100 Interesting Facts About Switzerland
Hello Friends:
Welcome to Countries Facts and today we're going on a figurative stroll to the mountains of Switzerland the land of breathtaking Alpine views chocolate and shady banking sounds to me like the recipe for a good time yes Switzerland has many well-known attributes but how many do you really know about the land of tina turner there's one for start for instance why can't you own a single guinea pig in switzerland how did a bunch of swish-swish shoulders how did a bunch of swiss show how did a bunch of swish of how did a bunch of Swiss soldiers accidentally invade a neighboring country and what did Roger Federer give to the devil in exchange for those inhuman tennis skills of his water backhand water backhand two out of three those questions are gonna be answered so get comfortable decapitate a lint bunny and prepared to get all Swiss stop as we count through 101 facts about Switzerland baby I don't know why I did baby at the end sorry.
1 Switzerland is a mountainous landlocked country in continental Europe known for chocolate ski resorts and mining its own damn business we good good let's move on.
2 The history of what's now Switzerland goes back many thousands of years the oldest traces of hominid existence in the region date back to around 150 thousand years right around the time when yo mama was born she's a nice lady.
3 Brains found in a cave close to the town of Mischa tell suggest that the undersold were living throughout what is now Switzerland as early as 70,000 years ago and were present in the region for at least thirty thousand years Homo sapiens okay modern humans aka well us appeared in the region around fourteen thousand years ago and boy did we make ourselves at home.
4 After the last ice age finally got the heck out of there Neolithic cultures eventually established corn growing and animal breeding in parts of the road in Bryan valleys the oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland were found at gark Lyngen and have been dated back roughly 250 300 BCE.
5 From about 1800 BCE Bronze Age settlements were scattered throughout the Swiss plateau in alpine valleys during their thing making things after bronze and whatnot good times.
6 From about 800 BCE the area that was to become to its land was inhabited by Celts in the West and writing and in the East one of the most powerful of the Celtic tribes known as the Helvetii I controlled much of the relatively flat Swiss plateau that sits between the Torah and the Alps.
7 However the helvetii I found themselves under constant harassment from marauding Germanic tribes who just wouldn't stop bothering them no doubt irritated by these ghastly invaders to helvetii I attempted to migrate to southwestern Gaul in roughly 58 BCE.
8 Once again though the helvetii is plans for scuppered following their defeat in the Battle of Berber act against the Romans led by human pincushion Julius Caesar in what is now east central France Caesar sent the surviving Helvetii eye back to Switzerland with their proverbial tails between their proverbial legs actually they've had legs.
9 A few decades later in 15 BCE Caesar Augustus annexed present-day Switzerland into the Roman Empire and soon after the region flourished in an age of prosperity the Romans enlarged old Celtic town to built new settlements of their own they improved water supplies in constructed arenas and theaters to say what you want about the Romans but they made good theaters.
10 However the proto Swiss could always count on continued aggravation by those pesky Germanic tribes and this peaceful period ended with the invasion of the Roman Empire by German Alemanni ins into 60 cm by 400 C II Roman Switzerland had disintegrated quicker than Thomas could snap his fingers and the romanized Celts living throughout the Swiss plateau were occupied by various Germanic groups such as the alimony UNS burgundians and the Lango bard Ian's nombreux loner dad edit David David David to pepper by the 4th century Christianity was doing what it does and it spread throughout the inhabitants of what's now Switzerland having been brought to the region by Roman soldiers and this was only a few hundred years after the whole Christianity things started so they were into it before it was cool.
11 Over in the 6th century the entire region became part of the expanding Frankish Empire continuing throughout the 9th century under Charlemagne as part of the early foundations of what later would be known as the Holy Roman Empire damn Frank's always expanding into other people's territories what is this medieval Europe yeah actually yeah yeah it is for evil.
12 In the middle of the 9th century the Swiss territories were divided into middle Frankie and East Frankia by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 C II before its reunification under the Holy Roman Empire around 1000 AD yes the gang's all back together baby.
