cc. The new book “Wegmarken aus der neueren Schweizergeschichte” (Landmarks from recent Swiss history) by Werner Wüthrich, published by Zeit-Fragen in December 2024, contains numerous articles that appeared in Zeit-Fragen and Current Concerns over the last twenty-five years. They provide a deeper understanding of Switzerland’s history, which is expressed in the practice of direct democracy, in municipal freedom, in federalism, in the people’s attachment to their homeland, in labour peace and the tradition of dual vocational training, in Switzerland’s neutrality and its humanitarian tradition. The foreword was written by Dr phil. René Roca, Research Institute for Direct Democracy.
“I work as a history teacher at a grammar school. When I asked a new Year 1st class at the beginning of the school year who was still being taught history at secondary school, half of the 24 pupils responded. These youngsters are 16 years old. When I then asked who had covered Swiss history topics, three young people responded. The subject of history has been under pressure for some time, now also at grammar schools. There is a threat of cuts to the number of lessons, and civic education has been suffering a decline in importance for some time. There are now hardly any chairs for Swiss history at universities in our country. We are living in a time that has forgotten history. What can we do?
To counteract this zeitgeist, we need publicists like Werner Wüthrich, who repeatedly remind us of the importance of understanding the historical development of our society. Only if we understand the backgrounds and contexts can we consider how we want to tackle the problems.
Werner Wüthrich writes in an incomparable style, easy and fluent to read, but never superficial and reductive. He moves eloquently through the various branches of scientific thought, be it economic, historical or legal topics. He always takes the reader with him and imparts important basic knowledge.
Particularly in Swiss history, one of his areas of specialization, he knowledgeably addresses the central themes of the Swiss model and sheds light on its cooperative roots, aspects of direct democracy and the federalist structure.
Werner Wüthrich has written hundreds of articles for the Swiss cooperative newspaper Zeit-Fragen/Current Concerns. He has thus created a treasure trove that is invaluable for our country. The book is a real “reader with depth” and contains only a small selection of his articles, but shows how the author stubbornly defies the spirit of the times and thus preserves Switzerland’s heritage. This encourages the reader to think further and to consider concretely how we can all preserve the heritage of the Swiss Confederation.”
About the author: Werner Wüthrich grew up in the Swiss canton of Thurgovia. He studied economics at the University of St. Gallen and graduated in 1973. He went on to study law at the University of Zurich (lic. iur.). While working, he obtained a diploma as a commercial teacher from the canton of Zurich and a doctorate in political science (Dr rer. publ.) in 1987. Werner Wüthrich taught for over forty years, first at the cantonal school in Hottingen and later at the vocational and business schools in Stäfa, Bülach and Zurich. However, he not only passed on his in-depth knowledge to young people, but has also made it available to a wider readership through numerous articles.
This first volume will be continued in a second volume entitled “Wegmarken in der Politik der modernen Schweiz” (Landmarks in the Politics of Modern Switzerland), which will focus on economic and financial issues in Switzerland and abroad. •
Our website uses cookies so that we can continually improve the page and provide you with an optimized visitor experience. If you continue reading this website, you agree to the use of cookies. Further information regarding cookies can be found in the data protection note.
If you want to prevent the setting of cookies (for example, Google Analytics), you can set this up by using this browser add-on.