By Idunn Engstad
On September 22nd this year, the Swiss Cantons of Bern and Jura voted on the destiny of a town called Moutier. With a remarkable 83.2% approval rate from Canton Bern and 72.9 % (Keystone SDA, 2024) from Canton Jura, Moutier will officially ‘move’ Cantons in 2026. This comes 44 years after Canton Jura was created as the answer to ‘the Jura Question’: the question of secession of the Jura region from Canton Bern. With a population of only 7,232 as of 2023 (Moutier, 2024), the town is a product of a small but mighty nationalist movement based upon a distinct ‘Jurassian’ identity. But what is this ‘Jurassian’ identity and how did it emerge in a country like Switzerland?
In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the region of Jura was given to the Canton of Bern as compensation for Bern’s former dominions retaining independence. The Prince-Bishopric of Basel¹ had ruled over Jura until 1792 when the region declared itself the first French sister-republic (‘République Rauracienne’) following French occupation of northern Jura; it was absorbed by France in 1793.
A Jurassian national consciousness emerged under Bernese domination and repression, one which was notably absent under the Prince-Bishopric (Indermaur-Hänggi, 2017).
Although the Bernese government did not discriminate against the people in Jura because they were ‘Jurassian’, their policies discriminated against the two characteristics that distinguished them from the rest of the Canton: French-speech and/or Catholicism.
In 1834, the ‘Badener Artikel,’ a set of controversial resolutions passed by politically liberal cantons (including Bern), proposed subjecting the church, priest seminaries, and religious orders to state control (Michel Bassand, 1975). Despite withdrawing from the resolutions in 1835 due to Jurassian disorder, this ‘Kulturkampf’ (Culture struggle/fight) persevered throughout the 19th century in all of Switzerland, as politically liberal reformed cantons vying for modernisation through secularisation consistently attacked the Catholic Church (Bischof, 2008).
This led to a sustained effort by the Jura elites, especially in the North, to thwart a perceived threat of identity loss through ethnocentric initiatives, promoting the development of collective memory as well as defining the ‘Jurassian’ culture and history (Indermaur-Hänggi, 2017). The 1847 ‘Société Jurassienne d’Émulation’ (‘Jura Society for Emulation’), pushed and sponsored the production of ‘Jurassian’ literature and historiography with nationalist
themes (Indermaur-Hänggi, 2017), significantly contributing to the constitution of this Erinnerungsgemeinschaft.²
By creating this collective memory and history, the Jurassians became a socially, ethnically and culturally constituted people, all in a shared struggle against the German-speaking, repressive Bernese. The perceived ethnic threat of the Bernese advanced with the growing immigration of German-speaking workers to the region throughout the 19th century due to industrialisation and railway construction work (Indermaur-Hänggi, 2017). Soon, German-speaking immigrants comprised almost a third of the population in Moutier, even becoming the majority in some municipalities (Indermaur-Hänggi, 2017).
Although lingual and religious discrimination was the catalyst of Jurassian national consciousness, it also hindered it. Today, Canton Jura comprises only three of the seven historical Jurassian districts – the Catholic, French-speaking ‘North Jura’. Southern Jura, which comprised one German-speaking, Catholic district and three French-speaking, Protestant districts (Bassand, 1975), consistently voted to remain in Bern. As Vera Indermaur-Hänggi notes, the Jurassic region’s heterogeneous basis, with a reformed south and Catholic north, has consistently hindered any uniform ethno-regional consciousness (Indermaur-Hänggi, 2017). Jura cannot successfully be a Sprachnation or Kulturnation if it wishes to comprise all seven regions.
The Jurassian identity also insists on its ‘Rauracian’ roots, ‘Rauraci’ being the Latin name for an ancient Celtic tribe who had settled around the Upper-rhine area, roughly where Basel and the Jura is today (Schwarz, 2010). The 1830 song ‘La Rauracienne’ (Canton Jura’s ‘national’ anthem) asserts that ‘Jurassians’ are direct descendants of the Rauraki tribe: “Unite, sons of Rauracia, and join hands, and join hands!” (Groupe Bélier). According to the separatist Groupe Bélier, the lyrics bear “witness to the centuries-old existence of a ‘Jura spirit,’ a unique identity, that of a people aspiring to sovereignty” (Groupe Bélier). As direct descendants of an ancient Rauracian tribe which settled there, the Jurassian ethnic identity is legitimised and they have a primordial claim to the Jura land.
206 years after Vienna’s decision, Jonathan Gosteli, the leader of Groupe Bélier asserts that Moutier’s referendum is a step, but only Jurassian unification will resolve the ‘Jura Question’ (Von Bergen, 2021). “A Jurassian is a Jurassian. A Bernese is a Bernese. I cannot imagine a mix of the two” (Von Bergen, 2021).
Endnotes:
1. The Prince-Bishopric of Basel (Altes Fürstbistum Basel) was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire until Napoleon conquered Switzerland. In 1815, Basel officially became a Swiss Canton.
2. Erinnerungsgemeinschaft is translated to a shared community of memory. Through this shared community, a culturally and socially constituted people (Volk) can be formed.
Bibliography:
Bassand, M. (1975) ‘The Jura problem’, Journal of Peace Research, 12(2), pp. 139–150. doi:10.1177/002234337501200206.
Bischof, F.X. (2008) ‘Kulturkampf’, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS). Available at: https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/017244/2008-11-06/ (Accessed: 17.12.2024).
Der Spiegel (1978) ‘Wüste Leute’, 38th edn, 17 September. Available at: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/wueste-leute-a-28248293-0002-0001-0000-000040607125 (Accessed: 2024).
Indermaur-Hänggi, V. (2017) ‘Der Jurakonflikt’. Sociology in Switzerland: Social Movements, Pressure Groups and Political Parties. Edited by H. Geser. Available at: https://www.socio.ch/movpar/t_vinder1.htm (Accessed: 15 December 2024).
Keystone SDA (2024) Cantons Bern and Jura approve deal to change town’s affiliation, Swissinfo.ch. Available at: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-politics/cantons-bern-and-jura-approve-deal-to-change-towns-affiliation/87595580 (Accessed: 14 December 2024).
La Rauracienne (no date) Groupe Bélier. Available at: https://www.groupebelier.ch/?page_id=63 (Accessed: 18 December 2024).
Mayer, K.B. (1968) ‘The Jura Problem: ethnic conflict in Switzerland’, Social Research, 35(4), pp. 707–741. doi:http://www.jstor.org/stable/40969938.
Mouvement de la population 2023 (2024) Moutier. Available at: https://moutier.ch/mouvement-de-la-population-2023/ (Accessed: 14 December 2024).
Von Bergen, S. (2021) ‘Als Jurassier fühlt man sich schlecht im Kanton Bern’, Berner Oberländer, 20 April. Available at: https://www.berneroberlaender.ch/als-jurassier-
fuehlt-man-sich-schlecht-im-kanton-bern-102285685887?gift_token=70c2d4b9554e (Accessed: 16 December 2024).
Schwarz, P.-A. (2010) ‘Rauriker’, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz. Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz. Available at: https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/008022/2010-08-20/ (Accessed: 05 December 2024).
Identity Hunters 