61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

much which would have failed to become known fairly swiftly to the attention
of the decision-makers, whether in the public or private sector.
Where the State was concerned, the ICE investigations reveal a distinct
hierarchy in terms of the exercise of power. The absence of the Federal Council’s
participation in certain decisive issues is particularly striking. This is a paradox.
One might indeed have expected that the government would have regarded
itself as especially responsible for performing important state duties in the
difficult war years, both in order to ensure the safety of its own people and to
demonstrate the credibility of the country to the outside world. Moreover, the
Federal Council had emergency plenary powers which increased its responsibility
and gave it all the authority it needed to decree far-reaching measures.
The question as to why the government kept a low profile in central issues is of
great importance from both a historical and a legal perspective.
The absence of the exercise of political power is striking in two cases, above all.
The first concerns the gold transactions with the Reichsbank. The Federal
Council did nothing to obtain any information about this, and left the fundamental
political decisions to the Swiss National Bank (SNB). Consequently, it
scarcely became involved in matters which from 1940 right up to the end of the
war proved themselves to be politically very problematical. It was the National
Bank’s management which held the reins here, but not because it had received
any great vote of confidence. Personal contact between the Federal Council and
Finance Minister Ernst Wetter and the two members of the Governing Board
of the National Bank, Paul Rossy and Alfred Hirs, was neither very frequent
nor very friendly; the causes were therefore rooted, rather, in negligence or in
an absence of understanding of the problem. The second case concerns railway
transit through Switzerland. The Federal Council showed a lack of interest in
this issue and left it to the management of the Swiss Federal Railways (Schweizerische
Bundesbahnen, SBB) to solve problems which were of a political order.
There was virtually no response from the government to their urgent questions.
Other files show that the Federal Council delegated responsibility to senior
officials in the administration, especially where foreign trade policy was
concerned. Jean Hotz, head of the Trade Division of the Federal Department of
Economic Affairs (Handelsabteilung des Eidgenössischen Volkswirtschaftsdepartments,
EVD) for instance, had more power than Federal Councillor Stampfli, his
superior, from July 1940 onwards. Private industry was very influential, with
associations playing a leading role as brokers, particularly the Vorort and the
various industrial sector associations. These organised interests had a formative
influence on the functioning of the war economy which had been built up since
1937 as a shadow organisation and went into operation on 4 August 1939 –
even before the military conflict had started. Representatives of Swiss business
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