The Swiss in the US

When thinking of the people who made the United States of America, the Brits and French and Italians and Irish and Chinese and Mexicans spring to mind - but certainly not the Swiss. Yet, there are over one million Americans of Swiss descent, including directors George Lucas and Marc Forster, actress Renée Zellweger, photographer Robert Frank, singer Jewel, Google's first VP of engineering Urs Hölzle, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who led the Pittsburgh Steelers to the recent Super Bowl victory. Chevrolet cars are named after a Swiss; president Herbert Hoover had roots in Bern and Meyer Guggenheim (as in the museums) came from Aargau; and so on. The US are scattered with cities carrying Swiss names, from New Glarus, Wisconsin (their website opens with a "Grützi" - the Swiss-German "hello" - and carries Wilhelm Tell as emblem) to Vevay, Switzerland County, Indiana (settled by people from Vevey) and about 4000 other US towns and sites.
I acknowledge that I didn't know half of the above until the Swiss consulate in New York launched yesterday a website - swissroots.org - and a series of related events. The website is pretty sophisticated, and it is primarily aimed at Americans of Swiss descent. What I didn't find is a mention of the historical and political ties between the US and Switzerland, the "sister republics": the US Articles of Confederation (1781), which are considered the nation's first constitution, were based on the Swiss model of confederation, and the subsequent US Constitution of 1787 served as model for the Swiss Constitution of 1848. And that was just the beginning of a long relationship.

(tags: Switzerland)

Comments

[Ben Casnocha]

Great site! I'm planning on being in Zurich this summer and would love to meet up.

[BG]

Sure Ben, you know how to reach me. B.