American military personnel looking forward to holidaying in Switzerland.

In the spring of 1944, Switzerland’s hoteliers, impacted by the effects of the war, came up with the idea of organising holiday packages for the Allied forces. In late October 1944, the Federal Office of Transport decided to launch a ‘commercial action’, which evolved into the ‘Leave Action’ for members of the US armed forces. The programme aimed to provide a one-week holiday for US military personnel stationed in Germany, France or Italy to support reconstruction work. The incentive from a Swiss perspective was to give a shot in the arm to the tourist industry, which was so important to the national economy, and to present the country in a positive light.

The Federal Council commissioned the head of the Swiss Territorial Service, Brigadier General Erich Münch, to plan the programme. That was because it had evolved from a tourist sector initiative into a matter concerning the military. About two weeks after the end of the war, Münch entered into negotiations with representatives of the US to organise the tours. A price of USD 35 (CHF 150) per person was set for the one-week visit to Switzerland, equivalent to the monthly salary of a Government Issue (GI, gender-neutral term for members of the US armed forces). The US army also provided the full military ration per head, which the Swiss high command sold on to cover costs. From March 1946, the US army supplied coal, bacon and tea instead of rations, after February 1947 it paid for the tours in money.

A brochure informed the GIs, among other things, about the local rationing system and how to manage their pocket money.

The Federal Council loosened its ban on wearing uniform in Switzerland for the personnel in their private, guided groups. They were given the legal status of civilians, which made them subject to the local criminal and civil laws as well as US military law. Swiss guides accompanied them through many towns and cities all over the country and to mountain resorts, such as Davos or Zermatt. They were accommodated in hotels, as their interned comrades had been previously.

US soldiers arriving at Basel SBB station.

They arrived in Switzerland in August 1945.

The sense of anticipation was palpable.

One group travelled in an open tram over the Middle Rhine Bridge in Basel.

The GIs in Lucerne

The first group of US NCOs, soldiers and ancillary service staff arrived in Switzerland on 25 July 1945, about eleven weeks after the end of the war. The support staff included many women, who were largely overlooked in the planning of the initiative and subsequent reports.

More than half of the visitors stopped off in Lucerne. The city’s preponderance in the tour schedules was due to its central location plus its proximity to the lake and mountains, a major attraction all year round. The GIs attracted crowds of curious onlookers on arrival and gave the city “an international flavour”, as one journalist gushingly reported in the Luzerner Neueste Nachrichten newspaper of 30 July 1945.

A welcome brochure informed the GIs about the sights worth seeing in the city and its people. Many businesses and venues advertised their services to the American visitors, even inviting them to dance: “Our Swiss girls will find it simply grand to dance with you”.

However, the local authorities failed to dance to the tune of that particular promise: Lucerne, a Catholic city, had banned dancing since 1884. The city’s establishments were only allowed to hold dances on seven days per year. Three of them had to be between 1 September and 1 December. The other four could not be held during Lent or Advent, or on Fridays, Saturdays or public holidays. That meant dancing was prohibited in December 1945. This led the hotel association, tourist office and hospitality lobby to apply to the Cantonal Council in October 1945 to lift the ban on dancing for Advent in 1945 and Lent in 1946, so the GIs could indulge in their “preferred form of entertainment”.

The Military and Police Department of Lucerne relented and allowed the Kursaal building to stay open for the Americans until midnight every night during the Advent period of 1945. This did not involve any changes to the law, it was merely making an exception for one establishment. The idea was to maximise tourist revenue from the Leave Action while at the same time respecting the locals’ religious convictions. Some Lucerne public houses requested that the GIs be allowed to dance until midnight on their premises too during Advent and Lent. They also argued that the ban on dancing in a tourist city like Lucerne was fundamentally unreasonable and no longer practicable. The Cantonal Council turned down their application: the exceptional licence for the Kursaal, a venue of unique status in Lucerne, was not to be granted elsewhere and lifting the ban on dancing during Advent was out of the question.

An official Christmas celebration was organised for the GIs in the Kursaal complete with sponsored Christmas presents, Santa Claus, hot dogs and beer. On Christmas Eve, the locals invited about 400 GIs to private parties in their homes, showing that the people of Lucerne trusted their visitors and were well disposed towards them.

