Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/371
Major Lawrence Martin to Professor A. C. Coolidge27
Subject: Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein.
1. In accordance with your direction, I have made a geographical field investigation of Vorarlberg in Deutschösterreich; of the independent Principality of Liechtenstein; and of the Swiss Canton of St. Gallen, immediately adjoining. The object of this investigation was to determine the features of geography, language, religion, resources, commerce, and the wishes of the people in relation to the problem as to whether Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein (Map l)28 should be attached to Switzerland, or to Germany, or allowed (forced) to remain in Deutschösterreich.
2. The field work was carried on with the knowledge and full cooperation of the several governments; responsible individuals in the important cities were interviewed, all of whom furnished important information embodied in this memorandum or attached to it in the form of maps and exhibits. Unfortunately I was not permitted to go into Bavaria or to Lindau and Munich.
[Page 294]I first visited Berne and had a frank talk with Mr. Paraviccini, the Swiss Minister of Foreign Affairs. After telling me the attitude of the Swiss government, as explained below, he stated in response to my direct question, that the Swiss government had no objection whatever to my carrying on such investigation as I thought wise in the Canton of St. Gallen. Dr. Fritz Nussbaum, geographer in Berne, advised me on certain matters.
I then proceeded to St. Gallen, stopping to obtain essential data in Lucerne, Zug, and Zurich, and getting important information from the American Consul in St. Gallen; Mr. J. W. Sutchiffe, Special Commissioner, the United States Treasury; Mr. Otto Alder, president of the local Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Peter H. Schmidt, professor of economic geography in the commercial high-school; Mr. Hardwyn H. Gastrell, British Consul; and a number of manufacturers whose business is largely with Vorarlberg.
I went on to Bregenz, Vorarlberg, where the Landeshauptmann, Dr. Ender, and the “revolutionary” government, Dr. Kinz, mayor, and others cooperated with me in every way.
I continued my investigation in Feldkirch, where the bürgermeister, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, several manufacturers, and a representative of the railway employees contributed materially to the information here given. A number of priests in the Jesuit College at Feldkirch helped me. I visited Vaduz, Liechtenstein, where Prince Carl Liechtenstein, the Landesverweser, assisted my investigation. Finally I discussed the matter in Vienna with Herr v. Pflügl, the Austrian Under-secretary of State for Vorarlberg and Tyrol, and with Herr Finck, Vice-chancellor of Deutschösterreich, a resident of the Bregenzer Wald in Vorarlberg, and a representative in the Austrian Parliament for many years. In every community where I carried on investigations I asked to speak with persons who were opposed to detaching Vorarlberg from German-Austria, as well as to the larger number who favor it.
3. The problem is a grave one, although it involves only 145,000 persons in Vorarlberg, and 10,000 in Liechtenstein. Nearly three-fourths of these people have expressed a preference for being attached to Switzerland. Switzerland presents the rare and gratifying spectacle, in all greedy Rurope, of having no strong appetite for this morsel of new territory, and in really desiring to know whether the annexation is best for her own people and for the people of the territories involved. It is clear that Vorarlberg desires to be detached from the Vienna government (Exhibit G). Some of the inhabitants favor joining Bavaria or Schwabenland. The greater number desire to join Switzerland. If Switzerland took them she would acquire a German increment, and Switzerland is already 69% German; she would have a new Catholic canton and Switzerland is now 56% Protestant; she [Page 295] would add a conservative mountain district, and this might meet opposition in the radical lowland of Switzerland; she would increase the area that is economically poor and therefore would have to import still more foodstuffs. Vorarlberg produces in a year only enough food for a month. On the other hand, she would gain a district which is directly related to Switzerland, since it lies between a mountain divide and the Rhine, and Switzerland would thus have a strategic mountain frontier rather than a frontier on a navigable river. Moreover, the Swiss would possess and regulate a district whose industrial relations are already bound in every way to those of Switzerland.
4. Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein are situated on the northern border of the Alps southeast of Boden See (Lake Constance). The Rhine forms their western boundary. The mountain range on the south is the Rhatikon and Silvretta Gruppe, 2967 to 3312 meters; on the east between Vorarlberg and Tyrol are the Fervall Gruppe and Lech Alpen, known usually as The Arlberg, and crossed by the Arlberg Pass, 1802 meters; on the north, between Vorarlberg and Bavaria are the Algauer Alpen and the Bregenzer Wald, 1021 to 2232 meters. Thus the region is an upland unit, (Maps 4–15) definitely separated from German-Austria and from Bavaria by mountains; its northern and eastern frontiers are crossed only by one railway line which goes through a tunnel at an elevation of 1210 meters. Its western frontier (Swiss) on the Rhine is crossed by two railway bridges, near Buchs and St. Margrethen, respectively.
The mountain slopes of Vorarlberg are largely without habitation and the population lies in three valleys, the Rhine, the 111, and the Bregenzer Ach. The density of population of the Rhein Tal is 90 to 150 to the square kilometer; Liechtenstein has 67 to the square kilometer; and the smaller valleys 20 to 30 to the square kilometer.
5. Of the 145,408 inhabitants of Vorarlberg, 126,000 are German, 5,857 are Italians, not true Ladins (see Spezialortsreportorium for Vorarlberg (Exhibit ZD); 143,000 of these people are Catholic, 2,044 are Augsburger and Helvetischen Evangelical, and 126 are Jews. Of the 10,716 inhabitants of Liechtenstein practically all are German and Catholic; there is one American Jew, a barber; for some unexplainable reason, he is not the present president of a local Räterepublik nor even actively engaged in politics. The cities of Vorarlberg are: Dornbirn, 16,199 inhabitants; Feldkirch and Bludenz, each with slightly more than 5,000 inhabitants; and Bregenz, the capital, with 8,529.
6. On November 3, 1918, Vorarlberg declared itself an independent country in the frame of German-Austria. It is governed by a Landes-hauptmann and local assembly. It has well-organized Soldaten-, Arbeiter-, and Bauer-Räte; but seems to me to be absolutely free from undesirable bolshevism. The new elections are to take place on April 27th.
[Page 296]7. Liechtenstein presents the remarkable spectacle of being governed today by its ante-bellum Landtag, consisting of 15 members. It experienced a mild sort of revolution, and the active administrators of the present government are the aristocratic Prince of Liechtenstein, and two elected supervisors, one a clever doctor from one of the small villages, the other a simple bauer, the three strangest bedfellows in all Rurope. Official orders are still promulgated and signed by Der furstliche Landesverweser (see newspaper file, Exhibit ZQe).
8. On March 15, 1919, the Vorarlberg Assembly had a long discussion of the annexation question (see stenographic report appended as Exhibit A). The result of this discussion was the adoption of five resolutions leading to the appointment of a Committee of Five, which was to visit the governments in Switzerland, Bavaria, and Deutschösterreich to search into the economic results of possible annexation, for the whole people and for single professional groups. Previously, an informal vote had been taken in nearly all the villages and communities of Vorarlberg, resulting in a vote in favor of annexation to Switzerland, including 50% of those who voted in the political Bezirk Bregenz, 82% in the political Bezirk Bludenz, 80% in the political Bezirk Feldkirch; or 70.82% for the whole of Vorarlberg (see Exhibit B).
9. The Committee of Five attempted to visit Berne to confer with the Swiss government about annexation. The Swiss government evaded a consultation for the present time and the Federal Council is reported to have telegraphed the government at Bregenz on March 29th (Exhibit C): “We regret infinitely to have to say that the Federal Council cannot receive the Delegation of Five at Berne”. The attitude of the Swiss, as stated to me by Mr. Paraviccini of the Foreign Office is that:
- a)
- The question of annexation is not really up yet;
- b)
- Switzerland would take Vorarlberg if the Great Powers think she should assume this responsibility;
- c)
- If Vorarlberg is annexed to Switzerland, Liechtenstein should be annexed also;
- d)
- If it is not annexed to Switzerland, the Swiss would rather see Vorarlberg remain in Deutschösterreich than go to Germany.
The Vorarlberg Committee of Five has taken no further steps to visit either Munich or Vienna.
