Switzerland

Switzerland
Flag of the Swiss Confederacy
Designer	Unknown
Adopted	1841
Civil and state ensign of Switzerland
Adopted	1882
Wikipedia article
Flags of the World article

The national flag of Switzerland (German: Schweizerfahne; French: drapeau de la Suisse; Italian: bandiera svizzera; Romansh: bandiera da la Svizra; Latin: Vexillum Helvetiae) displays a white cross in the center of a square red field. The white cross is known as the Swiss cross or the federal cross. Its arms are equilateral, and their ratio of length to width is 7:6. The size of the cross in relation to the field was set in 2017 as 5:8. Alongside the flag of Vatican City, the Swiss flag is one of only two square national flags in the world.

The white cross has been used as the field sign (attached to the clothing of combatants and to the cantonal war flags in the form of strips of linen) of the Old Swiss Confederacy since its formation in the late 13th or early 14th century. Its symbolism was described by the Swiss Federal Council in 1889 as representing "at the same the Christian cross symbol and the field sign of the Old Confederacy". As a national ensign, it was first used during the Napoleonic Wars by general Niklaus Franz von Bachmann, and as regimental flag of all cantonal troops from 1841. The federal coat of arms (eidgenössisches Wappen) was defined in 1815 for the Restored Confederacy as the white-on-red Swiss cross in a heraldic shield. The current design was used together with a cross composed of five squares until 1889, when its dimensions were officially set.

The civil and state ensign of Switzerland, used by Swiss ships, boats and non-governmental bodies, is rectangular in shape and has the more common proportions of 2:3. The emblem of the Red Cross is the Swiss flag with switched colours.

Historical Flags

1st flag of The Old Swiss Confederacy (1422-1475)

2nd flag of The Old Swiss Confederacy (1475-1798)

Flag of The Helvetic Republic, French (1798-1803)

Flag of The Helvetic Republic, German (1798-1803)

National Flag of the Swiss Confederacy (1841-present)

History

Middle Ages

There are three interpretations regarding the origin of the Swiss cross, originally a Christian symbol:

1. According to the first interpretation, it originates from the Theban Legion, whose cult was particularly widespread in the Kingdom of Burgundy.
2. According to the second interpretation, it comes from the Imperial War Flag of the Holy Roman Empire documented since the 12th century.
3. According to the third interpretation, it comes from the Arma Christi, the instruments of Christ's Passion, which were especially revered in Central Switzerland and allegedly allowed to be attached to the red blood banner by the original Swiss cantons from 1289 onwards.

Use of a white cross as a mark of identification of the combined troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy is first attested in the Battle of Laupen (1339), where it was sewn on combatants' clothing as two stripes of textile, contrasting with the red St. George's cross of Habsburg Austria, and with the St. Andrew's cross used by Burgundy and Maximilian I. The first flag used as a field sign representing the confederacy rather than the individual cantons may have been used in the Battle of Arbedo in 1422 (notably without the participation of the Canton of Schwyz). This was a triangular red flag with an elongated white cross.

Early Modern

The Tagsatzung decided in 1540 that the Swiss auxiliaries sent to Rottweil to aid in a feud against the lords of Landenberg should receive "a red flag with a white upright cross". The first mention of the term Confederate Cross (Eidgenossen Crütz) dates to 1533.

Because of the Swiss pledge of neutrality, there was no military conflict in which the Swiss confederate troops participated after 1540. Consequently, the confederate field sign fell out of use. At the same time, the former field sign develops into a representation of the Confederacy during this time, without achieving the full status as official heraldic emblem. The cross is shown as a symbol of the Swiss Confederacy on the Patenmedallie cast by Jacob Stampfer and given by the Confederacy as a baptismal gift to Princess Claude of France in 1547. The cross appears on similar medals and on throughout the early modern period, but most symbolic depictions of the Confederacy in the 17th century do without the federal cross.

Beginning in the later 16th century, forces of the individual cantons adopted a type of flag which was based on a white cross design. These flags usually showed a white cross drawn to the edge of the field in front of a background striped in the respective cantonal colours. From this type, the flammé military flag develops in the 17th century, which also came to be used by Swiss mercenary regiments by the end of the 17th century. The flammé design remained popular for military flags of the 18th and 19th centuries. A flammé flag was introduced as ordonnance for the Bernese troops in 1703.