13 In these subsequent decades the region existed under the control of various noble houses and it was around this time that members of the House of Holtzberg began to rise to prominence fearful of conflict would lead to loss of their autonomy delegates from regions of Irish wits and under Walden met on the 1st of August 1291 and signed a charter to form an alliance against the Habsburgs it's this date that's now widely considered to constitute the greater of Switzerland as a nation and began a period in its history what's now known as the old Swiss Confederacy mazelTov.
14 Throughout the 14th centuries the Swiss Confederates inflicted a number of decisive defeats against the Habsburgs while other areas joined the original three in the growing Swiss alliance no doubt shocked by their own resilience the Swiss confederates continued to expand their borders and affirm their independence from the holy roman empire in 1499 as the fledgling states continued to grow throughout the 16th century the rise of Protestant Reformation led by leaders such as John Calvin and huldrych zwingli created violent religious conflict in the form of the walls of Capel however the Swiss Confederation survived this tumultuous period and lived to fight another day hopefully not with each other this time.
15 Fight they did despite modern Switzerland's Placid reputation for up to 500 years Switzerland best-known exported skill was warfare in the form of well respected Swiss mercenaries who fought in the armies of foreign nations it's been estimated that between 1400 and 1848 the violent talent of more than 2 million Swiss mercenaries were employed by foreign powers.
16 The use of mercenaries by outside powers as well as the alienation between the predominantly Protestant Swiss and their predominantly Catholic neighbors kept Switzerland out of the devastating Thirty Years War despite profound differences within the Swiss population the desire not to be drawn into wider conflicts playing out across the continent kept Switzerland together.
17 when the 30 Years War ended in 1648 with a series of treaties collectively known as the Peace of Westphalia Switzerland was formally recognized as independent holy roman empire after decades of being independent in actual practice the peace of westphalia also disallowed transit throughout swiss territory by foreign armies laying the foundations for Switzerland's principle of neutrality.
18 However conflict over religion continued to erupt in Switzerland throughout the subsequent decades and in 1798 famous short man Napoleon Bonaparte decided to exploit this instability and had French forces in Baden annex much of the country replacing the loose confederation with a centrally governed unitary state called the helvetic republic out of the celtic helva thai tribe that had originally had bitten much of the country look at that it's a call back not.
19 A few years later though Napoleon partially restored the sovereignty of the Swiss regions in response to continued unrest from the Swiss who understandably didn't like being ordered around by the French I mean who does not long after that Napoleon's Empire collapsed in 1815 at which point the Congress of Vienna re-established the old Confederation and enshrined Switzerland status of permanent armed neutrality in international law.
20 Who oh it's all about me may am the best may Swift in the subsequent years Switzerland experienced rapid economic growth but old religious divisions continue to hamper progress in 1848 after a tinsy civil war between Protestants and Catholics that lasted less than a month which resulted in roughly 100 casualties the people of Switzerland voted in favor of a new Swiss Federal Constitution modeled in part on the Constitution of the United States actually this created the country's modern federal state establishing a range of civil liberties and secured local autonomy.
21 In 1874 the Swiss amended their constitution extensively to establish federal responsibility for defense trade in legal matters and introduced direct democracy by popular referendum referendums to this day direct democracy in the form of referendums remain trademarks of the Swiss nation.
22 Throughout the 19th century Switzerland experienced rapid industrialization - and by 1850 had become the second most industrialized country in Europe just after Great Britain however the conditions for many continue to be very difficult and between 1850 and 1914 roughly 400,000 Swiss people looking for better lives emigrated mostly to North America number 25 through a combination of military deterrence concessions to Germany and sheer good fortune swedgin managed to say neutral Emma's not invaded by any outside power at all throughout both of the world wars despite being entirely surrounded by fascist powers aren't at the forefront in 1940 I mean lucky them.
23 Still Switzerland being invaded wasn't entirely up to the Swiss that real piece of work hates to the Edler despise Switzerland tradition of democracy and freedom and at one point stated plainly that Switzerland possessed the most disgusting and miserable people and political system and that the Swiss were mortal enemies of the new Germany indeed Germany in Italy had originally planned to invade Switzerland with a plot known as Operation Tannenbaum but ultimately they felt they had bigger fish to fry at the time.
