Nicht kriegführend, aber doch Teil eines globalen Krieges: Perspektiven auf transnationale Verflechtungen der Schweiz im Ersten Weltkrieg

For a long time national narratives have dominated the histories of the First World War. This was also true in the case of Switzerland, although more recent research has tried to change this. The transnational entanglements of the country during the First World War have, however, not really been focused upon so far. This contribution tries to change this to a certain extent by presenting, on an exemplary basis, some aspects of such entanglements be they economic, humanitarian or politico-diplomatic. Taking into account that global history deals with macro-history as well as micro-history the focus will be on Switzerland’s role in the economic war, on Switzerland and the Hague Conventions at the beginning of the war, on the ICRC and the Agence Internationale des Prisonniers de Guerre, on some humanitarian actors such as Catharina Sturzenegger or Archibald-Rodolphe Reiss, on the extension of state power and the changes of constitutional relations as well as on the exemplary fate of three Swiss living in belligerent countries during the war.