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144-538: The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation ( SR 10 ; German : Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft ( BV ); French : Constitution fédérale de la Confédération suisse ( Cst. ); Italian : Costituzione federale della Confederazione Svizzera ( Cost. ); Romansh : Constituziun federala da la Confederaziun svizra ) of 18 April 1999 ( SR 101 ) is the third and current federal constitution of Switzerland . It establishes

288-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

432-499: A referendum on 18 April 1999 , in which a majority of the people and the cantons voted in favour. It replaced the prior federal constitution of 1874, which it was intended to bring up to date without changing its substance. Prior to 1798, the Swiss Confederacy was a confederation of independent states, not a federal state; as such it was based on treaties rather than a constitution. The Helvetic Republic of 1798–1803 had

576-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

720-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

864-451: A certain number of "sponsorships" from MPs before a popular initiative can be put to the vote. At both federal and cantonal level, a number of studies have been carried out to determine whether the use of the Internet by the authorities could increase the participation rate, often below 50%, of citizens in various votes; this use could be in political communication, in electronic voting, or in

1008-745: A constitution largely drawn up by Peter Ochs , in 1803 replaced by the Act of Mediation , which was in turn replaced by the Federal Treaty of 1815, which restored the Confederacy, while the individual cantons drew up cantonal constitutions, in most respects based on the Ancien Régime of the 18th century , but with notable liberal innovations in the constitutions of the new cantons of St. Gallen , Aargau , Thurgau , Ticino , Vaud and Geneva . The new cantonal constitutions in many cases served as precedents for

1152-408: A federal project to be put to the vote. At the end of their work, they produced a one-page report summarizing the issues, the main arguments for and against, and their conclusions. The aim was to explain the subject of the vote "in a comprehensible and complete manner, without falling into simplification", to "respond to the current crisis of democracy by involving citizens". The right of initiative

1296-457: A few years, but has never been used. When the Constitution was revised in 1999 , a new form of initiative was defined, called the "general popular initiative", which allows "the adoption, modification or repeal of constitutional or legislative provisions", but only in the form of a proposal conceived in general terms. The aim of introducing this new type of popular initiative was to offer citizens

1440-483: A general draft, and four (out of a total of 11 proposals) were put to the vote (for the revision of the alcohol regime in 1937 , for a new business tax in 1951, for the fight against alcoholism in 1963 and for tax reform in 1974 ). Requests for complete revision are even less frequent: three attempts were unsuccessful (in 1851 , 1866 and 2003 ), while the fourth was rejected by the people on 8 September, 1935 . A fourth type of initiative has existed for only

1584-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

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1728-534: A later date by means of partial amendments. However, in its 1997 message presenting the draft revision, the Federal Council also proposed an overhaul of popular rights: extending the initiative and referendum to internal acts and international treaties, while increasing the number of signatures required to 100,000 for the referendum and 150,000 for the initiative; Parliament refused to go ahead with this proposal, which it considered to be rather incoherent. However,

1872-402: A minimum of seven and a maximum of 27 persons (the first odd number allowing for one representative per canton ) with full civic rights (thus excluding minors and foreigners). The names and addresses of the committee members must appear on all the initiative's signature lists, so that citizens know exactly who is behind and supports the initiative. These members are responsible for preparing

2016-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

2160-515: A new version of the Constitution in the summer of 1873: abandoning the legislative initiative and lowering the referendum threshold to 30,000 signatures were among the changes made to this new draft, which made no change to the right of federal popular initiative, and was still solely dedicated to the demand for a complete constitutional revision; the Radical Party tenors of the time, Emil Welti and Alfred Escher , preferred to focus their attacks on

2304-412: A number of criticisms have also been voiced. This is particularly true of the risk of "emotionalizing politics", as Karl Schumann puts it, noting that the popular initiative enables the people to take a concrete (constitutional) decision, even though public law stipulates that any concrete decision must derive from a law. On the same theme, French philosopher and political scientist Denis Collin denounces

2448-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

2592-479: A popular initiative to recast the Constitution which failed to gather the necessary 50,000 signatures, provided for the rights of referendum and legislative initiative. This proposal, adopted by the Federal Assembly on 6 March 1872, was nonetheless deemed too centralizing, and was rejected by popular vote on 12 May 1872. Once this revision had been rejected, federal parliamentarians went back to work to propose

