Obwalden

Canton of Nidwalden

Canton train train

Central Switzerland Central Switzerland or (French Suisse centrale, Italian Svizzera centrale) is a Swiss region that includes the cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden and train. It lies north of the Alpine crest. The urban center is Lucerne. Central Switzerland is one of the seven major regions of Switzerland.

Delimit From the Central Switzerland the historic area of the original cantons, also Urschweiz or Waldstätte is called. This only covers the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden ( Obwalden and Nidwalden ).

Differences to other Swiss regions

The central Switzerland differs not only geographically but also historically, religiously, in the mentality of its inhabitants and politically from the other regions. The central Switzerland, especially the original cantons, sees itself as the cradle of Confederation ( Federal Charter of 1291 ). The Reformation was able, in contrast to the Mittelland not get through, so that these cantons have remained Catholic. Thus since the Reformation, the connection was limited to the immediately adjoining parts of the Central Plateau. The sense of isolation was exacerbated by the religious wars of the 17th century.

In the 19th century, the central Swiss cantons fought bitterly against the establishment of the state of the modern Confederation and wanted the conventional loose confederation with a strong position of the Catholic Church hold. This culminated in the mutual agreement of the special covenant, which decreed by the liberal cantons resolution 1847 even led to a civil war. This Sonderbundskrieg lost the fighting in strong outnumbered central Swiss cantons after a few days.

The new liberal ideas with the fundamental rights could be difficult to enforce, especially in the picturesque Swiss cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Ob-/Nidwalden. The extreme example here is probably from Nidwalden, in 1815 even refused to join the restored by conservative forces after the fall of Napoleon old confederation and had to be forced by conservative federal troops to do so. While the Parisian " July Revolution " of 1830 on most Swiss cantons rubbed off so that the aristocratic or guilds regime were finally replaced by bourgeois constitutions and governments, left this date, at least in the original Swiss cantons no lasting mark. Even in 1844 banned the conservative Nidwaldner government without consequences, the press organ of the minority Liberal Opposition. The canton of Uri in turn received in 1850, ie after the federal state was founded, its first liberal constitution at all.

As a result, the central Switzerland was the stronghold of the federalist and Catholic aligned today's CVP. The victorious liberal cantons in central Switzerland considered as unsafe and closed cantonists this largely on the establishment of the modern state of. The Catholic Conservatives went in turn to so-called " ghetto". This contrast was first used in 1848 expressed as the Federal Assembly, the capital of the new state einrichtete not in central Lucerne, but in Bern ( see also: capital issue of Switzerland ). The involvement of central Switzerland succeeded only in the second half of the 19th century, as through the establishment of (semi-) direct democracy the ruling circles in Bern increasingly compromise with the opponents had to make and with Josef Zemp in 1891 for the first time a recognized representative of those of the Central Switzerland moved to the Federal Council.

In the last decades of the 20th century, the religious contrast to the rest of Switzerland has softened. At the same time economic trenches emerged as especially the train cantons, Schwyz and Nidwalden developed into rich tax havens, especially during Obwalden and Uri lost the economically connection. Nevertheless, formed the conservative at heart Central Switzerland - especially the Canton Schwyz - amplifies the center of the " naysayers " that all political and social opening tendencies sharp faced hostile and with their five negative able votes in referenda despite the small population, some federal template rejected.