[Most of the following files are only available in german, french or italian.]
e-Dossier: 50 Years after the Bührle Affair
For months, Fritz Real had been suspecting that large numbers of illegally exported Swiss anti-aircraft guns were used in the Nigerian civil war. Finally, on 12 June 1968, the Swiss ambassador in Lagos obtained the decisive clue «from a reliable source», «that clearly indicates a blatant violation of Swiss export provisions by Bührle & Co.»
e-Dossier: «German Autumn» in Switzerland
The first priority of the Germans was the demonstration of normality. For when President Walter Scheel was on a state visit in Bern in autumn 1977, the Federal Republic was suffering its worst crisis since the end of the war. The «Red Army Faction» (RAF) had started their «Offensive 77»: This marked the beginning of the terrifying and death-filled «German Autumn».
e-dossier: The Six-Day War of 1967 – Switzerland’s role
By diplomatic standards, it was a highly unusual démarche. On 6 June 1967, the heads of no less than eight Arabic missions met with Federal Councillor Willy Spühler to forcefully protest the Swiss public and media’s one-sided, «anti-Arabic tendency». «This violates the spirit of Swiss neutrality», the ambassadors claimed.
e-Dossier: Die Schweiz und die Russische Revolution
«Petrograd liegt vollständig in den Händen des hiesigen Sowjets», telegrafierte die schweizerische Gesandtschaft am Abend des 7. Novembers 1917 aus der russischen Hauptstadt nach Bern. «Abteilungen der Sowjet-Truppen besetzen die Stadt. Die Hauptverkehrsadern sind verbarrikadiert. Abends 10 Uhr hörte man in der Umgebung des Winterpalastes Gewehr- und Geschützfeuer.»
L’«affera Conradi»: L’assassin grischun e la revoluziun
Avant 40 onns ha el purschì materia per in film da kino russ «emplenì cun clischés sovietics» (dodis.ch/49291). L’onn 1977 s’interessavan era cineasts en Svizra per «il tema anc adina pulit brisant» (dodis.ch/49292): I sa tracta da l’assassinat dal diplomat sovietic Wazlaw Worowski tras Moritz Conradi, in Svizzer en Russia, l’onn 1923 a Losanna. In mazzament cun consequenzas extendidas.
e-dossier: the «Conradi Affair»
It was a murderer’s confession: «Perhaps, only posterity will understand and will thank me for being the first to openly fight these evildoers», Maurice Conradi went on record with the Lausanne police. On 10 May 1923, Conradi, a Swiss citizen living in Russia, had shot Soviet diplomat Vatslav Vorovsky in the hotel Cécil, in front of witnesses.
e-Dossier: The Suez/Hungary twin crisis of 1956
The Federal Council was not stingy with big words: «The threat of World War III and of a renewed test of strength, with all its tragic consequences, is weighing on humankind», the federal government wrote in a statement from 6 November 1956. «But peace still can, and must, be saved», the government appealed to the superpowers (dodis.ch/12315).
e-dossier: The Washington Agreement of 1946
In spring 1946, a high-ranking Swiss delegation visited Washington to negotiate the release of frozen Swiss assets in the USA as well as the end of the allied boycott of companies that, during WWII, had traded with the Axis Powers. In turn, the USA, Great Britain, and France demanded that Swiss banks hand over German assets. The Washington Agreement (dodis.ch/1725), finalised 70 years ago, on 25 May 1946, after difficult negotiations, represents a milestone in Swiss foreign policy.
e-Dossier: Diplomatie auf Schienen – Gotthardbahn und Aussenpolitik
Wenn am 1. Juni 2016 der Gotthard-Basistunnel feierlich eröffnet wird, markiert dies den aktuellen Höhepunkt einer Entwicklung, die über eine reiche Geschichte verfügt. Der Bau einer Eisenbahnlinie durch die Schweizer Alpen war bereits im 19. Jahrhundert ein Grossprojekt von europäischer Dimension. Entsprechend eng war seine Durchführung mit aussenpolitischen Erwägungen verknüpft.
e-Dossier: The Establishment of Swiss Diplomatic Relations with the USSR
On 18 March 1946, an exchange of diplomatic notes in Belgrade (dodis.ch/48190) broke a silence that had lasted almost thirty years, establishing official relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union. The normalization of relations with the new eastern superpower was one of the fundamental conditions for the development of Switzerland's international relations in the commencing Cold War.