2736-468: A preamble and six parts, which together make up 196 articles. It provides an explicit provision for nine fundamental rights, which up until then had only been discussed and debated in the Federal Court. It also provides for greater details in tax laws. The Constitution of 1999 has been changed by popular initiative ten times in the period of 2002 to 2014, as follows: The preamble and the first title of

2880-457: A referendum. In the end, a modest proposal was put to the vote: the introduction of a general popular initiative, the possibility of appealing to the Federal Court in the event of disagreement over the wording of the initiative's texts, and a revision of the calculation of votes in the event of a "double-yes" to the initiative and its counter-proposal were among the main innovations representing

3024-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

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3168-447: A sharp increase in cantonal democratic rights including, in addition to the appointment of authorities and control of the administration, popular and legislative initiative, as well as the lowering of the number of signatures and financial limits required and the end of counting abstentions as positive votes. This impetus was also to be found, albeit to a lesser extent, at federal level: the proposed Constitution of 1872, prompted in part by

3312-485: A simple petition and recommended that it should ultimately be considered as a request for a complete revision of the Constitution; presented as such to the popular vote, it was rejected by a majority of almost 70% of voters. Following the rejection of the right of initiative for a partial revision of the Constitution, coupled with the demand for a banknote monopoly in 1880: the right of federal legislative initiative, compulsory legislative referendum and even election of

3456-430: A waiting period prohibiting the tabling of a federal popular initiative for a certain period of time, or to extend the period allowed to the federal authorities for an initiative dealing with an identical subject to that of a previous initiative, thus respecting what the journalist calls "the will of the majority". In the exact opposite direction, a federal popular initiative entitled "for popular initiatives to be put to

3600-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

3744-537: Is a tool specifically designed to propose amendments to the Federal Constitution. It does not have the power to directly modify federal laws or lower-level regulations. However, a successful popular initiative that alters or introduces a constitutional article may necessitate subsequent legal changes. This is true if the newly approved article includes provisions that are not self-executing (i.e., do not directly take effect without further legislation). In such cases,

3888-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

4032-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

4176-514: Is called federal popular initiative . Thus, partial revisions of the constitution could – from this time onward – be made at any time. Twelve such changes were made in the period of 1893 to 1994 (with no changes during the thirty-year period of 1950–1980): The Federal Constitution was wholly revised for the second time in the 1990s, when the new version was approved by popular and cantonal vote on 18 April 1999. It came into force on 1 January 2000. The 1999 Constitution of Switzerland consists of

4320-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

4464-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

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4608-417: Is confirmed after it has been voted on by the courts. However, this initiative failed to gather the necessary signatures to succeed. For its part, the Federal Council also voiced strong criticism of the federal popular initiative in its 1995 constitutional revision proposal: the obligation placed on the federal authorities to deal with these requests, which escape the traditional filter system ensuring one of

4752-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

4896-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

5040-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

5184-550: Is often confused with the right of petition. However, these two rights differ in at least four fundamental respects: At the beginning of the 20th century, these differences prompted a number of political scientists to call for the universal right of petition, while at the same time limiting the right of popular initiative, which "does not have the same status" because it represents a danger if used by "extreme parties". The first form of popular initiative in Switzerland dates back to

5328-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

5472-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

5616-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

5760-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

5904-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

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6048-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

6192-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

6336-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

6480-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

6624-473: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

6768-511: The Federal Chancellery , which carries out a formal check of it; the same initiative committee then has a certain period in which to collect the necessary signatures and submit them, while generally being entitled to withdraw the initiative. Depending on whether the initiative is drafted or general, it will be handled differently by the federal authorities; however, its validity is always subject to both formal and material conditions. Finally,

6912-863: The Federal Council by the people were called for successively by Conservative Party deputies in a motion in 1884, and by the Grütli Association in a petition in 1889 . Faced with these repeated requests, the National Council decided to clarify the situation and drew up a proposal based on a motion, allowing 50,000 citizens to request a partial revision of the Constitution, but only in general terms and presented by three conservative deputies: future Lucerne Federal Councillor Joseph Zemp and State Councillors Johann Joseph Keel of St. Gallen and Martino Pedrazzini of Ticino . This first proposal, drafted by Karl Schenk and published on 13 June 1890,

7056-514: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

7200-724: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

7344-644: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

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7488-640: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

