«We won’t betray our secret»: three determined old men vaunt the merits of Appenzeller cheese in a popular series of advertisements, which exploit some of the values associated with their canton: tradition, love of homeland, and obstinacy.
On December 17 it will be exactly 500 years since the canton of Appenzell joined the Swiss Confederation, and the anniversary has been celebrated throughout the year, culminating in a day-long event attended by this year’s Swiss president, Ueli Maurer.
«With your pride in your homeland and your traditions, you are a wonderful example of the diversity of our country,» he told those gathered.
But while the Swiss rejoice in their diversity, for many non-Appenzellers the small canton in the far north-east of the country – in fact made up of two half cantons, Appenzell Ausser Rhoden and Appenzell Inner Rhoden – is a bit more different than most.
Clichés
«There are lots of clichés about Appenzell, such as that we are very inward-looking, but I think that is really old history,» Daniel Fässler. the landammann – or head of the cantonal government – of Inner Rhoden told swissinfo.ch.
«We like to live with one foot in history – tradition is very important to us – but we are at home in the modern world too. It’s a tightrope, but I think we manage to walk it very well.»
Indeed, in his address to guests at the jubilee event he warned against these clichés.
«They are often used by people simply so that they don’t have to bother with the facts. The reality is often different.»
Be that as it may, a poll published by the image consultancy Campaignfit at the beginning of 2013 showed that for many Swiss, Appenzell – and especially Inner Rhoden – is still narrow-minded and backward.
Perhaps the two half-cantons haven’t yet lived down the fact that both resisted giving women voting rights at cantonal level until long after they received them at federal level. Inner Rhoden held out until 1991, when it was forced to change by a Federal Court ruling; Ausser Rhoden had accepted the inevitable in 1990.
But how many outsiders are aware of the fact that just four years later Ausser Rhoden equalled Bern as the canton with the highest proportion of women in its government? Or recall that in 1999 Inner Rhoden provided only the third woman ever to be elected to the Swiss government, Ruth Metzler?
The current landammann of Ausser Rhoden happens to be a woman too, Marianne Koller-Bohl.
«Perhaps it was like a spring awakening, when at last we could take part in politics and be represented in cantonal bodies. Unfortunately what I see today is that women are no longer so interested in politics. That bothers me rather more,» she told swissinfo.ch.
She attributed the long delay in granting women political rights to the force of tradition, and in particular the institution of the Landsgemeinde, the open-air parliament held once a year where all male citizens voted on cantonal business.
«People were afraid of losing this tradition if women took part,» she said.
Indeed, Ausser Rhoden did abolish the Landsgemeinde in 1997, although it lives on in Inner Rhoden with participants of both sexes.
Historian Josef Küng, originally from canton Graubünden, but who has lived in Inner Rhoden for 40 years, had a slightly different explanation for why men in both half-cantons three times rejected a motion to give women voting rights.
«At a time of rapid social change perhaps they were desperately clutching at one of the last ‘remnants’ of the previous ‘male bastion’,» he suggested.
Different mentalities
The two half-cantons behaved similarly as far as women were concerned, but the differences between them go back a long way, to 1597.
They split along religious grounds: Inner Rhoden consists of the districts that remained Roman Catholic; those that adopted the Protestant Reform make up Ausser Rhoden. In contrast to many other areas of Europe, the split was peaceful and democratic: each parish decided which confession it wanted to adhere to. Parishioners who disagreed could move.
Ausser Rhoden cantonal archivist Peter Witschi told swissinfo.ch that although superficially the two parts are similar, there are «huge differences» in the mentalities, which had less to do with the nature of the land, than with religion.
Küng agrees. «The spirit of the Reform stimulated the development of industry and trade in Ausser Rhoden. It became definitely more cosmopolitan – although there were also conservative currents.»
Ausser Rhoden’s textile industry dates back to the 16th century. Exports went initially to Europe, and later – from about the middle of the 19th century – all over the world.
Inner Rhoden, on the other hand, was largely agricultural, and while it exported some dairy products, its markets were relatively close to hand, in the area around Lake Constance.
As Witschi explained, these differences had knock-on effects.
«Two hundred years ago there were lots of people in Appenzell Ausser Rhoden who had been abroad, whether as merchants, or in connection with their jobs. As a consequence, it was much earlier in establishing a good school system than Inner Rhoden. And that’s logical: if you have a better standard of education, if you know foreign languages, it’s easier to move around in foreign markets.»
One thing that the two half cantons certainly share is their attachment to tradition. But in this jubilee year, even that sometimes takes a modern – and cosmopolitan – turn as this intercultural project demonstrates.
Reunion – or not?
Whatever the differences, many of the speakers at the jubilee event welcomed the fact that the two halves had worked together over the anniversary year in an unprecedented way.
But Ruth Corminboeuf, a member of the Inner Rhoden cantonal parliament, told swissinfo.ch that the two half-cantons had been growing closer over the last 20 or 30 years.
«We have become more open, and we have realised that working together is a good thing. And that we have to work together because we are so small.»
So will there ever be a single Appenzell again? The last article of the document of separation drawn up in 1597 says: «This division shall last only as long as both parts so desire. They are free to reunite at any time.»
Hanspeter Knöpfel, deputy chairman of the Rüte district council in Inner Rhoden, is in himself an embodiment of cantonal unity: he grew up in Ausser Rhoden – at a time when the other half canton was «so far away, we had nothing to do with it» – and moved to Inner Rhoden when he married.
But asked about political unity, he has his doubts.
«I don’t think we need to merge. Perhaps we need to exploit certain synergies, but we are doing that already. The only advantage might be that we would be stronger as a single canton in our dealings with Switzerland as a whole. But otherwise we don’t need it. We live very well together as neighbours.»