On March 7th the Swiss Bundesrat was sent a report from certain manufacturers (Verband der Industriellen Vorarlbergs; see report appended as Exhibit F) opposing the annexation, for certain, possibly selfish, reasons of which I speak later. They sent this without the consent of the Landesrat and Vorarlberg government (see Exhibit A, [Page 297] pp. 26–27), and I understood the report was refused. It alluded to Germany as the “real home” of Vorarlberg.
The Vorarlberg villages of the Rhine delta in Boden See had previously applied for admission into Switzerland (see Exhibit I, and Paragraph 21 of this memorandum). Between 95% and 98% of the enfranchised citizens signed the petitions.
10. The only real opposition on the part of the Swiss seems to be based upon a fear that if the question of additional territory is under discussion someone may also bring up the question of changing other boundaries of Switzerland, particularly on the Italian side (Exhibit T).
The author of the article just alluded to is a French Swiss, and it is clear that he has no strong objection to adding to the number of German-speaking inhabitants of Switzerland. When I was in Berne I indicated my willingness to discuss the matter with the President of the Federal Council, a French Swiss, but he did not express the desire to do so.
11. Dr. Fritz Nussbaum, Privat Dozent in Geography, University of Berne, has summarized the reasons why he believes Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein should be annexed to Switzerland (Exhibit H). His views are based upon geographical and economic considerations, and seem to me to be sound in all respects.
12. There appears to have been a union between Appenzell in eastern Switzerland and the people of Vorarlberg a little more than 500 years ago (Exhibit L).
13. The only formal expression of the Germans in Bavaria regarding a possible annexation of Vorarlberg to southern Germany is contained in the statement of Herr Dirr (Exhibit D), who demanded on April 2d that the Bavarian Foreign Office take immediate measures to unite Vorarlberg to the German Empire, incorporating it within the borders of Bavarian Schwaben in connection with a commercial league of Bavaria, Württemburg and Baden.
The press of these three German states is said to have raised the question as to why their governments appear to be so indifferent to the opportunity of securing Vorarlberg.
14. The German-Austrian government in Vienna desires to retain Vorarlberg. They have presented no strong arguments to meet those advanced by persons who desire to detach this land from German-Austria, and I gathered from my conferences that they hoped to defer action until the general question of the boundaries of Deutschösterreich were settled. It is my own view, however, that the Vorarlberg question should be settled at once, and not deferred.
15. The government and people of the Principality of Liechtenstein infinitely prefer to remain independent. The Prince of Liechtenstein told me that his whole point of view and that of the present government [Page 298] is summarized in the five questions (Exhibit E), which the representative of Liechtenstein was to present at the Peace Congress if he had been received there. I merely comment on this list of questions by calling attention to the one which brings up the membership of Liechtenstein in the League of Nations and the one which asks an explanation as to why Liechtenstein has heretofore been represented by Austria and, particularly during the war, by the powers representing the latter state. These questions and the others raised lead me to think that the present government of Liechtenstein has no clear appreciation of the fact that so small an independent country cannot exist in the new order of things.
16. It is my view that the problem of the future of Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg ought to be settled chiefly in relation to the economic and commercial factors.
The ethnic factor may be dismissed with the statement that everyone agrees that these people (whether called Alemanni or Schwabiens) are directly related to the Swiss and to the Bavarians, and are decidedly different from the Tyrolese. I do not believe that any injustice would be done to the French-speaking Swiss if the number of German-speaking Swiss were slightly increased.
The religious factor may likewise be dismissed with the statement that since there are already Catholic cantons in Switzerland (Appenzell is 93% Catholic, St. Gallen 60%, —see Tafel 7, Exhibit T), the addition of one Catholic canton would not upset conditions in any respect. There is, however, one religious feature which needs attention. There are Jesuits in Vorarlberg, and the Swiss law forbids Jesuits in Switzerland. If Vorarlberg should be incorporated in Switzerland, steps should be taken to see that the Jesuits obtain fair treatment. Many people believe that the Swiss will repeal their law against the Jesuits, just as the Germans have done. Unless this is done, Vorarlberg should not be united with Switzerland without a provision that the Jesuits be given a period of 5 or 10 years to make plans for removal and to dispose of their property. They have, in Feldkirch, Stella Matutina College, an excellent institution of learning which draws 450 students from countries in every part of the world (Exhibit ZL), including the United States. The faculty of this Jesuit college includes such men as Father W. M. Peitz, a historian, and Father Joseph Fischer, a geographer of international reputation, who republished the first map upon which the name America was printed. This Jesuit college would be a credit to Switzerland, and if Vorarlberg is attached to that country rather than to Germany or Austria, I very much hope the Swiss would allow this Jesuit institution to remain.