7632-536: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

7776-503: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

7920-462: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

8064-472: The "lowest common denominator" between the two chambers. Presented to the vote in the form of a single decree, the package of measures was accepted by a majority of 70.4% of voters and all the cantons on 9 February, 2003 . However, and despite the rule that "constitutional amendments come into force as soon as they have been approved by the people and the cantons", it will still be several years before these various measures are actually applied, as they require

8208-425: The "marketing" titles of certain popular initiatives, such as the one officially called " Halt overpopulation – Yes to the sustainable preservation of natural resources ". The various stages in the process of a federal popular initiative are strictly described in the law: in short, the text of the initiative, which concerns a more or less broadly defined constitutional object, is submitted by an initiative committee to

8352-644: The 20th century wore on, such as the right to a decent burial guaranteed in article 53 of the old constitution. In consequence, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court 's extensive case law developed an array of implicit or "unwritten" fundamental rights, drawing upon the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and applying the fundamental rights guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which Switzerland ratified in 1974. In

8496-657: The Chancellery also validates the title of the federal popular initiative, which must not be misleading, contain advertising elements or lead to confusion. In any of these cases, it is the Chancellery's duty to modify the title of the initiative, as provided for in Article 69 of the Political Rights Act; this modification decision may be challenged by the initiative committee before the Federal Supreme Court . Finally,

8640-480: The Chancellery translates the initiative into the three official languages ( Romansh is optional and, unlike the other three language versions, has no legal force), based on one of the versions designated by the initiative committee as the authentic version. Translations carried out by the Federal Chancellery are not subject to appeal. On the other hand, the Federal Chancellery does not carry out any checks on

8784-556: The Constitution determine the general outlines of Switzerland as a democratic federal republic of 26 cantons governed by the rule of law . The preamble opens with a solemn invocation of God in continuance of Swiss constitutional tradition. It is a mandate to the State authorities by the Swiss people and cantons, as the Confederation's constituent powers, to adhere to the values listed in

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8928-553: The Constitution. The period allowed for the authorities to process an initiative was initially set at one year by the law of 27 January 1892; in 1950 , it was increased to three years from the date of submission of the initiative, following the opinion expressed by the Federal Council that the processing procedure required more time. In 1962, the Law on Relations between the Councils came into force. This law set new deadlines of two years for

9072-470: The Council of States instructed its Political Institutions Committee to take from the proposal those ideas "likely to win a majority of votes in favor", with the aim of "eliminating the shortcomings of the current system" and "not facilitating or complicating the exercise of popular rights". In 2001 , the commission's work resulted in a report that retained a number of measures (the general popular initiative and

9216-714: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

9360-433: The Federal Council (with the option of adding an extra year if necessary), and one year for the Federal Assembly. An additional optional year was also granted to the Federal Assembly on 14 March, 1974 , should it decide to present a counter-proposal. In 1976, the optional year granted on request to the Federal Council became fixed, thus increasing the total ordinary processing time from three to four years. On 20 June, 1986 ,

9504-423: The Federal Council noted that this amendment "consists merely of a pure and simple adaptation to conditions which have changed since 1874 and 1891 in terms of society and law" and "is not motivated by the desire to resolve the many problems posed [...] by the initiative and the referendum". Slightly modified by Parliament (which reduced the number of signatures required to launch a referendum from 60,000 to 50,000),

9648-700: The Federal Government. It provides for three branches of the government represented by three bodies: the Federal Assembly (two chambers, representing the Legislative power), Federal Council (the Executive power), and the Federal Court (the Judicial power). The main differences compared to the previous constitution deal with the supervisory activity of the Federal Court of the Federal Legislature. Title 6 regulates

9792-718: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

9936-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

10080-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

10224-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

10368-646: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

10512-1008: The Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

10656-507: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

10800-499: The Minister for the Reform of Democratic Institutions, Jean-Pierre Charbonneau , to introduce this right into the national constitution. In 2020 and 2021, the question of initiative titles was discussed. Liberal-Radical National Councillor Damien Cottier from Neuchâtel proposed that the Federal Chancellery should fix the name of the initiative or give it a chronological number, in view of

10944-405: The Swiss Confederation as a federal republic of 26 cantons (states). The document contains a catalogue of individual and popular rights (including the right to call for popular referendums on federal laws and constitutional amendments ), delineates the responsibilities of the cantons and the Confederation and establishes the federal authorities of government. The Constitution was adopted by

