Who is to blame? A question at the heart of the Swiss response to natural disasters

[ad_1]

In the past, the sky was full of signs from God. Today it’s a little more complicated. (Flugblatt, Basel, 1566) Zentralbibliothek Zrich

A change in mentality about the cause of natural disasters in the 19th century saved lives and shaped contemporary Switzerland.

This content was published on August 6, 2021 – 9:00 AM August 6, 2021 – 9:00 AM

David Eugster

Severe storms and landslides were no longer seen as divine punishment but rather seen as problems to be solved together. It remained taboo to ask who was responsible for the weather, allegedly in the interest of public welfare. Traces of this attitude are still evident in today’s debates.

Time, a popular topic for gossip, has long been politicized. In an age when global concerns are focused on climate change, it is almost impossible not to make the connection between human activities and natural disasters. Our lifestyle choices also influence the weather. But to what extent is a matter of division.

The massive storms that wreaked havoc across Europe last month sparked radically different interpretations of their significance. At one end of the spectrum, scientists like Swiss meteorologist Jrg Kachelmann have warned that they are just the beginning of the tragedy. On the other hand, former Swiss Radical Party chairman Franz Steinegger thought people were overreacting, calling it climate hysteria, and urged us to relax.

Steinegger earned the nickname Disaster Franz due to his extensive experience as a crisis manager in Canton Schwyz. When asked if city dwellers react to natural disasters differently than rural people, he replied: “People in the countryside are more relaxed, they’ve seen it before. They are also more willing to accept these events as acts of God.

Disasters as divine punishment

Blaming God for natural disasters may sound like an old saying from the Swiss Alps, but it’s a relatively recent prospect. Until a few centuries ago, natural disasters were not just accepted, they were thought to have a deeper meaning. Just as parents used to beat their children with a rod, God used to send frightening signs, at least we believed, to point us in the right direction.

As the rural population put butter and milk on the window sill to appease God, theologians wondered how to handle God’s capricious preaching. They were in a difficult situation because all those who died in an earthquake like the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon were not sinful children and religious were among the dead.

One explanation was that God also punished those who did not stop sinners. Swiss climate historian Christian Pfister wrote: The entire community has been held responsible for the sins of its people. It was the best way to avoid holding individuals accountable and blaming everyone else. This spread of guilt has helped blunt the edge of tragedies.

Swiss historian Johannes Stumpf believed that the devastating tidal wave of 1515 in Ticino was a wake-up call from God to “end our lives of sin”. lanostoria.ch Learning through disasters

It was an important step forward when the sins of people were no longer considered to have provoked the wrath of God. Once the blame moved away from individuals, natural disasters became something that brought communities together.

But it can be a double-edged sword. As we have seen recently, when politicians rush into communities following a natural disaster and are not seen to take it seriously, it can negatively impact their careers and wreak havoc on communities. traumatized communities.

Landslides, storms and floods have brought people together and contributed significantly to the rise of Switzerland as a nation. The first time disaster relief was proclaimed as a unifying element for the country was in 1806, when the Goldau landslide in the canton of Schwyz killed over 400 people and destroyed an entire village.

Andreas Merian, Napoleon’s first magistrate in the canton of Schwyz, saw mutual aid as a common force: Any donation from a Swiss citizen is in the interest of the nation, and everyone benefits. Those who receive help are grateful and develop a national feeling that leads to federal unity and true brotherly love.

With this statement, Merian attempted to turn religious guilt into Republican solidarity, and he did.

The Canton of Schwyz government raised funds and brought attention to the victims of Goldau by selling paintings depicting the destruction. (Xaver Triner, 1806) Schweizer Landesbibliothek National Flood Protection Monuments

A myriad of disasters have helped Switzerland to find its role. In the 19th century, private emergency relief was slowly taken over by the federal government.

In 1834, when the Confederation was deeply divided, floods wreaked havoc in much of Switzerland. Members of the Tagsatzung, the central body of the Confederation made up of delegates from the cantons, took control of (private) fundraising. They negotiated with the cantons how best to invest the funds, but the negotiations regularly exceeded brotherly love and the money was often spent in the interest of the state. Although some people have received compassionate funds, they have mostly been invested in infrastructure. In the canton of Graubünden, for example, the donations were mainly used for flood protection to avoid future disasters after 1834. The money went to local entrepreneurs while those who were hit hard did received little help and plunged into poverty. In other words, the affected areas received development assistance rather than direct assistance.

The projects of diversion of rivers and the construction of dams undertaken after 1834 were regarded as monuments of national unity. However, the canton of Valais refused to join the infrastructure campaign and preferred to distribute the money to the people concerned. In 1869, the Federal Council declared the following about the strategy of the cantons: There is no monument in Valais which shows the national labor of love and protects the country from future catastrophes.

In 1868, Switzerland was struck by another catastrophe. Heavy rains caused flooding that killed 51 people and caused extensive destruction across the country. In 1834, flood protection was still the responsibility of the cantons, however, after this major disaster, the federal government decided to take control. She also launched a national donation campaign and raised 3.6 million Swiss francs as well as more than three tonnes of food. The slogan One for all, all for one has become the national credo. Meanwhile, flood protection laws and measures were passed and are still in effect.

Don’t look for the cause!

It was only possible to interpret the inexplicable signs of God as something that could be tackled together once society had stopped blaming individuals for disasters. This meant that attention had shifted from the causes of disasters to aid, infrastructure and crisis management.

A glaring example is the 1881 landslide of Elm. The disaster was caused by the mining of slate, which began in the Glarner Alps in 1868 to increase the income of the inhabitants of the valleys. However, the local politicians in charge were inexperienced and the mining techniques were negligent. Supporting buttresses were removed, changes to the mountain rock face were ignored, and those who warned of impending disaster were ridiculed for thinking too much jobs and too much money were at stake. Even after large parts of the mountain broke loose and crashed into the valley, the locals did nothing. In the end, 114 people lost their lives in the disaster.

No one was held responsible for the tragedy. One of the reasons was that locals begged reporters not to spread bad news or dig too deep, as that would jeopardize much needed fundraising. The inhabitants of Elms were to be seen as innocent, overwhelmed by blind natural forces and unable to win the fight against the relentless power of nature.

It only worked because the perception of natural disasters had fundamentally changed. They were no longer seen as God’s punishment for sin, but as something that should not be questioned and should simply be accepted as the natural course of events. God’s actions are impenetrable. Geology professor Albert Heim expresses his perplexity:

You resist fear and tell yourself it’s nothing. The fearful are ridiculed. You deny having understood the meaning of the omen and ignore the danger. This lackluster attitude permeates the general population. And those who bury their heads in the sand have the nerve to distort the truth. You can rest assured that people are more likely to believe right than wrong.

Source: Christian Pfister (ed.) The day after. On the management of natural disasters in Switzerland 1500 – 2000. Bern 2002.

End of insertion

[ad_2]