A reconsideration of the "Züriputsch" of 1839 under the point of view of historical semantics

What is it about?

On the 6 September 1839 a crowd of about 5.000 people started marching from the Zurich highlands towards the city of Zurich and finally overthrew the liberal-radical government. This was due to the government’s pursue to appoint the Hegelian theologian David Friedrich Strauß to the chair of dogmatics at the University of Zurich against the will of the Church authority. Representatives of the Church and conservative politicians had founded a Central Committee in order to channel the protest against the political leaders’ intentions. Finally, it was the rumour of a mobilisation of foreign troops disposed by the government to maintain and order that triggered the rebellion. Due to the conservative character of the “Züriputsch”, as this event went down in history, Swiss historiography denied to it a sort of revolutionary dignity and stigmatised it to a large extent. In return the negatively connoted term “Putsch” took root in the German-speaking world and beyond. The present article aims at analysing the publications in the aftermath of the event, from the point of view of historical semantics. It considers the terms used to describe the event in Zurich, as well as the independent career of the term “Putsch” with respect to the German Revolution of 1848/49. Finally, some observations on the metahistorical narratives are made.

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Why is it important?

The text rescues a little or almost unknown episode of Swiss history which had a relevant legacy in Europe during the age of revolution and its aftermath. It reminds that words do not only have meanings but also connotations and that the choice of a particular word instead of another is conditioned by political reasons.