Page 7 - GC-May-June-2026

Zürich: Switzerland’s largest city

By Martin Ederer
ürich is both a city and a metro-
Zpolitan area. The city itself is
home to some 436,000 people. The
entire area has upwards of 2 million.
Celtic settlements on the intersec-
tion of Lake Zürich and the Limmat
River mark the origins of settle-
ments of the area, but the founda-
tions of Zürich as the town that still
exists are Roman Turicum.
First Roman origins date to a
fortress built around 15 BC. The
confluence of the Limmat and Lake
Zürich was on the border between
Gallia Belgica (later Germania Su-
perior) and Rhaetia. The Limmat in Zurich. Photo by JoachimKohler-HB - Own work, CC
There was a (pursued) Christian BY-SA 4.0.
presence in Zürich by the late 200s
when Felix, Regula and Exuperatius In the 19th century, Zürich tore a piece of the pain. Because the rest
of the Theban legion stationed in the down its walls, although they had of Europe was at war, coal and food
Valais refused to offer sacrifice to never really seen much action. shipments became unreliable.
the emperor Maximian. Such a sac- Zürich briefly served as the federal Worse still, both Axis and Allied
rifice implied admitting that the em- capital of Switzerland. Zürich also bomber forces felt free to violate
peror was a god, something these took the lead in opposing the Cath- Swiss airspace. Occasionally lost
Christians could not in good faith olic cantons’ Sonderbund, which crews bombed Swiss territory. In
do. Authorities finally caught up opposed centralization in a struggle 1945, six USAAF B-24s bound for
with the three fugitives who got that lasted – in succession legally, Aschaffenburg in Germany unload-
beheaded for their intransigence and Johann Balthasar Bullinger's imagining of Zurich in Roman times diplomatically, and militarily – ed on Zürich by mistake, killing five
were interred where the Zürich (engraving 1773), with Wellenberg Tower on the river and another from 1845-1848. The Sonderbund people.
patients from Western Grossmünster now stands. As “pa- tower on Lindenhof hill (to the right). was defeated yet a compromise re- Zürich is Switzerland’s major
trons” of Zürich, their feast day of sulted: Switzerland was to be a air, rail, banking, university and me-
September 11 came to have great The next major challenge During the Reformation period, loosely constructed federal state, dia hub. It is home to the Swiss
importance in the city. By the 400s that Zürich faced was French Zürich became a hotbed of Protes- but Jesuits were constitutionally stock exchange. In addition, there is
Alemannic Germans settled into the invasion during the French tant reforms, thanks to the activities banished. The 1840s also witnessed a rich cultural life complete with
area; the Roman fortress, however, of Huldrych Zwingli, the main Swiss railroad construction; Zürich museums, music of all forms, enter-
remained standing until the 7th cen- Revolution and Napoleonic preacher at Zürich’s Grossmünster. lay at the center of the growing tainment and sport.
tury. period. This was, incidental- Zwingli’s reforms unleashed ideas network. In 1893, Zürich began to Major world figures who called
In the Carolingian Era, Charle- ly, the last time Switzerland so radical that they horrified Martin incorporate outlying districts into Zürich home for a time include
magne’s grandson Louis the Ger- participated in serious Luther. Zürich’s church interiors all the city, a process completed in the Richard Wagner, James Joyce, Al-
man built a new castle; he also general warfare in Europe. got whitewashed, liturgy became 1930s. bert Einstein … and Vladimir Ilyich
founded the Fraumünster abbey for plain and music was forbidden in a Although Switzerland was neu- Lenin.
his daughter Hildegard, endowing city that increasingly was reformat- tral during World War II, it did get
the Benedictine convent with Zürich joined the Swiss Confed- ted according to Zwingli’s ideas.
Zürich, Uri and the Albis Forest. In eration in 1351. The core cantons of Zürich’s own reformation also
1045 Henry III granted the convent the confederation – Uri, Schwyz and drew other Protestant reformers to
market rights, collect tolls and mint Unterwalden had already banded the city, among them figures intent
coins. The Abbess was the effective together in 1291 to secede from the on purifying Christianity even fur-
ruler of the city. Holy Roman Empire, making them ther. Zürich therefore also became
Zürich became an imperial free virtually autonomous. The Holy Ro- one of the cradles of Anabaptism, a
city in 1218 after the main branch of man Empire was not in much of a movement that both Protestant and
the Zähringen Dynasty died out. position to fight the breakaway re- Catholic rulers felt free to prosecute
The city constructed a wall in the gions, but official imperial recogni- and persecute.
1230s by recycling the stone from tion of the fait accompli was slow in Eventually Zürich’s Zwinglian-
the disintegrating Carolingian Cas- coming: the Peace of Westphalia ism and Geneva’s Calvinism joined
tle. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick that ended the Thirty Years War forces to solidify the Protestant Re-
II promoted the Fraumünster abbess finally acknowledged that reality in formed tradition, but not before the
to duchess in 1234, but her power 1648. Zürich had joined the Helvet- religious changes caused religious
over the city began to wane as a ic Confederation in 1351 as its fifth warfare in the Swiss cantons. It
growing commercial class and their member after Luzern had joined. bears mention that a good part of
guilds began to manage the life of After a brief expulsion from the Switzerland (about half) did remain
the city. The first independent may- confederation in 1440 Zürich quick- Catholic. The Second War of Kap-
or not selected by the abbess began ly became the major canton in the pel in 1531 ended with Zwingli get-
to rule the city by the late 1330s. confederation diet: from 1468 to ting chopped up. Zürich escaped the
1519 Zürich was the presiding Can- misery of the Thirty Years War that
ton. became the Central European Ar-
mageddon ending the Reformation,
thanks to Zürich’s isolationist
stance and the construction of
strong new walls. By the end of the
war, Zürich declared itself a repub-
lic.
The next major challenge that
Zürich faced was French invasion
during the French Revolution and
Napoleonic period. This was, inci-
dentally, the last time Switzerland
participated in serious general war-
fare in Europe.

MON(eta) NOV(a) THVRICEN-
SIS CIVIT(atis) IMPERIALIS:
"new coin of Zurich, imperial
city", 1512 (with Zurich's patron
saints Felix, Regula and Exu-
perantius). Source City of Zürich -
Winterthur, Münzkabinett.
May - June 2026 • THE GERMAN CITIZEN • 7