Happy Birthday Switzerland! Is your birthday on August 01st at all?
The year of foundation:
The year 1307 is considered to be the year Switzerland was founded. In any case, the year 1307 plays a major role in Switzerland. In central Switzerland, the year of foundation is still given as 1307 to this day. Presumably, the Knights Templar contributed their knowledge to founding Switzerland after their escape. The founding year 1291 for Switzerland seems to be rather constructed on the basis of historical research.
The federal letter from the beginning of August 1291 is not the founding document of the Confederation. August 1st is neither ancient nor the date of foundation. And that the Rütli oath took place on today's national holiday is fantasy and historically not proven.
The Federal Letter was written between 1260 and 1307. It is a state peace alliance between Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, one of many. The Federal Letter is unimportant for the history of the Old Confederation. It was forgotten for centuries and was not officially registered by the Schwyz archivist Franz Anton Frischherz until 1724. For the next hundred years or so, only a few chroniclers knew the year 1291.
The old Confederation does not need a new founding date. She already knows. It is November 8th, 1307. The Glarus chronicler Egidius Tschudi records the foundation including the Rütli oath in his Chronicon Helveticum from 1550:
"Anno domini 1307: So this puntnus was made and sworn by the three brave people mentioned in the land of Uri (in the Rütlin) from the first, from which the federal government arose."
So why don't we celebrate November 8, 1307 as the founding date today?
A few decades after the founding of modern Switzerland in 1848, the country wants to strengthen unity with a national celebration. When the city of Bern wanted to celebrate its own city 1889th anniversary in 700, the Federal Council invented a national celebration for the whole of Switzerland.
Historians have been discussing the date for decades.
The known 1307 or the unknown 1291? The Federal Council decides. In his message of December 14, 1889 to the Federal Assembly:
"The Swiss Confederation began with the eternal federation established by the people of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden on August 1, 1291."
The government ignores the fact that this is a simple contract between three partners and by no means an eternal alliance. She fixes August 1 because the document from 1291 mentions “beginning of August”.
The federal 600th anniversary celebrations in central Switzerland were a great success in 1891. Everyone now knows: Switzerland was founded in 1291 and that's that. Even the Rütli oath shifts from 1307 to 1291. Nobody wants to hear critical voices any more.
The banking system:
The Swiss monetary system came up at the same time as the collapse of the Templar order!
The military:
The Templars who fled to Switzerland trained the locals militarily. In the Battle of Morgarten in 1315 they were able to prevail against the Habsburgs with combined forces, although they were in the minority.
The excellent reputation of the Swiss mercenaries and the financial help of Jakob and Ulrich Fugger left 1505
Pope Julius II asked Switzerland for a contingent of the same, the later Swiss Guard. The Fugger family is likely to have a connection to the Templars, this is particularly indicated by the social aspect.
The crest:
If you look at the coat of arms of Switzerland, then it seems
that can also be traced back to the Templars. The Templars
of Venice had a white cross in their Red Cross.
What does the Swiss flag produce with upside-down colors?
One can also assume that the Templars founded the Red Cross.
The Templars still exist today. In 1750 they came back to the public under the protection of the French Emperor Louise. He is even said to have been the Grand Master of the Knights Templar.