24 Regardless Switzerland wasn't quite as neutral as it may appear as Switzerland was neutral during the second world war thousands of people deposited their money in assets into Swiss banks hoping to protect it throughout the conflict after the war relatives of the depositors attempted to retrieve the world's belonging to their family members many of whom had died despicably many of the banks refused to return the money and assets of the rightful heirs and kept it for themselves.
25 Following the Second World War and this tactic I imagine Switzerland began to integrate itself economically into the global community however the nation remained reluctant to enter international organizations waiting until 1963.
26 The Council of Europe and then until 2002 to join the United Nations despite having hosted the UN's European headquarters in Geneva since 1966.
27 Switzerland also remains outside the European Union yet they're the original brexit ears instead Switzerland helped form the European free trade area in 1960 which operate in parallel of the EU but constitutes an economic advance rather than a political one.
28 Today so it cylinders officially known as the Swiss Confederation because it's a confederation and it's Swiss and stuff moving swiftly.
29 Geographically Switzerland is divided across three basic topographical areas the Alps the Swiss plateau and the Jura mountains roughly 60% of Switzerland's territory lies within the Alps while the Swiss plateau takes over further 30 percent and that remaining 10% it oh sure a baby number thirty-two includes all the nation of Twitter stretches across an area of approximately 40 1285 square kilometers making it about six times smaller than the UK and about 238 times smaller than the US she's a skinny legend.
30 Spray Switzerland boasts a total population of approximately 8.5 million people each one with their own hopes dreams desires.
31 Ambitions numerically speaking the entire population switzerland is comparable to that of New York City.
32 The Swiss have far less likely to complain about the MTA and Chad burger to bar it at random points throughout the day I've been to New York once and that's kind of what happen the entire time.
33 Most of the Swiss population is concentrated mostly in the plateau since living in the precipitous Alps is genuinely a bit of a bore lake as such the largest cities.
34 In Switzerland are found on the plateau while most of the more mountainous regions of the country a far more sparsely populated.
35 Interestingly in our foreigners living in Switzerland account for almost 25 percent of the population one of the highest percentages in the world in 2017 it was reported that 45 percent of people serving on Swiss executive boards were foreigners.
36 The sovereign state of Switzerland is a Federal Republic bordering Germany to the north Austria and Liechtenstein to the east France of the west and Italy to the south check it all out on Google Maps it was all there hashtag no spawn.
37 The country split into 26 administrative subdivisions known as Canton's the largest of these is the contour gristle which cover 7,000 105 square kilometres which is a little under a fifth of the entire country the smallest kuntum is basel stat which covers only 37 square kilometers.
38 It may surprise you to learn that technically speaking Switzerland has no capital city when the Swiss Federal Constitution was adopted in 1848 it was decided that Switzerland would have no official capital city in order to uphold the ideal of individual canton or independence and autonomy however the country's federal government is based in the city of Bern and is therefore pretty much Switzerland - facto capital.
39 Switzerland has no single head of state either and instead has a seven member Executive Council which serves as a collective Swiss head of states from these seven members a president is elected for a one-year term and during this time is regarded as the Primus in pairs or first among equals as such the Swiss president has no special powers over and above the other six counselors and continues to head their particular department as usual.
40 As already mentioned Switzerland is well known for its system of direct democracy for instance Swiss citizens can turn to law passed by Parliament's if they are able to collect 50,000 signatures against the law within a period of 100 days if successful a national vote on the law is scheduled in which voters decide by a simple majority whether or not to reject it.
41 However a couple of Swiss cantons take their national tradition of direct democracy even further than that while most of Switzerland has moved on to more practical forms of voting in the Canton's of Appenzell in a Godin and Glarus group decisions are made through a DeLong's reminder or community assembly an open-air non secret ballot held on the public square whereby the people vote upon which laws are to be enacted by show of hands a tradition.
42 That dates back as far as the late 13th century what do you think though would you like to vote in huge open-air ballots like the Swiss let us know in our unfortunately not open air but still quite democratic YouTube poll the meaning of life however while Switzerland is often praised as a model for direct democracy it hasn't always been the most progressive nation regarding voting rights while all Swiss men were granted the right to vote in 1848 Swiss women were not able to vote at the federal level until 1971.
