Extract from a commemorative plaque on the constitutional revision of 1874. It was during this revision that freedom of religion and conscience for all was enshrined in the Constitution – including for the Jewish minority. Swiss National Museum

Switzerland’s rocky road to religious freedom

The Federal Constitution only became secular in 1874 when it granted religious freedom to the Jewish minority. In the current version, there are still two exemption clauses concerning Muslims.

Josef Lang

Dr Josef Lang is a freelance historian in Bern and former national councillor in the canton of Zug.

In June 1870, the Federal Council wrote the following in its dispatch on the complete revision of the Federal Constitution: “The notion of religious freedom emerged in the free land on the other side of the Atlantic; it has come to Europe as an unfamiliar guest that is viewed with great suspicion, and it is not the first.” While Switzerland was “a land of political freedom”, it read, religious freedom had “always been very restricted though laws and customs”. The Federal Constitution of 1848 had already placed political freedom above religious freedom. Even so, it had enshrined equality for Christian denominations and citizens. This meant that Catholics could also enjoy freedom of domicile and religion as well as political rights in Protestant cantons, and that the same would apply to Protestants in Catholic cantons. The massive opposition campaign in the summer of 1848 shows what a huge step that was. In the catholic canton of Uri, a former chief magistrate warned that “in future, Protestants would be allowed to pray on the streets of Altdorf”. Meanwhile, at the Nidwalden People’s Assembly, there were claims that “Catholics were being controlled by Protestants”. In Zug, priests were predicting that “Catholics would have to renounce their faith and become Protestant”. The denominationalist resistance to people of other religions, which also existed in Protestant areas, was a key reason why the many people who moved to other cantons found it difficult to participate politically in local communities. The first complete revision of the Federal Constitution removed discrimination based on people’s place and canton of origin, which bolstered the respective religious minorities.

The two main bones of contention in the struggle over the federal state were the monasteries and the Jesuit order. The Liberals argued that they exacerbated sectarianism in the country. The caricature drawn by a catholic liberal shows a zealous Jesuit firing up worshippers. Martin Disteli, A Zealot’s Sermon, design for a handkerchief, Solothurn, circa 1834. Musée d’art et d’histoire Genève

The church’s influence on primary schools remained a big problem, particularly in conservative areas. The new article on schools that was added to the Federal Constitution in 1874 therefore also promoted religious freedom and tolerance. It required the cantons to offer lessons that could be attended by all “without compromising their freedom of religion and conscience”. Other progress had already been made through various pieces of federal legislation. For example, in 1851 the Federal Assembly repealed cantonal regulations that made it difficult for people of different denominations to marry. The Federal Constitution of 1874 then established civil marriage and divorce law. The fact that the Jewish minority were excluded from all the aforementioned rights was one of the main flaws of the 1848 Federal Constitution. In Aargau, where over a third of the then 4,216-strong Jewish population lived, equality for Jews was overwhelmingly rejected in 1862. The main spokesman of the antisemitic ‘Mannlisturm’ protest movement was also head of the Pius Association, named after Pope Pius IX. Those who opposed Jewish emancipation argued that Jews didn’t fit in as fellow citizens and confederates and that historically, Switzerland was a Christian fatherland.

Just under 20 years after Jewish religious freedom was recognised in the new Federal Constitution of 1874, it was restricted again after the adoption of the very first popular initiative in 1893. This caricature shows that in the voting campaign, which had antisemitic undertones, reference was made to ritual murder libel. Caricature supporting the ban on Jewish ritual slaughter in satirical magazine Nebelspalter dated 19.8.1893. Nebelspalter

After the federal government ordered political equality for Aargau’s Jews in 1863, it had to actually make it happen. In January 1866, there was a vote on the first partial revision of the Federal Constitution. While freedom of domicile and equality before the Law for Jews were accepted by a majority, their freedom of religion and worship were narrowly rejected. In Central Switzerland, 80% of the electorate voted against these proposals. Jewish religious freedom therefore became a key topic in the ensuing debate around the complete revision. A member of the Council of States from the canton of Uri came up with a thoroughly modern argument to defend religious freedom for Jews, when he asked: “Should Switzerland be a Christian country or a cosmopolitan one?” On 19 April 1874, two thirds of the male electorate voted in favour of a secular federal state with voter turnout of 82%.

The Catholic liberal Augustin Keller was a key figure in the fight for a secular federal state between 1835 and 1875. In 1841 he proposed the abolition of the monastery in Aargau and in 1844 the abolition of the Jesuit order. In the 1860s, he campaigned for equal treatment of Jews, which is why the Jewish lodge in Zurich, which was founded in 1907, is named after him. Swiss National Museum

As part of the Kulturkampf (‘culture struggle’) surrounding the decoupling of religious affiliation and citizenship, the ban on the Jesuit order, which had already been introduced in 1848, was tightened. Even individual Jesuits were not allowed to engage in clerical activity. A ban was introduced on setting up new monasteries, and members of the clergy could no longer stand for election to the National Council or Federal Council. Furthermore, the establishment of a diocese also required approval from the federal government. These exemption clauses were at odds with a liberal view of religious freedom, but should be viewed as a reaction to Pope Pius IX’s anti-liberal crusade, which culminated in the dogmatisation of papal infallibility by the First Vatican Council in 1870. Even as late as 1960, the papal congregation maintained that: “Where the church itself rules, it seeks to restrict the rights of people of other faiths, but where it is in the minority, it demands the same rights as others”. The recognition of religious freedom by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 facilitated the subsequent lifting of the ban on Jesuits and monasteries in Switzerland in 1973.

Opening session of the Second Vatican Council in Rome, October 1962. The recognition of religious freedom by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 paved the way for the lifting of the denominational exemption clause in Switzerland in 1973,1999 and 2001. The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) made concessions to critics of the First Vatican Council (1869/70) on several points. Bernhard Moosbrugger/Fotostiftung Schweiz

Religious tolerance towards Jews suffered another setback in 1893 when the conservative protestants initiated a ban on Jewish ritual slaughter. Antisemitism had particularly disastrous consequences during the Second World War, when many who had been persecuted on ‘racist grounds’ were denied asylum. The ban on ritual slaughter, which also concerns Muslims, was removed from the Constitution in 1978, but enshrined in the Animal Welfare Act. Since the 1970s, society has become a great deal more secular and religiously diverse, but that did not impact the new Federal Constitution of 1999. The only change regarding religion was that members of the clergy could again stand for election to Parliament. The episcopacy article (whereby dioceses required approval from federal government) was abolished in 2001, with 64% of the electorate voting in favour. A third of Catholics – particularly Catholic women – who had grown wary of religious leaders, voted against the initiative. No sooner had the Federal Constitution rid itself of religious exemption clauses, it had two more to contend with: In 2009, 58% of the electorate voted in favour of a minaret ban and in 2021, 51% voted for a ban on the burka. Evidently, Switzerland has still yet to fully embrace the notions of religious freedom and tolerance.

Freedom of religion and conscience are inviolable.

Swiss Federal Constitution of 1874, Article 49

More of: Federal Constitution Modern Age 20th / 21st century Religion Politics

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