61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

28 November 1937 for a ban on Freemasonry, as well as the Federal Council’s
Decrees of 27 May 1938 against propaganda material threatening the security
of the state, and that of 5 December 1938 against activities threatening the
security of the state and for the protection of democracy. The same year saw the
convergence of diverse efforts to consolidate national defence. Switzerland
redefined its status under international law with the return to «integral
neutrality» made possible by the release obtained from its economic sanctions
commitment to the League of Nations. A round the same time, the project for
a wartime economy shadow organisation of the Department of Economic Affairs
was put on standby. This had been proposed at the end of 1937 by Federal
Councillor Herbert Obrecht, who earlier had come under fire due to his position
on the board of the German-dominated Waffenfabrik Solothurn AG. With the
Federal Law of 1 April on Securing National Supply and with the initiation of
negotiations in September 1938 to secure imports in the event of war, Obrecht
proved to be the courageous liberal statesman extolled at the time of his early
death in August 1940.
The Federal Council’s official message on «the organisation and responsibilities
of safeguarding and promoting Swiss culture», drafted by Federal Councillor
Philipp Etter and likewise published in 1938, soon became a kind of «Magna
Charta of the Geistige Landesverteidigung» with its nationalistic and authoritarian
thrust. The Swiss credo was expressed thus: «the idea of a Swiss state was born
neither of race nor of the flesh, it was born of the spirit. There is something
magnificent, something awesome about the fact that this tremendous idea
should have led to the creation of a state whose heart is the Gotthard, the
mountain that sunders and the pass that connects. It is a European, a universal
idea: the idea of a spiritual community of peoples and Western civilisations!»
According to the message, this was «nothing other than the victory of the spirit
over the flesh on the rugged terrain of the state». 106
The wartime economy regime, instituted in September 1939, was under the
control of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (Eidgenössisches Volkswirtschaftsdepartement,
EVD) and represented the backbone of the «economic
defence of the country». Under the management of the Eidgenössische Zentralstelle
für Kriegswirtschaft (Federal Central Agency for Wartime Economy) which
was advised by the Kommission für Kriegswirtschaft (Committee for Wartime
Economy), various control and management tasks were entrusted to the
Kriegsernährungsamt (Federal Office for Wartime Nutrition), the Kriegs-Industrieund
Arbeitsamt (Wartime Industry and Employment Office), the Kriegs-Transportamt
(Wartime Transport Office), the Kriegs-Fürsorgeamt, (Wartime
Welfare Office), the Eidgenössische Preiskontrollstelle (Federal Price Control
Agency), and the Handelsabteilung des Volkswirtschaftsdepartements (Trade
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