43 As if that wasn't bad enough local elections continue to restrict the voting rights of women to even longer than that in the previously-mentioned canton of Appenzell in a Houghton women weren't able to vote on local issues until 1991 which was only granted after two women filed a lawsuit in the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland and one indeed a referendum to allow women to vote in Appenzell in a Houghton was held in 1990 and was rejected by the Canton's male voters by March of 3 to 2 in 1991.
44 The largest city in Switzerland is Zurich which is home to roughly four hundred and fifteen thousand people the de facto capital of Bern languages in fifth place with a measly 133 thousand inhabitants so your life out Bern jeez.
45 Not being part of the old EU Switzerland's currency is the Swiss franc by being surrounded entirely by eurozone countries first in 1850 the swiss franc was also used by switzerland or brother Liechtenstein.
46 As one of the most developed nations on earth Switzerland ranks at or near the top globally in several metrics of national performance including but not limited to government transparency economic competitiveness human development civil liberties and overall quality of life the Swiss have done with it.
47 Indeed Switzerland is one of the world's best places to be born live and be happy as the country was ranked the world's happiest country in 2015 and in 2013 was declared the best country in which to be born according to the Economist Intelligence units where to be born index.
48 According to the World Health Organization Swiss men had the longest life expectancy in the world at eighty one point three years Swiss women can be expected to hold out a little longer than that with an average life expectancy of eighty five point three years giving to insulin the second largest life expectancy in the world after Japan goddamnit Japan pain to the punch every time.
49 As you can probably imagine Switzerland is winner to be environmentally friendly producing around 56% service Powell from hydroelectricity and another 39% of nuclear power resulting in a nearly co2 free electricity generating Network.
50 Switzerland railway system covers the total distance of 3100 miles the Swiss ranked second in the world and travelling by train in fact behind only Japan again damage upon.
51 In 2019 the Swiss cities of Zurich Geneva and Basel were ranked among the top 10 cities in the world in terms of quality of life according to Mercer the world's largest Human Resources consulting firm Zurich in particular ranked second globally losing the top spot to the Austrian city of Vienna.
52 Situated at the intersection of Germanic and Roman speaking Europe Switzerland has not one not two not even three not five but four national languages the vast majority of Swiss people speak German with around sixty percent of the population sprechen Deutsch a little under 23 percent of the Swiss speak French 8% speak Italian and only 0.5 speak Romansh a rare language spoken primarily in the aforementioned thick boy canton of Greece song.
53 Still around 60% of the Swiss population speak English with a decent level of fluency and as such Switzerland currently ranks 15th in the world at the EF English proficiency index for non-native English speakers are column insects such as at the English speakers.
54 Due to its unique linguistic diversity Switzerland is known by a variety of native names to German speakers Switzerland has owners twice while french-speaking Swiss people refer to their nation as SWE's native Italian speakers call Switzerland its Lazzara and the tiny minority Vermont speakers use the word misra to refer to their homeland.
55 In the interest of burners however on coins and stamps Switzerland goes by its latin name convoyed a ratio Helvetica which is frequently shortened to simply hell wet SIA in the interest of brevity.
56 Incidentally it's from Switzerland's Latin name that the nation gets its country code top-level domain of dots eh that's a fact for all you domain name nerds out there.
57 The word Switzerland is the English name for the country which combines the word Schwitzer an obsolete term for an inhabitant of streets which was later used as a term for the Swiss people in general and the word land meaning land.
58 Now you may have mixed opinions on Switzerland but you have to admit that their flank is a big plus literally I've already set that dammit the Swiss flag consists of a white cross in the center of the Red Square and is one of only two flags bellowing two sovereign states that are square the other being the flag for Vatican City.
59 Owing to the fact that most of Switzerland territory Falls over a large six with the Alps it should be no surprise that Switzerland is home to some impressive mountains the country boasts hundreds of mountains over 3,000 metres high dozens of which were even over 4,000.