11088-400: The adoption of a federal law (which generally takes up some of the initiative's demands). A committee wishing to launch a federal popular initiative must submit the initiative's signature lists to the Federal Chancellery, which, in accordance with article 68 of the Political Rights Act will check that the following details are present: In addition to the elements of article 68 listed above,

11232-425: The approval of the federal authorities. From its inception to 2018, 215 such votes were held, an average of 1.69 per year. Although unlikely to be successful (around 10% of popular initiatives put to the vote are accepted), the federal popular initiative makes it possible to provoke public debate on issues that are not always addressed in traditional parliamentary debates. In addition, the federal parliament may oppose

11376-409: The bill was accepted by popular vote on 25 September, 1977 by 19 cantons and 56.7% of voters in the case of the initiative. However, it had no effect on the number of cases in which the federal popular initiative was used in subsequent years. A new proposal by the Federal Council to increase the number of signatures required to 150,000 was rejected by the Federal Assembly during the 1999 revision of

11520-492: The case of contradiction the Federal Constitution prevails. The second chapter declares the federal power about areas that require uniform regulation, such as relations with foreign states, security, national and civil defence, general aspects about education, research, culture, the aspects about environment and spatial planning, public construction works and transport, energy and communications, economy in general, concerns about housing, employment, social security and health, about

11664-418: The collection of electronic signatures. In a 1998 study on the subject, e-government and e-democracy specialist Christine Poupa did not believe "that the overall participation rate would be significantly altered by the possible introduction of new tools", tools which in any case, in her view, would not be acceptable at federal level for many years to come. In terms of the content of federal popular initiatives,

11808-434: The committee launched this initiative to "put an end to all the hanky-panky surrounding popular initiatives"; however, it was rejected in the vote on 12 March, 2000 by 70% of voters and all the cantons. On 18 April, 1999 , a majority of almost 60% of voters accepted a new Federal Constitution; this essentially cosmetic revision ruled out any far-reaching changes to constitutional structures, which were to be dealt with at

11952-408: The considerable financial resources required for the popular vote campaign. As of 4 December 2023 Popular initiatives launched (524) Successful popular initiatives (347/524) The most widely used form of federal popular initiative is a procedure whereby 100,000 Swiss citizens can draft a new constitutional article, or amend an existing one, and submit this constitutional amendment to a vote of

12096-585: The content of the initiative, nor on its validity. Once the check has been completed, the Federal Chancellery publishes the title and text of the initiative in all three official languages in the Federal Gazette (the Romansh version, if available, is published alongside the German version), together with the names and addresses of the authors, thus enabling the collection of signatures to begin. This preliminary check by

12240-651: The course of the 1999 constitutional revision, the Federal Assembly decided to codify that case law in the form of a comprehensive bill of rights, which is substantially congruent with the rights guaranteed in the ECHR, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . Title 2 also covers the essential rules on the acquisition of Swiss citizenship and of

12384-461: The debates preceding approval of this text, a request for clarification along these lines was tabled by several cantons, but rejected as "superfluous" by the majority, who considered that both forms of revision were included. In the 1860s, a few years after the one that had led to the 1848 Constitution, a new democratic upsurge took place in several cantons; directed against the nature and duration of political mandates, deemed excessive, it resulted in

12528-478: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

12672-452: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

12816-424: The distribution of deadlines within the four-year period was revised, with the Federal Council having two years to prepare its message (30 months in the event of a counter-proposal), the remainder being devolved to Parliament. In 1989 , an initiative "against delaying tactics in the processing of popular initiatives" called for the total time limit to be reduced to two years; however, the initiative failed to obtain

12960-423: The draft was accepted by a narrow majority of 71 votes to 63, made up of conservatives and socialists, and thus put to a popular vote. On 5 July 1891, the introduction of articles 121, 122 and 123 into the Federal Constitution defining the right of popular initiative was accepted by the electorate with a majority of 60%, but a turnout of less than 50%. According to Irène Muntwyler, this relatively low turnout for

13104-507: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

13248-409: The ever-increasing number of federal popular initiatives tabled, and initiatives against foreign overpopulation that some members of parliament deemed "inhumane". It took several more parliamentary interventions before, in 1975 , the government finally submitted a proposal doubling the number of signatures required for both the initiative and the referendum. In its message accompanying the proposal,

