Cross purposes: the unique Swiss flag

The world's largest Swiss flag (80x80 metres) is unfurled every year on National Day, August 1, in Säntis, in eastern Switzerland. Keystone / Ennio Leanza

“The Swiss flag is a big plus” goes the old joke. It also has several strengths – and quirks – that go far beyond that of resembling an addition sign.

An upside-down Swiss flag. Creative Commons CC BY-SA

The only square national flag apart from that of the Vatican City, the Swiss flag has the advantage over its near neighbour of being more versatile: no matter which side you use as a base, it will always be in the right direction. The next time someone mocks the Swiss for having a “square mentality”, you can retort with this bit of trivia.

In addition, the Swiss cross (technically a Greek cross) is an immediately recognisable and minimalist symbol, which also makes it very popular in the world of graphic design, especially when it comes to Swiss StyleExternal link. This achieved international fame in the 1950s and 1960s and is characterised by formal conciseness and conceptual strength. The Swiss cross fits it perfectly; many examples can also be found by browsing the latest version of the Swiss passport. 

Swiss crosses in the new biometric passport. Keystone / Christian Beutler

Regarding symbolism, one often hears that the flag’s squareness and uniformity is a reminder of neutrality, democracy and freedom and that the four arms of the cross represent the four national languages, distinct but united. However suggestive, these claims have no historical basis.

The first official flag: a tricolour

Things could well have turned out differently. In 1798 Switzerland became a republic, the Helvetic Republic, under French pressure. The Swiss franc was introduced, and the country adopted its first official flag, a tricolour (an apparent weakness of Napoleon). The Helvetic tricolour had the same colours as the flag of today’s Mali: green, red and yellow.

Standard-bearer of the Helvetic Republic, by Georg Leonhard Hartmann (1764-1828) Wikimedia Commons / Amt für Kultur des Kantons St. Gallen 2003

The experiment of making Switzerland a unitary state was short-lived. Napoleon himself said: “Nature destined Switzerland to become a League of States; no wise man would attempt to conquer it.”

Only five years after its creation, the Helvetic Republic – and its tricolour – came to an end (unlike the franc, a true success story).

A symbol born on the battlefield

After the tricolour, one didn’t have to look far for a flag. After all, a white cross on a red background, albeit in different proportions and never really official, had existed for centuries.

The first attested use of the cross that would evolve into the present-day symbol of Switzerland dates back to 1339 when, during the Battle of Laupen, the Bernese and Confederacy troops, opposing Fribourg and the feudal lords of the Burgundian and Habsburg territories, sewed a white cross onto their chain mail in order to recognise each other.

There are three hypotheses on the origin of this cross, according to the Swiss Historical DictionaryExternal link. In order of increasing plausibility:

• From the Theban legion and the cult of its commander, St Maurice.
• From the war flag of the Holy Roman Empire
• From the symbols of the Passion of Christ, particularly venerated in central Switzerland

The fact remains that the cross, often on a red field (perhaps a reference to the blood of Christ), would be found for more than a century in various forms on the armour and banners of Swiss soldiers, of troops made up of soldiers from different cantons and of mercenaries.

By the end of the Middle Ages, however, this custom died out. But the white cross on a red background remained the recognised symbol throughout Europe of the bizarre and complex system of alliances between 13 cantons known as the Old Confederation. 

Fathers of the modern Swiss flag

Several historians attribute the 19th-century revival to Niklaus Franz von Bachmann, who was at the head of Swiss emigrant regiments serving Austria and Britain during the Second Coalition War. In 1800, he assigned his troops a standard very similar to today’s flag. In 1802, he was the commander-in-chief of the federal army that defeated the army of the Helvetic Republic during the Stecklikrieg, the War of Sticks. In 1814, the Federal Diet declared the Swiss Cross to be the official emblem of the Confederation, a symbol that is proudly displayed on the Federal Treaty of 1815.

From then on, progressive and nationalist forces in the population, in particular gymnastics clubs, shooting associations and choirs, began to adopt it.

Watercoloured pen drawing of the first federal flag, made in 1841 by Carl Stauffer. Stauffer’s draft, accompanied by detailed explanations and measurements, was sent to the cantons to serve as a model for future infantry battalion flags. (Source: Historical Dictionary of Switzerland) Creative Commons CC BY-SA / Museo nazionale svizzero, Zurigo

The creation of the first unitary military flag was introduced on the initiative of the future general, Guillaume Henri Dufour, in 1840. Each cantonal infantry contingent was represented by a cross on a red background made up of five equal squares on which golden letters indicated the name of the canton (see image). The Federal Constitution of 1848, which sanctioned the birth of Switzerland as we know it today, imposed its use for all troops.

But why square?

This military origin is the cause of the main peculiarity of today’s Swiss flag: contemporary war flags were in fact square.

The shape of the cross has been prescribed by law since 1889, when the government stipulated that “the coat of arms of the Confederation is a free-standing, upright white cross on a red field, the arms of which, equal to each other, are one-sixth longer than they are wide”. It thus differed from Dufour’s military flag, which was considered by many to be ugly and which generated heated debate among the press in the 1880s, according to a very detailed articleExternal link on the Swiss flag.

This decision finally put the shape of the cross on paper. However, nothing indicated its proportions in relation to the borders, what type of red should be used, let alone that the flag should be square. For a long time, it was just a matter of tradition.

Clear guidelines had to wait until 2017, when an amendment to the Federal Law for the Protection of the Swiss Coats of Arms and Other Public SignsExternal link came into force. This states:

1 The Swiss flag shows a Swiss cross on a square background.

2 The example depicted in Annex 2 (below) defines the shape, colour and proportions.

Law on the Protection of Coats of Arms Swiss Confederation

Two exceptions

There are two notable exceptions. If you ever come across a vessel flying the Swiss flag on the high seas, you will notice that the flag is rectangular. This is not an oversight. It is the Swiss maritime flag, introduced by the government on April 9, 1941, to prevent attacks in wartime. In accordance with international standards, it has always been rectangular with well-defined proportions in the Federal Maritime Navigation Act.

The second exception, as this SWI swissinfo.ch article reminds us, concerns the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), based in Lausanne, decided that as of the 2004 Athens Games, all the flags of the delegations of participating countries must have the same rectangular format. The aim is to ensure that no flag is different, which would go against the Olympic spirit that aspires to equality and respect between nations.

Let’s not cause a scene by point outing that an exception was made for Nepal but not for Switzerland. After all, we’re not square.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg. Adapted from Italian by Thomas Stephens