Hellow everybody,

I am a Belgian, and i have been walking around with a very interesting question for a long time now.. I have read, somewhere, that Switserland doesnt have a capital, that Bern is only the capital de facto, but not really according to the definition a capital. I also read that the discussion if Switserland should have a real capital, is as old as the country itself. I am traveling and i meet so many people from Switserland and the discussion has been going on many times. Who can answer me if Switserland has a real capital?

by the way, i love the country!

Sebastiaan

...I think any Swiss, the UN and most nations of the world will tell you it is Bern, At least that is where the capitol building, Federal Government, Ministries, Embassies and a bunch of bigwigs hang out.

I happen to hang out in Bern too, but sometimes wish it wasn't the capitol because of all of the tourists.

As far I was concerned it was Bern... but since I got here and visited few cantons it feels like being in a minature US with states or South Africa with provinces. Following this cantonal structure they could also make it more easy for us on EF and decide where is legislative, governmental and administrative and etc.

Became the political capital on 28th November 1848. From 1815 to 1848 the "capital" rotated every two years between Bern, Zurich and Luzern.

You don't really think those haven't been decided upon, and things here happen at random, do you?

Officially it's Bern and the Bernese think Bern is the capital, Genovois think it's Geneva, Baslers think it's Basel, But Zürchers know it's Zurich.

Switzerland is a federation or very independent cantons and like no country. In a way, it has no capital, in a way it has no central government, in a way the Swiss don't exist - the people are just Bernese, Baslers, Zürchers etc etc...

If you understand french, here's a little geography lesson on the various "capitals" of Switzerland:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x32...la-lecon-de-ge

Closest analogy to political structure would be the USA. My commune sent me a book called "Histoire Suisse" which I've also seen for sale in the Post Office. According to this book, strictly speaking in 1848, Switzerland moved from an alliance of independant cantons to a federation of autonomous cantons, but no longer independant since they ceded some powers to the federation. One of the first jobs in 1848 was to choose where to base the federal institutions. Three cities competed for the status of capital. Zurich, Luzern and Bern. There was even some discussion of selecting a more politically "neutral" city like Aarau along the lines of Washington. In the end they settled on Bern, because of the three main contenders it was the most acceptable to the French speaking cantons. In compensation Zurich got the Ecole polytechnique fédérale and the Tribunal fédérale which was itinerant until 1874 was based in Lausanne

Brilliant!

I had to watch it twice to get everything. Then I had to watch it a few more times because it just so incredibly "informative"

Glad you have cleared that one up for me... Deep in my mind I still have believed that Swiss could do better than that

You know what they say about "there's no bad tool"

The following site is the one that I turn to for general information about Switzerland. It covers the basics in simple terms and has links to more in depth sites.

http://www.about.ch/welcome.html

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You are correct, the Swiss constitution does NOT mention a Swiss capital. Bern is the de facto capital of Switzerland but NOT de jure. Therefore, it is called the federal city (in German: Bundesstadt), NOT the German equivalent for capital: Hauptstadt.

It's a pity we don't get to know more of that here in the "Suisse primitive"

In the original federal constitution (Bundesverfassung) of 1848 (Art. 108) decisions related to the seat of federal institutions (in German: Sitz der Bundesbehörden) were delegated to the federal assembly to pass respective laws (Bundesgesetzgebung an die Bundesversammlung) - in other words, the constitutional assembly could not agree on this question and thus, did not name a capital in the constitution.

The so-called guarantee law (Garantiegesetz) of 1851 protects Bern's right to be seat of federal institutions and this was further strengthened in 1875 in an agreement between the city of Bern(e) and the federal council (Bundesrat).

The above mentioned Art. 108 can no longer be found in the Swiss constitution, it was removed from the 1999 version because it was deemed no longer necessary since the role of Bern(e) as the seat of several government institution was clarified in Art. 58 of the 1997 law called "Regierungs- und Verwaltungsorganisationsgesetz".

Err, someone should tell the Swiss government that.

But we could split hairs all day. Capital city vs federal city; de jure vs de facto; haupststadt vs bundesstadt. Call me old fashioned but I think we've established the Swiss Confederation chose a "Capital" as that is commonly understood and Bern is it - whether de facto or otherwise.

The Swiss government's own website (operated by the Swiss Federal Chancellery) refers to Bern as the capital and that's as "die Hauptstadt" "La Capitale" or "the Capital". That's good enough for me:
http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/00158/01327...x.html?lang=en
http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/00158/01327...x.html?lang=de
http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/00158/01327...x.html?lang=fr

If that upsets any purests please contact the Federal Chancellery. Phone numbers and email details are on the website.

I don't think any one questions whether Bern is commonly considered the capital of Switzerland. I was merely trying to point out that this is not defined in the constitution. Many debates have been had about this topic, books have been written and clearly we wouldn't have this thread if 160 years ago, the writers of the 1848 constitution had been willing to put this on paper; however, the radical federalists objected because to them the idea of having a capital ran contrary to the objectives of federalism and some centralists objected for different reasons. Besides, Switzerland does not have a head of state (several people share this role) or head of government either and there have been debates about this as well.

Axelino's answer hits the nail on the head. Don't believe this silly babble about a capital city.

For those who know a national language, there's an interesting entry about the federal city in the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. While Berne is by law the city of the Federal Council and the ministries, there is no law for the national parliaments. In fact there has recently been a parliamentary session in canton Grisons. But practically speaking Berne is a capital.