60 The highest of these mountains is Monta Rosa which is located on to it till in southern border with Italy the main summit of Mont arosa named dufourspitze stands proudly at a high - four thousand six hundred and thirty-four meters.
61 In the region of affairs in the alpine canton of bristol there's a tiny village called doof which is home to less than 30 residents at an altitude of 2,100 26 meters high doof is the highest permanent habited village in europe.
62 Relatively small nation of Switzerland is home to an impressive 1,500 lakes Switzerland is in fact so littered with bodies of water that one is never more than ten miles away from a lake within the country's borders.
63 The largest lake located entirely within to incident is Lake neuchâtel which covers an area of roughly 218 square kilometers in the largely french-speaking region of Rome indeed in 2015 signs are discovered at the bottom of Lake neuchâtel was littered with huge craters the largest of which is 160 meters in diameter which were caused by a rock ting groundwater nintendo.
64 Switzerland also shares Lake Geneva with France widget just over 345 square kilometres is the largest lake in the Alps Lake Geneva which is incidentally also known as LACMA man is reported to contain more than 40 shipwrecks many of which date back centuries.
65 In case hasn't been impressed upon you enough already Switzerland takes its policy of armed neutrality very seriously indeed mid reservist is compulsory for all able-bodied male citizens a module that was later adopted and expanded by Israel what extending the draft to women has been considered at present women are included on a voluntary basis.
66 Not only to most of Switzerland receive military training much of the Swiss landscape is heavily fortified though finding these defences may be harder than you think mater Switzerland is littered with quaint little chalets and country homes that are in fact merely disguises four fully stocked artillery bunkers containing cannons and heavy machineguns while many of these fake buildings have been decommissioned there are thought to be as many as 20,000 of them often hidden right in the middle of populated villages.
67 Another of Switzerland's main defense strategies sounds like it comes from the climax of a Hollywood action movie but it's in fact totally real and they set three thousand locations throughout Switzerland a rigged with explosives designed to completely demolish significant access points of the country which includes numerous roads bridges and railways set to blow upon command some hilly locations have even been rigged to trigger major landslides although many of these defenses have been decommissioned in response to the changing nature of perceived threat to Switzerland the extent to which these defenses have been removed is unknown.
68 Switzerland's unique defenses also include enough nuclear fallout shelters to a comet its entire human population should there ever be the need the nation began building its numerous nuclear bomb in 1963 during the height of the Cold War when the prospect of dying under a billowing mushroom cloud was a distinct possibility.
69 Going underground still the Swiss military isn't perfect and has been guilty of the odd international cock-up from time to time for instance in 2007 a company of 171 swish saw our God not against Swiss soldiers mistakenly invaded the tiny nation of Liechtenstein after becoming lost in a rainstorm the troops walked two kilometers to Liechtenstein before realizing their mistake and turning back after which they informed their neighbors of the unauthorized entry the Vixen stein authorities took their invasion in stride however with one spokesperson of the country stating that these things happen.
70 In 1881 Swiss author Johannes pairi penned one of the most famous children's books ever written Heidi the charming tale of an adorable orphan living with her grandfather in the Swiss mountains has been translated into over 50 languages and adapted for film and television roughly 20 times.
71 Though the cuckoo clock was actually invented in the Black Forest of Germany Switzerland puts its own spin on the charming timepieces with its delightful Chalet style clocks for which the Suites Confederation is well known I actually have one of these at home except the cookie was too little figurine to myself and my darling breath of summer actress and angel Jennifer Lawrence depicting an arresting alpine scene of two lovers taking in the mountain view okay it's a car town next fact.
72 Switzerland is famous around the world for the production of luxury watches which began in the 16th century after John Calvin ban displays of wealth in the city of Geneva outlawing most forms of jewelry however as much mints mints watches were exempted from these restrictions prompting Geneva's Goldsmith's to turn their considerable skills to watch making today approximately half of all luxury watches produced in the world come from Switzerland.
73 The iconic Swiss Army knife manufactured both Victorinox was first manufactured in the late 19th century and is now renowned worldwide for its quality and usefulness every part of the Swiss Army knife is Swiss made with the sole exception of the corkscrew tool which apparently requires the precision metalworking available only in I can't believe this Japan damaged upon you again Japan.