Napoleonic period and Restored Confederacy

After the French invasion of Swiss territory in 1798 and the subsequent collapse of the Confederation, the authorities of the newly proclaimed Helvetic Republic confiscated all earlier flags, replacing them with a green-red-yellow tricolour. General Niklaus Franz von Bachmann used the white cross in a red field in his campaigns of 1800 and 1815.

The Tagsatzung (Swiss Diet) re-introduced the white cross in the red field for the seal of the Confederacy in 1814. The commission for drafting a federal constitution on 16 May 1814 recommended the adoption of a seal of the Confederacy based on the "field sign of the old Swiss". On 4 July 1815, the Diet accepted the design of the commission, adopted as the provisional seal described as "in the center, the federal red shield with the white cross as common federal heraldic emblem, surrounded by a simple circular Gothic ornament, on the outside of which the inscription 'Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft' with the year number MDCCCXV, and in an outer circle all XXII cantonal coat of arms in circular fields, according to their federal order of precedence; around all, a simple wreath".

This decision remained in force after the formation of the federal state in 1848, as was recognized by the Federal Council in 1889. As opposed to the definition of an official seal or coat of arms, it was not, at the time, usual to specify a "national flag".

The Tagsatzung on 2 September 1839 passed a resolution prescribing the use of a unified flag design for all cantonal infantry regiments. In a first circular sent to the cantonal authorities, the flag was described as a red flag with a cross touching the edges, but in 1841, the Tagsatzung opted for a proposal by Carl Stauffer, which was announced to the cantons on 11 October 1841. The 1841 flag shows a bold cross suspended in the center of the square field. The proportions of the cross arm are 1:1, i.e. the cross is composed of five squares. The absolute width of the flag is given as 4.5 feet (105 cm), that of the cross as 3 feet (90 cm), for a ratio of cross to flag width of 2:3 ≈ 66.7% (as opposed to the modern 5:8 = 62.5%).

Modern Switzerland

The Swiss constitution of 1848 did not name a national flag, but it prescribes the federal flag for all federal troops. The last flammé flags still used by Landwehr units were replaced by the modern design in 1865. In November 1889, the Federal Council published a "communication regarding the federal coat of arms", detailing the history of the use of the Swiss cross since the 15th century.

The Federal Council in 1889 introduced the 7:6 ratio as official. The associated communication explains that "our heraldic cross is not a mathematical figure, but at the same the Christian cross symbol and the field sign of the Old Confederacy". The 1889 law explicitly avoids specification of the shape of the shield, which was to be left to the "tastes of the current time and practical necessity". The proposed legislation defining the Swiss federal coat of arms was passed on 12 December 1889 (SR 111). The rectangular variant of the flag is used as a naval ensign only, officially introduced with a federal law passed 23 September 1953.

The current flag law of the Swiss Confederacy is the Wappenschutzgesetz (WSchG, SR 232.21) of 2013 (in force since 2017). This law replaced the flag law of 1931 (last revised in 2008). The 2013 law for the first time defines both the Swiss flag and the Swiss coat of arms based on an image, declared as authoritative in the text.

Design

The Swiss Federal Act on the Protection of the Swiss Coat of Arms and Other Public Signs (Coat of Arms Protection Act, CAPA, SR 232.21), in force since the 1st of January 2017, says that "The Swiss flag shows a Swiss cross on a square background." and that "The example depicted in Annex 2 defines the shape, colour and proportions.". This means that the Swiss flag is based on an image, as well as the Swiss coat of arms, since article 2 of the CAPA says that "The Coat of Arms of the Swiss Confederation (the Swiss coat of arms) is a Swiss cross in a triangular shield." in paragraph 1 and that "The example depicted in Annex 1 defines the shape, colour and proportions." in paragraph 2, with the Swiss cross being the only element that is defined by an article, specifically article 1 of the CAPA, which states that "The Swiss cross is a white, upright, free-standing cross depicted against a red background, whose arms, which are all of equal size, are one-sixth longer than they are wide.".

Additionally, the law states in article 3 paragraph 3 of the CAPA that 3 acts remain reserved from the law (The Navigation Act, The Civil Aviation Act and The Armed Forces Act) and in article 4 of the CAPA that "The Federal Council shall designate other emblems of the Confederation; these include, in particular, the federal signs indicating control and guarantee.", which makes it so that other Swiss national emblems can variate from the official flag but still remain considered as such, like the Swiss Flag at Sea (or Civil and state ensign of Switzerland), which is also based on an image, since the law says that "The example depicted in Annex 1 defines the shape, colour and proportions.".