Swiss Culture

We usually aren't conscious of it in the States, but U.S. culture is greatly influenced by the Swiss. It is popular folklore that Swiss watches are more precise (perhaps), that Swiss cheese has holes in it (not always), and the Swiss Army knife is really versatile and functional (true). But what is not really known is that every male Swiss citizen is required to serve in the Swiss Army (and they really are issued a Swiss Army knife). Depending on what unit you're in, you could be asked to serve at least two weeks a year until you retire. Immanuel is in the infantry and he's had to do mountain patrol in the middle of the winter (not fun). All infantry are issued a rifle and Immanuel showed me his (yes, it was big). Although not everyone enjoys their army experience, the common wisdom in Switzerland is that the reason there has been over 500 years of peace in Switzerland is because of the presence of a strong military force.

The Swiss reputation for precision and order is well deserved. In Switzerland, the trains not only run on time, they leave exactly as scheduled -- to the second. Schedules and maps for public transportation are precise and detailed. However, it was explained to us that the Swiss don't really think of themselves as innovators. Instead they prefer to take an existing product and make it better. The Swiss watch is one example. Swiss chocolate is another. In fact, I was not aware that Nestle was a Swiss corporation which certainly helps the Swiss economy in terms of a keeping a positive trade balance.

Swiss graphic design also had a great influence on U.S. designers, especially in the 1960s and 70s. The Swiss sense of order as applied to the grid system and typography became known as the "International Typographic Style." Swiss designers like Armin Hoffmann and Wolfgang Weingart have many followers worldwide. But the greatest graphic arts influence is perhaps the typeface Helvetica which was first published in 1957. Originally named Neue Haas Grotesk, this typeface was designed with utmost economy -- the shapes of the letterforms visually convey a clean and straight-forward look that communicates trust and integrity. Often imitated, but never improved upon, Helvetica is still one of the most used typefaces in the world.

Another interesting fact is that Switzerland is one of the few direct democracies in the world. This means that the elected representatives of the legislature are required to vote the will of the people. So before elections, every citizen receives a detailed package in the mail explaining the issues being voted on in the next election. Immanuel says that the Swiss people are fiercely protective of their voice in the government despite the fact that changes in policies take longer to implement.

When traveling in the Swiss Alps, we also saw something interesting -- just about everybody had a Swiss flag flying on a flag post. At first we thought this must be a national holiday, or perhaps mountain people are particularly patriotic. Both assumptions were wrong, as it was explained to us that raising a flag simply signifies that you are home. This is important in the mountains for rescue operations in case of an avalanche. But the tradition survives even in the summer.

The traditional way of life in the Alps of raising cows for milk to make cheese is a dying art. Milk or cheese can be produced cheaper on flatter ground or imported from elsewhere. Yet the government still subsidizes this way of life so that small family farms can survive. Immanuel had a theory about this. He suggested that keeping these traditions alive is a smart decision in case of a major environmental catastrophe. After all, the ability of a country to feed itself is one of the basic tenets of survival.

Immanuel also told us of quirky Swiss habits such as das znüni, a morning coffee break right around 9am when people are just getting to work. Although on the surface, it appears that there's no work being done, das znüni is considered by many as an opportunity to connect with your fellow workers and talk shop informally.

As for Swiss ingenuity gone wrong, Immanuel told the story of recent earthquakes in Basel that were caused by the power company drilling for geothermal energy in 2006. Swiss engineers wanted to pump water into the earth in order to harvest steam to power electric generators. Instead, they caused a series of earthquakes measuring up to 3.4 on the Richter scale. The project was immediately abandoned at a cost of millions of Swiss Francs. A scary event for a city that was almost completely destroyed by the great earthquake of 1536.

Other quirky things we noticed was the fact the no one had screens on their windows. Despite the fact that everyone had these modern windows that opened in two directions, flies and bugs would get in the house whenever one opened a window. The solution? Fly swatters. But this didn't stop the stop the mosquitoes from coming in at night if you choose to leave the window open.

Another surprise was standing in line to buy train tickets at the station. With multiple windows open, one was forced to choose which line to stand in -- a crapshoot at best as we almost missed our train once because the lady in front of us was having such a good time chatting with the clerk. In the States, there would be one line for all the windows and the first person in line would get the next available clerk. A small thing, I know, but I was surprised at the lack of Swiss efficiency here.