74 The iconic sensory juggernaut of the typeface world Helvetica was created into it to learn in 1957 by designer max mining er with input from Edouard Hoffman Helvetica which you may have already deduced gets its name from everyone's favorite Swiss celts the helvetii eye is arguably the world's most celebrated typeface and long met reign.
75 Switzerland's reputation for banking was fostered by the country's perceived stability as a result of its neutrality which allowed the banking sector to develop and thrive hilariously there were more banks in Switzerland than dentists which is both intimidating and gross.
76 The Swiss version of Santa Claus is normally accompanied by a very strange-looking individual with a suit dark and face whose job is to beat naughty children with sticks Santa's sinister companion is named Schmidt sly which roughly translates to duty I knew ish which lie in school nice guy works at a call centre now.
77 The Swiss Guard the famous personal bodyguards of the Pope really do come from Switzerland and are recruited from the Catholic Canton's of Switzerland the 130 man army originated in the 15th century during the age of Swiss mercenaries and was officially established in 1506 under pope julius.
78 Members of the Swiss Guard are known especially for their flamboyant renaissance-style outfits the splendid with yellow blue and red stripes impaired with either black berets or a Mauryan helmet the Kuro Jena fall 22 June 1914 by Kommandant joules rapport and were inspired by 16th century frescoes of the Swiss Guard created by Italian Renaissance painter Raphael.
79 Number of important scientific and technological breakthroughs have occurred in Switzerland throughout the years German born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein devised his famous equals mc-squared occasion in 1905 while living in Bern and in 1989 English engineer and computer scientist Tim berners-lee created the world wide web while working at CERN which is based in Geneva.
80 Created by the wormwood plant the bright green spirit known as absinthe originated in the Swiss canton of neuchâtel in the late 18th century legend has it that beverage was invented by Pierre ordinaire that's a great name a French doctor living in Switzerland who sold absent there's an all-purpose medicinal Remini also known as the fait there or the Green Fairy absent rose in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th century France before being banned in a number of countries owing to exaggerated rumors of dangerous potency and psychoactive effects.
81 Switzerland is renowned worldwide for its chocolates and in 2015 Switzerland exported almost 115 thousand five hundred tonnes of chocolate to the rest of the world one of the most recognizable chocolatey swiss export is the gold body created by lint the bunnies are decorated with a ribbon around their necks which denote a variety of chocolate contained within the milk chocolate bunny wears a red ribbon the dark chocolate bunny wears a dark brown ribbon hazelnuts has a green ribbon which is weird why and the white chocolate one normally wears white ribbon.
82 However probably the most famous swiss sweet treat is none other than the delicious bars of mountainous trouble ICI goodness known as Toblerone known for its distinctive shape Toblerone was created by Emmel Boorman and Theodor Tobler in Bern in 1908 though it's currently owned by us confectionery company Mondelez international incorporated who would do well to remember not to try and scam us out of chocolate by removing peaks and lengthen gaps in the bar like they tried to do in 2016 I've got my eye on you Mondelez.
83 But the Swiss aren't just exporting the staff the average twist person needs approximately eleven kilograms of chocolate every year more than any other nation in the world.
84 Other well-known Swiss foods include the rusty a potato fritter originating in Bern as well as raclette and fondue which are both variations on the popular pastime consuming near life-threatening amounts of melted cheese.
85 Tobacco consumption is widespread throughout Switzerland such that at the time of the last government report in 2012 28 0.2% of the Swiss people were smokers compared to 19% of Brits or 16.8% of Americans although this number is apparently falling good.
86 Switzerland has also been home to some of recent history's most well-known celebrities after facing numerous accusations of communist sympathies for working in the US and having his reentry permit provokes a legendary comedian Charlie Chaplin decided simply not to return and instead landed in Switzerland where he lived for the last 25 years of his life in a manor house overlooking Lake Geneva.
87 When Charlie Chaplin died in 1977 he was buried in Corsi a serve of a cemetery close his home however only weeks later in 1978 Chaplin's body was stolen along with his coffin by two immigrants in an attempt to extort money from the actus family Chaplin's body was found several weeks later after which he was reburied under almost two meters of reinforced concrete to prevent further corpse napping.