The political factor does not appeal to me as tremendously important or likely to upset any conditions now existing in Switzerland; [Page 299] although Vorarlberg is conservative, while St. Gallen is liberal, the former is a mountain district with such a large proportion of industrial population that its voters would be easily converted to desirable radical innovations by the industrial population of the Swiss lowland. There remains then only the economic factor, and this I regard as the most important of all.
17. So far as food-supply is concerned, Vorarlberg is necessarily dependent. It can produce in a year only enough to support its population for 35 days. The food situation in Vorarlberg at the present time is critical. I refer to the investigations there by the American and British representatives in St. Gallen (Exhibits M and N). The Swiss are supplying the people of Vorarlberg with potatoes (Exhibit O) and relieving the immediate situation. It appears, however, that before the war Vorarlberg received flour from Hungary exclusively, potatoes from Bohemia (a few from Germany), meat from Styria and from Hungary. Vorarlberg exported milk and cattle-for-breeding to Bohemia and Lower Austria. Cheese from the Bregenzer Wald was shipped to Vienna. Half the product was sent to the Front during the war. In 1918 900,000 kilos of cheese were produced and 514,000 kilos of butter. These products are not needed in Switzerland, of course, but are of famous quality and easily marketed in Germany and Vienna. As Bohemia and Hungary are now independent countries, I see no argument in favor of leaving Vorarlberg as a part of Deutschösterreich because it was formerly fed by Austria-Hungary, and I see many reasons why it would be better to have Vorarlberg victualled through Switzerland in the future.
18. The people of Vorarlberg include 64,058 persons engaged in manufacturing: 16,907 engaged in commerce and trade; and 46,018 engaged in farming; 56% of the population is industrial and only 32% agricultural (Exhibit P). Nevertheless the Hausarbeiters are also farmers; the population is not really so dominantly industrial as the figures suggest.
The manufacturing industries may be divided into two larger groups: the embroidery industry (stickerei), and the cotton spinning and weaving. The tambour embroidery work, nearly all house-industry, depends to an unusual degree upon that of the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Mr. Otto Alder, President of the Chamber of Commerce in St. Gallen, told me on April 1st that he had made a report to the Swiss Bundesrat about the annexation of Vorarlberg to Switzerland from the industrial point of view, and that he had recommended that Vorarlberg be accepted by Switzerland because so much of the manufacturing industry of St. Gallen depends upon that of Vorarlberg. St. Gallen supplies Vorarlberg with material upon which the coarser work is done in Vorarlberg (see Exhibit Q where it appears that Vorarlberg has 3609 crochet machines and Switzerland [Page 300] 854) after which the crocheted embroidery for curtains is finished in St. Gallen. All the Rhine villages of Vorarlberg, except two, work for St. Gallen. The product turned out by Vorarlberg (crochet embroidery alone) in 1913 was valued at 54 million francs (Exhibit Q). If Vorarlberg should be attached to Germany the stickerei manufacturers of Plauen, Saxony, could do serious damage to the stickerei industry of St. Gallen, as 215 million francs worth of stickerei were exported in 1913 and 90% of the curtains finished in St. Gallen and shipped from Switzerland are crocheted in Vorarlberg. The coarser work being done in Vorarlberg, the finer in St. Gallen, the two industries complement each other, but are not competitive. There is also a part of the stickerei industry which markets its embroidery in Austria.