Temptation in the form of watches and carpets

When not wearing their dancing shoes, the visitors went on trips to Mount Pilatus, saw the sights of Lucerne or visited – as suggested in the welcome brochures – the watch shops. An incident occurred at the end of August 1945 when four GIs stole forty watches from a Lucerne businessman who had been trading them illegally. The London edition of Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for the US armed forces stationed in Europe, got wind of the incident and reported it in an article on the progress of the Leave Action initiative. Colonel Clifford C. Duell, the commander in charge of the office managing the programme in Mulhouse, had allegedly requested that only well-behaved staff be allowed to visit Switzerland. This had been prompted by a rising number of incidents of drunkenness and petty theft by GIs. Everyone wanted souvenirs too, especially the officers, who were quick to remove tableware, cutlery and table linen from the hotels. The South of France edition of Stars and Stripes reported how two US army nurses had been observed leaving the Hotel National in Lucerne with two carpets. Duell feared that such incidents could lead to the Americans quickly outstaying their welcome.

Looking for the right souvenir.

Begging for chewing gum

As it turned out, Duell had nothing to worry about; especially among the local children and young folk who were anything but tired of their guests from overseas. This was because of the burgeoning trade between them and the soldiers, who readily provided them with all types of American products, a practice that was not universally approved of. In late October 1945, one Lucerne lady complained about the schoolchildren always begging the GIs for chewing gum, cigarettes and chocolate outside their hotel. They even threw tennis balls at the hotel windows to attract their attention, if necessary. Competition for these goods tended to spill over into street brawls that cast a shadow over the neighbourhood until late in the evening. The City Police patrolled the town to keep the situation under control and the school authorities also intervened. The December 1945 edition of the school journal ‘Schulbote’ ordered an immediate end to the “degrading practice of begging”. The Luzerner Tagblatt newspaper also reported on 20 November 1945 how Lucerne was being swamped by chewing gum. As one child with chewing gum pithily put it: “All you have to do is say ‘haudujudupliesälitteltschuuinggöm’ [how do you do please a little chewing gum] – and you get some”.

Negotiating over the price of chewing gum?

Condoms were another hot commodity readily available from the GIs. In late 1945, a careers advisor from Lucerne even called for an end to this “moral contamination” of the city’s youth. The travel office responsible for the American tourists subsequently tightened up the checks on visitors when entering the country. However, the impact was limited, as many Lucerne schoolchildren still manged to access contraceptives.

Close ties were forged with the locals. Many young Swiss women followed “their” GIs overseas.

The start of Americanisation

Over one-third of the GIs who came to Switzerland did so during the first six months of the Leave Action. Once the troops began to leave Europe, the number of visiting army personnel fell markedly. In March 1949, the Swiss National Tourist Office took ownership of the initiative. At that time, the verdict on the programme was positive on all sides. The GIs’ behaviour in the hotels had “exceeded expectations” – this suggests that the removal of “souvenirs” in the form of hotel property was the exception, or at least no more than a minor inconvenience in the bigger picture of the hotels’ income versus expenses. The financial benefits of the programme were significant: the hotels profited to the tune of about CHF 35 million and the Federal Railways made about CHF 10 million. On top of that was the CHF 60 million spent by the GIs in different branches of the economy. There were about 100 disciplinary incidents in total, two of which were serious. One army tourist was jailed for attempted rape. There are no records as to whether there were any further instances of sexual violence, nor are there any substantive records as to whether Afro-Americans experienced racism.

The biggest benefit of the programme was its word-of-mouth advertising of Switzerland in the US; an informal ‘marketing campaign’ that was almost impossible to put a price on, as Erich Münch saw it. GIs’ written accounts of their holidays found their way into numerous publications and many of them returned to holiday in Switzerland in a private capacity. As for the American side, it also benefited through being able to provide its personnel with the best available opportunity to enjoy some quality leisure time.

Looking back on the programme, its impact was actually a lot broader than people realised at the time. Switzerland acquired a taste for chewing gum, its young people suddenly became familiar with condoms, local restaurants served hot dogs and traditions going back decades came to be seen as (out)dated. As historian Regula Bochsler put it in her book “Invasion der Coolen”, the GIs did more than bring certain products into the country. They also brought the American lifestyle, which went on to influence everyday life in Switzerland for decades afterwards.

How did Switzerland become a popular travel destination? The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through time past defining moments of the history of tourism in Switzerland – from the grand tours of British aristocrats right up to the Instagram hotspots of today. On the way, we encounter landmark events that have enabled, promoted, temporarily prevented, or fundamentally changed travel to and in Switzerland.

Danielle Berthet

Switzerland, an erstwhile holiday hotspot for American GIs