88 American born singer Tina Turner is another prominent celebrity who spends much of her time in Switzerland owing to the fact that she began as Swiss citizen in 2013 after relinquishing her US citizenship sorry Uncle Sam but you want to Mac dam now huh I made no sense base it's nice to do the voice.
89 In Switzerland it's illegal for a person to keep certain pets including guinea pigs Mike's ferrets and fish and Canaries for some reason on their own as Swiss law regards such animals to be inherently social and therefore owning just one of these animals is considered abuse as such in Switzerland you have to own more than one of these animals at a time or none at all.
90 A Switzerland also taxes its citizens for the privilege of owning a dog the cost of which are determined by the dog size and weight dog owners also required to register their pooches and inform their local authorities if they move away or their dog dies Wow a nice name John wick lived in Switzerland.
91 In fact twitch Elin takes the rights of his Hannibal so seriously that the nation even has lawyers dedicated to defending the rights of animals in court in 2010 a man was made to stand trial after he bragged about taking 10 minutes to catch a pike while out fishing which was regarded by some to be an excessively long amount of time that calls the animal undue suffering should be said though that the man was ultimately acquitted.
92 In 1963 Swiss businessman and social activist Jean Andre dunal founded the Red Cross in Geneva which is since grown into the international humanitarian organization known around the world for its commitment to the production of human suffering Friz work - nom was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize alongside frenchman frederic Pasi in 1901 making dunal the first swiss Nobel laureate.
93 In case the Red Cross is Swiss origins weren't clear enough for you it should be pointed out that the Red Cross flag is simply the flag of Switzerland with an colors reversed couldn't be more obvious really.
94 There is a 500 year old statue atop a fountain in bern called the Kindler Fresa which depicts a man eating babies out of a sack nice nobody's exactly sure while it exists although there are a variety of theories the first and most important it holds the figure is wearing a yellow pointed hat called a Juden hat suggesting that the statue could be an expression for centuries old and entirely unsubstantiated anti-semitic belief the Jewish people murder children as part of religious rituals.
95 Other theories suggest that the figure could be the Greek Titan Cronus who ate all his own children to keep them from taking over his throne wild a bad dad while others contend that the statue was little more than a boogeyman meant to scare children into obedience.
96 In 2011 a Swiss jewelry company called Schorsch created the world's first diamond ring in that they managed to produce a ring made entirely out of diamond the ring took over a year to create using special laser equipment and had a staggering 150 carats it's been valued at 68 million dollars.
97 There is a small village called boosting him and Hawk line which is politically part of Germany despite being entirely surrounded by territory belonging to Switzerland since the early 19th century boozing and has been physically separated from the rest of Germany by a narrow strip of land containing the Swiss village of Dorf Lincoln added a narrowest point this strip of Switzerland separates boo singin from the rest of the German state of baden-württemberg by only seven hundred metres.
98 There is a political party in Switzerland called the anti power point party which exists solely to oppose the use of moksa PowerPoint and other presentation software the party claims that the use of PowerPoint can lower the quality of a presentation by up to 95% and advocates flip charts as an alternative to presentation software cup were laughing but they probably win over here.
99 The mountainous Ville a region of Switzerland is home to Lamy de ferran a which consists of just three vines standing in an area of just 1.67 square metres the grapes produced here are mixed with others source from outside vineyards to produce 1000 bottles a year which are then sold at auction to raise thousands of dollars for different charitable causes.
100 There is yet another twist in the story of layer Media Ferren a the owner of the world's smallest switch to vineyard is none other than the Dalai Lama who came into possession of it our church bequeathed to him by renowned French Catholic priests and social activists Arbor Pierre this is despite the fact that in his capacities Buddhist spiritual leader allama promotes abstinence from alcohol I'm sure so that was 100 facts about Switzerland which one shocked you the most did I get all the pronunciations right I bet I did ha ha ha let me know in the comments down below also give this Article a like because it really does help us out you know it makes us feel good.
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