13392-513: The exercise of political rights. Furthermore, it contains a number of not directly enforceable "social goals" which the state shall strive to ensure, including the availability of social security , health care and housing . Title 2 refers to Swiss people as "women and men of Switzerland" as a sign of acknowledging gender discrimination in the past (Switzerland became the second to last country in Europe that granted, in 1971 , suffrage to women). The new Constitution also eliminated some archaisms of

13536-497: The federal revision of 1874, which established the optional referendum; and that of demagogy, which began two years ago with the introduction of the right of initiative for partial revision of the Constitution"; two days after the vote, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung drew an alarmist picture of the future: "Agitation, holding public and secret assemblies, collecting signatures, keeping [. of the people in continual agitation". In

13680-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

13824-425: The idea of popular initiative referendums because of the excessive risk of demagoguery, and explicitly cites Switzerland as an example. As a solution, Schumann points out that the popular initiative is a tool that the people can use to take a concrete (constitutional) decision, even though public law stipulates that any concrete decision must derive from a law. As a solution, Schumann proposes, for example, to transform

13968-476: The ideal conditions for unleashing a "legal putsch". Presented to the Council of States , the draft was amended to add the possibility of a drafted initiative which, if accepted, would pass directly into the Constitution; the chamber of cantons also provided for the possibility of the federal authorities presenting a counter-proposal to this drafted initiative. Back in the National Council, the new version of

14112-474: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

14256-452: The initiative into a simple request to Parliament, which should only deal with it if it is supported by a certain percentage of MPs. These risks of populist excesses or the imposition of an almost "tyrannical" will of a majority on a minority (to use Professor José Woehrling's expression) were highlighted in the study carried out by the Canadian authorities in 2002, following the proposal made by

14400-455: The initiative is put to the vote, with or without a counter-proposal presented by the federal authorities. Since the adoption of the Federal Law on Political Rights in 1976, all initiatives must be supported by an initiative committee; previously, only those with a withdrawal clause had to follow this rule. The legislative amendment of 21 June, 1996 specifies that this committee must comprise

14544-441: The initiative with a direct or indirect counter-proposal, which may or may not take up part of the initiative's demands. From time to time, the advantages and disadvantages of the federal popular initiative are debated: public awareness of certain issues and the possibility of making demands that go beyond the priorities set by the authorities are set against the risk of this tool being used by demagogic and well-organized groups, and

14688-456: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Federal popular initiative First used in 1893, the federal popular initiative has gradually developed over time to become one of the main means of expression for political parties or groups, used to bring about constitutional change without having to consult or obtain

14832-462: The last 30–40 years, particularly on identical subjects that recur periodically, has been seen as one reason for the gradual increase in the abstention rate, with voter turnout dropping from almost 70% at the beginning of the 20th century to less than 30% a century later. To solve this problem, and in response to a number of parliamentary interventions on the subject tabled mainly by Radical Party MPs, Fabio Pontiggia proposed in 1990 either to introduce

14976-499: The later federal constitution. Following the French July Revolution in 1830, a number of large assemblies were held calling for new cantonal constitutions. The modifications to the cantonal constitutions made during this period of " Regeneration " remains the basis of the current-day cantonal constitutions. Vaud introduced the legislative popular initiative in 1846. Berne introduced the legislative optional referendum in

15120-606: The model of the Citizens' Initiative Review already tested in the US state of Oregon . The main aim of this initiative was to encourage democratic debate. Twenty participants were randomly selected from Sion's electorate on the basis of gender, age, political orientation, level of education and history of electoral participation, to be representative of the population. This panel of 20 people met over two weekends to debate, inform themselves and exchange views with experts, supporters and opponents of

15264-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

15408-519: The necessary number of signatures to succeed. A new popular initiative "for faster direct democracy" was launched in 1997 by the Denner distribution company, despite the fact that, following a new amendment to the law on 21 June, 1996 , the overall deadline had been reduced to thirty months, with one year reserved for the Federal Council. Denouncing the fact that "all too often, for political and tactical reasons, popular initiatives lie dormant in drawers",

15552-630: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

15696-491: The number of signatures required for a federal popular initiative came under regular attack from 1922 onwards: no fewer than five interpellations or postulates were tabled calling for an increase until 1972 , when the Federal Department of Justice and Police organized a consultation on the subject; the results of this consultation were mixed: while the majority of cantons and major organizations were in favor of increasing