19. Herr Fritz Bosch, President of the Chamber of Commerce in Feldkirch, leans a little more to the view that Vorarlberg should remain in German-Austria, but he, as a stickerei-manufacturer, would infinitely prefer to have it attached to Switzerland rather than to Germany, while the cotton manufacturers prefer Germany if they cannot remain hi Austria. Bosch and a group of his associates made it clear to me that the cotton spinning and weaving (Exhibit R and some woolen manufacturing is entirely independent of Switzerland, having always shipped its products to Austria-Hungary and the Balkans. The proprietors of the cotton mills are many of them Swiss who moved over into Vorarlberg in order to have a customs frontier between themselves and their Swiss competitors. Some of them, however, still own factories in Switzerland. The weaver-proprietors’ desire to remain in German-Austria seems to me to be a selfish one, and I am uncertain about the prosperity of the employees, because Deutschösterreich will not have the simple customhouse-relationships which Austria-Hungary had. Moreover, a majority of the spinners and weavers in these cotton factories desire a union with Switzerland.
The commercial factor may, therefore, be summarized by saying that there are certain great advantages in attaching Vorarlberg to Switzerland; that there are fewer advantages and many disadvantages in attaching it to Germany; and that those who desire to have it remain a part of German-Austria seem to me to be actuated by a desire to retain trade advantages which they have no right to impose upon the workmen in their factories.
20. A few minor factors in the problem are the following. The representative of the Austrian state railway employees in Feldkirch indicated opposition to union with Switzerland because of uncertainty about wages and pensions.
The question of the share Vorarlberg should bear in the war debt of German-Austria is being carefully considered by the Swiss and by the Vorarlbergers.
[Page 301]The cost of correcting the channel of the Rhine (16½ million francs) was borne by the Swiss and Austrian governments jointly, and the correction of the Rhine along the western border of Liechtenstein was largely paid personally by the Prince of Liechtenstein. The great expense in connection with this work, which began in 1893, is already met, but all cost of future maintenance of a navigable channel would have to be borne by Switzerland if Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein were attached to that country. Inasmuch as the navigable mouth of the river has been shifted from the old channel near the village of Altenrhein to the new channel near the village of Hard since 1900, and the larger part of the dredging which cuts off the ox-bow near the village of Diepoldsau has now been paid for, there appears to be no reason for apprehension about oppressive costs of maintenance.
The question of taking over the Austrian money in Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein will have to be handled carefully since the Swiss valuta is so high compared with that of Austria.
The supply of raw material for Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein is much easier if this territory be attached to Switzerland since the Swiss will supply raw material and the manufacturing populations east of the Rhine will resume work sooner than if they remained in German-Austria.
The hydro-electric power of Vorarlberg is more likely to be developed by Switzerland, which has no coal, than by Deutschösterreich which has some. Two obvious innovations, greatly to the advantage of the people of Vorarlberg are (a) the electrification of the Arlberg Railway and tunnel, (b) the use of more hydro-electric power in cotton factories of Bludenz, Bregenz, and the Rhine Tal.
21. Whether Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein are annexed to Switzerland or to Germany, or remain in Austria, there are slight modifications of existing frontiers which ought surely to be made. These are discussed in Annex A (appended).29
22. In conclusion, upon the basis of all the factors involved, and in view of (a) the expressed preference of 70% of the people of Vorarlberg to be attached to Switzerland, and (b) the statement by the Swiss Foreign Office that they would feel obliged to take the responsibility of Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein if the Great Powers desired them to do so, I recommend that:
- a)
- the American Commission to Negotiate Peace shall use its influence to bring about action by the Great Powers for the incorporation of Vorarlberg as a separate canton of Switzerland, special provision being made for the Jesuits;
- b)
- Liechtenstein, ceasing to exist as an independent principality, be incorporated in the Vorarlberg canton. This will, I believe, terminate [Page 302] the comic-opera war between Liechtenstein and Germany, which has lasted since 1866;
- c)
- the frontier between Switzerland, Deutschösterreich, and Bavaria be established as shown in red on Maps 2, 25, and 29, departing from the Vorarlberg frontier at several points (see Annex A);
- d)
- the Swiss government be informed that it is the wish of the Great Powers that they should assume responsibility for the incorporation of Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein within their frontiers and that they take immediate steps to relieve the food stringency there and to supply seed and raw materials so that farming and manufacturing may be resumed as soon as possible upon a normal basis.