Switzerland is an odd little country in Central Europe. It contains more oddities than people, I think, and I want to present a few of these oddities to you. But let’s first cover some ground to get the country fixed on the map.

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Switzerland is about the size of New Jersey and split into 26 cantons or states that have more independence from federal government than do the individual states of the United States. That there are so many states in this small country has historical origins which I’ll cover later. First look at the map.

You see Switzerland surrounded by countries which form part of the European Union. There is one exception to the east of Switzerland: The Principality of Liechtenstein which is sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria.

Oddity treaties: Since 1921, Switzerland and Liechtenstein form together an economic and customs union both using the Swiss Franc as common currency. The borders between the two countries are completely open and never even patrolled. Both countries don’t belong to the European Union. But Switzerland is a signatory partner to the treaties of Schengen, which means that the borders of Switzerland and the European Union are completely open, but Liechtenstein doesn’t but can’t close its borders because they are manned and run by Swiss customs. On the other hand, Liechtenstein is a signatory partner of the European Free Market, while Switzerland isn’t. Makes everybody’s head hurt, I suppose.

The 26 states of Switzerland conform roughly to the original countries that merged to become Switzerland in 1848. Before that, they had formed a loose confederation of independent countries. As Berne was at that time not only the largest of these countries but also the most powerful, the seat of the federal government was voted on to e in Berne. Were you looking for the word capital city?

Oddity capital: Switzerland is probably the only country in the world that has no capital. The constitution allocates the seat of government to Bern, but there is no mention of a capital.

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The Bundeshaus is the parliament of Switzerland, or as it officially styles itself, the Confoederatio Helvetica (hence the CH). There are two chambers of representatives, the national assembly Nationalrat and the assembly of states Ständerat. Together they form the general assembly Gesamtrat.

Oddity head of state: National assembly and state assembly choose a president of the assembly each. The president of the national assembly becomes automatically head of state of Switzerland with the president of the state assembly as his replacement. Both are replaced every year by somebody else, usually one of the vice presidents.

Oddity general: The general assembly is convened when choosing a five star general of the forces. A general is only chosen in times of war, during peacetime there may be no general in Switzerland. To make it really confusing, Switzerland has a general all the same. He is a four star general stationed on the border between the Koreas. As nobody understands the ranks in the Swiss army, this post was created to satisfy foreigners. The general in Korea is chosen by the Defence Minister and deputed into the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office then sends the chap as Attached Military Aid to the embassy in Seoul. Upon his arrival there he is promoted to Ambassador in the rank of a general four star. He is demoted again before returning.

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Oddity government: The general assembly is also convened when choosing the government Bundesrat. The government consists of seven ministers voted on in general assembly whereby the assembly has no restrictions. It can vote any Swiss national into the post of minister. It also chooses the chancellor Bundeskanzler who is a sort of general secretary to the government. This explanation is just to explain the oddity of eight people on the picture. Out of these seven ministers, the assembly then chooses a president of the ministers Bundespräsident. To the rest of the world Switzerland pretends that the Bundespräsident is head of state because protocol would just go nuts otherwise.

Was this all confusing enough? I’ll give you one more.

Oddity opposition: The government ministers are chosen from all major parties represented in the two assemblies. It is called the magic formula Zauberformel. As only small parties remain, there is no opposition in parliament. The official opposition is the people. But that oddity is for another time.