15840-428: The number of signatures, all the political parties in the center and on the left rejected the idea, advocating the status quo. Among the arguments most frequently put forward in favor of increasing the number of signatures were the introduction of women's suffrage (which, coupled with other extensions of the right to vote, reduced the 50,000 signature requirement from 7.6% of the electorate in 1891 to around 1.6% in 1970),

15984-426: The old Constitution, such as the tax upon bride moving into bridegroom's house, prohibition on cantons to have military forces of more than 300 people, the mandate for cantons to provide each other with military assistance, and the prohibition of absinthe . Title 3 describes in the first chapter the relationships between the Confederation, the cantons and the communes. The cantons retain their own constitutions, but in

16128-544: The people and the cantons. The initiative is presented in the form of a draft bill. The popular initiative also exists in other forms, but these are rarely used in practice (initiative requesting a total revision of the Constitution, and initiative presented in the form of a general draft). It is formally defined in Articles 138 and 139 of the Federal Constitution. In practical terms, a federal popular initiative can therefore take three different forms: The federal popular initiative

16272-483: The people of Switzerland. The general provisions contained in Title 1 (articles 1–6) define the characteristic traits of the Swiss state on all of its three levels of authority: federal, cantonal and municipal . They contain an enumeration of the constituent cantons, affirm cantonal sovereignty within the bounds of the Constitution and list the national languages – German , French , Italian and Romansh . They also commit

16416-483: The period following the enactment of the federal law on popular initiatives on 27 January 1892 and the beginning of the 21st century, the concept remained virtually unchanged, despite a few requests for material limitations in response to specific events. The modifications that did occur were confined to two specific areas: the number of signatures required to trigger an initiative and the timeframe allocated for federal authorities to process them. Initially set at 50,000,

16560-409: The popular initiative indirectly prompts amendments to federal laws, as these amendments would be required to implement the new constitutional article. In the vast majority of cases, federal popular initiatives are presented in the form of a draft proposal. Of the 150 or so federal popular initiatives put to the vote before the end of the 20th century, only two were accepted by Parliament in the form of

16704-416: The possibility of amending federal laws without having to go through a constitutional amendment. The initiative was created following the vote of 9 February, 2003 ; however, it was withdrawn on 27 September 2009, only six years after its creation, without having been used. At the end of 2019, the municipality of Sion in southwestern Switzerland launched an experiment in participatory democracy , based on

16848-416: The preamble, which include " liberty and democracy , independence and peace in solidarity and openness towards the world". The latter provision about the "openness" present a drastic contrast with the previous Swiss constitutions which were mostly oriented toward the internal isolationism. The new preamble also provides a provision about responsibility before and the rights of the future generations of

16992-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

17136-432: The reduction of the signature-gathering period from 18 to 12 months), rejected others (increasing the number of signatures or the referendum on administrative acts) and proposed new ones (the possibility of accepting both the initiative and the counter-project). After both chambers had debated the report, the Federal Council reacted by proposing compromises on certain points, in particular the number of signatures required for

17280-417: The referendum rather than calling into question the popular initiative. This new version was accepted by popular vote on 19 April, 1874 , by 63.2% of voters and fourteen and a half cantons, against seven cantons and a half. Demands for the extension of popular rights continued unabated after this change: a petition submitted in 1879 called for the introduction of the popular initiative at federal level. This

17424-438: The requests in the political system, could be seen as weakening these same authorities. In addition, the multiplication of these requests would contribute to putting the federal system "under stress" by diverting it from its priority tasks. However, the government's proposal to increase the number of signatures required, already mentioned earlier in this article, was not taken up. Again in 2013, several voices, including those of

17568-504: The revision of several laws (on political rights, on Parliament or on the organization of the judiciary), a revision which can itself be challenged by referendum. Since its implementation at federal level, the popular initiative has been the subject of much criticism, some of it diametrically opposed. While few changes have been made to its application, numerous proposals have been made over time to address these criticisms, with little success. The multiplication of popular consultations over

17712-655: The revisions of the Federal Constitution as well as transitional provisions. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and

17856-410: The rights of residence and settlement of foreign nationals, and finally about the responsibility regarding the civil and criminal law, weights and measures. The third chapter clarifies general financial aspects, in particular taxation. Title 4 clarifies fundamental political rights and in particular the rights for initiatives and referendums . Title 5 regulates the function and responsibilities of

