➔ Since 1989: Is Switzerland Finally Becoming Normal?
After 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Cold War ended. Switzerland suddenly had a problem. For decades, the country sat comfortably between East and West. Neutral. Special. The Sonderfall. Now there was nobody to be neutral between. The whole foundation of “we are different and that is fine” started cracking.
Chapter 9 of the book. Honestly, it reads like a political thriller.
The army nobody needed
First shock: in late 1989, over a third of Swiss voters said yes to abolishing the army. They lost the vote, but still. One third. For a country that built its identity around militia defense, that stung. Even worse, after Germany reunified, Switzerland realized its army of 650,000 was nominally the biggest in Europe. A pacific neutral country with the largest army on the continent. Kind of awkward.