PV1B119 The great history of a small nation – the foundation of Switzerland from the spirit of the Middle Ag

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2018
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Dr. phil. Klára Hübnerová (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Petr Elbel, Ph.D.
Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Olga Barová
Supplier department: Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Wed 12:00–13:40 B2.22
Prerequisites
Passive knowledge of German
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
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Course objectives
The main course objective is to familiarize students with the state mythology and facts surrounding the foundation of Switzerland and the roles which the individual members of the confederation – the city republics and the rural community – had to play in the process. This will involve the reading of medieval documents (mainly: charters, letters, chronicles, tracts), which were of importance for the establishment of Swiss historiography. At the end there is a look at the development of historiography from the 19th century and its influence on Swiss identity today. The lectures will mainly be in Czech, and where possible, the sources will be in the form of facsimiles or editions in Early High German. A passive knowledge of German is essential.
Learning outcomes
Upon completing the course:
- Students will be familiar with the (medieval) history of Switzerland and will have the opportunity to work with various reproductions of original sources of an urban and rural provenance;
- students will receive the opportunity to expand their knowledge of Early High German and the appropriate translation tools;
- students will be able to familiarize themselves with the methodology of historiographical writing and its influence on historical practice and social perception. This will also include a comparison of Swiss and Czech historiography.
Syllabus
  • “Small nations usually have great histories”. It was with these opening words that František Šmahel began his famous lecture at the University of Bern in Switzerland in 1996. However, he was not thinking about Switzerland, but Hussite Bohemia. The comparison, though, was not entirely misleading: as in Bohemia, the Swiss at the end of the 19th century had begun to refer to the mythical roots of their confederacy and its establishment in the Late Middle Ages. The territorial integrity of the country during the Second World War strengthened this tendency even more. That is why myths today have an important interactive function for Swiss society, myths such as William Tell, the legendary establishment of the confederation in 1291 at night on the meadow of Rütli or the age-old enemy – the Habsburgs.
Literature
  • Arnold Esch; Alltag der Entscheidung. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schweiz an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, Basel, Stuttgart, Wien, 1998.
  • Richard Feller, Edgar Bonjour; Geschichtsschreibung der Schweiz vom Spätmittelalter zur Neuzeit, 2 Bde., 1979.
  • Hanno Helbling et al. (ed.), Handbuch der Schweizer Geschichte, 2. Bde. Zürich 1999 (4).
  • Roger Sablonier; Gründungszeit ohne Eidgenossen. Politik und Gesellschaft in der Innerschweiz um 1300, Baden 2013.
Teaching methods
Lecture and exercises (source readings)
Assessment methods
Credit will be awarded after the written exam (the contextualization of sources from the course).
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
Teacher's information
The teaching consists of 12 meetings (1 lecture, 1 reading), the first part focuses on the foundation of Switzerland and the myths which surround it. There will then be a look at the individual members of the confederacy and their changing relationships (the towns against the rural communities), the construction of an enmity towards the Habsburgs, the emancipation of the confederacy in the 15th century, international relations with other European powers and their views of the Swiss, the development of communication bodies and a “Swiss” identity, its historiographical elevation in the 19th century and historical revisionism during and after the Second World War (“geistige Landesverteidigung” – the ideological defence of the state).
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