18000-585: The same year. The political crisis of the Regeneration period culminated in the Sonderbund War of November 1847. As a result of the Sonderbund War, Switzerland was transformed into a federal state , with a constitution promulgated on 12 September 1848. This constitution provided for the cantons' sovereignty, as long as this did not impinge on the Federal Constitution. The creation of a bicameral assembly

18144-517: The signature lists, having them filled in and forwarding them to the Federal Chancellerye; they are also formally authorized to appeal to the Federal Court against Chancellery decisions. The members of the initiative committee are the only persons entitled to decide on the withdrawal of the initiative by an absolute majority of committee members. Withdrawal may take place at any point in the process, and may be either definitive or conditional on

18288-424: The state to the principles of obedience to law, proportionality , good faith and respect for international law , an explicit claim for subsidiarity , before closing with a reference to individual responsibility . Title 2 contains the Constitution's bill of rights and consists of 35 articles. The 1874 constitution contained only a limited number of fundamental rights , and some of them grew less significant as

18432-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

18576-418: The think tank Avenir Suisse and former Secretary of state Jean-Daniel Gerber (in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung ), called for a reduction in the number of popular initiatives put to the vote. Gerber proposes three options: increasing the number of signatures to 200,000, shortening the deadline for collecting signatures to 9 months, or establishing a quorum in the Federal Assembly requiring

18720-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

18864-402: The time limit for collecting them) and obliging the authorities to put it to the vote within six months of its tabling. This proposal was intended to introduce a system equivalent to that used in the State of California, where a popular initiative can be constitutional or legislative, where the authorities have virtually no power or influence over them and where the validity of a given initiative

19008-580: The time of the French occupation , when it was introduced by the Constitution of Year I , 24 June 1793. However, it was only codified between 1831 and 1838, following the massive use of petitions that were to force the Regeneration , in the cantons of Aargau , Basel-Landschaft , Thurgau , Schaffhausen , Lucerne and St. Gallen , in the form of a request for total constitutional revision. The canton of Vaud

19152-590: The time, and particularly for a subject of such importance, was due to the length and complexity of the debates, as well as the lack of clarity in the voting instructions issued by the various political movements; the low turnout was noted in particular in the Revue vaudoise, the quasi-official organ of the Radical Party, which noted that while "Switzerland is embarking [...] in a new direction", it "does so without enthusiasm", even in "indifference". Although this innovation

19296-420: The vote within six months, and the Federal Council and the Federal Assembly to be barred from voting" (French: pour que les initiatives populaires soient soumises au vote dans les six mois et que le Conseil fédéral et l'Assemblée fédérale soient forclos ), nicknamed the "muzzle initiative", was launched in 1999 with the aim of abolishing all limits on the right of initiative (including the number of signatures and

19440-543: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

19584-579: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

19728-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

19872-530: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

20016-546: Was consciously inspired by the United States Constitution , the National Council and Council of States corresponding to the House of Representatives and Senate , respectively. In a partial revision of 1891, the " right of initiative " was introduced, under which a certain number of voters could make a request to amend a constitutional article, or even to introduce a new article into the constitution. This mechanism

20160-485: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

20304-500: Was followed, the following year, by a federal initiative to amend article 39 of the Constitution on the issue of banknotes , justified by article 120 of the Constitution, which provides for the possibility of requesting a complete amendment of the Constitution by means of an initiative. In its message to the Federal Chambers of 18 August 1880, the Federal Council expressed its perplexity at this request, which it initially treated as

20448-418: Was largely based on tried-and-tested practices in the cantons, it was not going to please everyone. In 1893, Numa Droz , a federal councillor from Neuchâtel and an outspoken opponent of the popular initiative, wrote the following, which has gone down in history: "The contemporary history of Switzerland can be divided into three periods: that of parliamentarianism, from 1848 to 1874; that of democracy, following

20592-443: Was not presented as a concession to political minorities: it was merely intended to respond to a practical problem in the functioning of federal institutions, and not to a demand for fundamental modification of the political principles put in place by the radical majority a few years earlier. It was accepted despite strong opposition from certain personalities, including in particular former Federal Councillor Jakob Dubs , who saw in it

20736-464: Was the first to introduce the popular legislative initiative, in 1845, when 8,000 citizens were given the opportunity to submit "any proposal" to the people. The Constitution establishing the federal state of 1848 did indeed provide for a right of popular initiative, but limited to a request, made by at least 50,000 citizens, for a revision of the constitution; the text did not specify, however, whether this revision should be total or partial; during

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