Gotthard League

The Gotthard League was a Swiss civil society movement formed in 1940 with the aim to combat defeatism and Nazi propaganda at a time when the Swiss were surrounded by triumphant and obviously aggressive Axis powers armies.

In 1940, confronted with the successful Blitzkrieg of Nazi Germany against Poland and France, and the German Panzer divisions lined up along their border, the Swiss government found itself in an awkward position. The Germans even demanded apologies for the destruction of German planes which had been shot down by the Swiss after violating the Swiss airspace and the Armistice of 22 June 1940 between France and Germany made it likely that German invasion plans of Switzerland would be implemented. There were strong trends within Switzerland which advocated submission to the Germans. Sustained Nazi propaganda emanated from the 30,000-strong German community in Switzerland, the German embassy and consulates and from the extreme right Frontenbewegung () ("Fronts Movement" or "Frontismus") which became amalgamated into the Swiss National Movement in June 1940.

The then President of the Swiss Confederation and Foreign Minister, Marcel Pilet-Golaz delivered on 25 June 1940 an ambiguous speech where he made allusions to an "adaptation to the new conditions", a "partial demobilization of the Army", a "national turnaround", a more authoritarian regime for Switzerland and to a "new order" in Europe, in short a lot of Petainist vocabulary mixed with consensual, religious-ringing rhetoric (which earned the speech the nickname of “sermon”). The German version of this originally French text was slightly adapted and contained quite a few words reminiscent of National Socialist speech. His calculated but ambiguous attitude would be confirmed and raise even more doubts within Switzerland when he would receive on the federal premises a delegation of the Swiss extreme right "frontists", on 10 and 14 September 1940.

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