61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

important activity of a protecting power involved visiting prisoners of war and
organising prisoner exchanges, tasks which were thought highly of by the
Allies, especially the British. These «good services» were therefore not only of
humanitarian, but also political value and increased the international reputation
of Switzerland.
The First World War, the Landesstreik and the political parties
The experiences of the First World War had a lasting effect on the evolution of
the subsequent decades. In Switzerland, as in the other European countries, the
four and a half years of war were characterised by drastic reductions in the
purchasing power of many levels of society, on the one hand, and war profits
benefiting entrepreneurs as well as farmers. The rationing system and the
wartime economy came late, were badly organised and hardly made any contribution
to alleviating the emerging social crisis. This social polarisation caused
a growing political conflict which led to radical political changes and revolutionary
disruptions. The confrontations of the class struggle climaxed in the
Landesstreik (General Strike) of November 1918, which was accompanied by a
devastating influenza epidemic. The striking workers were eventually forced to
capitulate by the troops summoned to break up the strike.
The Landesstreik was a highly politicised clash between the labour movement
and the middle class or bourgeoisie, and also formed the starting point of the
crisis era in the inter-war years. 33 The challenge to the middle-class powers
remained an effective point of reference for individual middle-class politicians
even at the end of the Second World War, both for those who warned of the
dangers of a socialist revolution and those who called for an end to domestic
confrontation. 34 Tensions prevailed until the middle of the 1930s, the shock of
the Landesstreik being still felt by all. An example of this is the statement by
Ernst Steinmann, General Secretary of the Swiss Liberal Democratic Party
popularly known as the Radicals, six months after Hitler’s rise to power: « It
was the destruction of German Social Democracy and the trade unions that
provided the necessary impetus, for by rocking Swiss Socialism – which we had
come to regard as an ineradicable evil – to its very foundations our citizens were
confirmed in their long-standing belief that unfailing resolve would enable
them to attain their goals.» 35
In this period of social crisis extremist forces gained ground once more.
Communists described the Social Democrats as «social fascists» and caused
street fights in 1932 in «red» Zurich. 36 The fascist fronts advertised themselves
as a bourgeois coalition movement and as a national renewal movement, their
prime target being the Liberals, who were stigmatised as failures. Still, there
was agreement on a number of points between the fronts and the right wing of
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