Danube-Networkers
Possible Europe
Text: Dorothee Durka
A friendship between the Roman Switzerland and Germany – 45 years and three generations.
When my husband and I were studying in Munich (1962 – 1966), we belonged to a group of students called “friendship with foreign students” – organized by the catholic students’ parish. There we wanted to help the foreigners, to inform them about Munich and Germany, to speak German, to accompany them etc.
There in 1964 we met a young couple, just married, from Roman Switzerland. She was a student of laws from Fribourg, he a historian from the region of Swiss Jura. They had a scholarship for spending one year in Munich.
We became friends soon, we liked to have talks and trips together, before they had to leave us after two semesters. But our friendship did not end. We remained in contact, during the following ten years mostly by birth announcements of our children, five girls in Switzerland and two boys here.
Bernard became a teacher at Fribourg university, Mado stayed at home with the five daughters. They did not want to forget the German language because they lived at the border of the German and French languages in Switzerland. They also wanted that their daughters would improve their knowledge of German which they had got at school. So we invited them when they were about 15 years old to spend their holidays with us and our friends. Here they could speak German whereas my sons used this occasion to improve their French. As the parents came to bring or to pick up the girls we were happy to see them several times. Sometimes we also went to Switzerland for holidays where we were allowed to use the small house which “our” family had bought in the Jura-mountains.
When the children had grown up we remained in contact. We took part in their efforts for the foundation of the “canton” Jura, Bernard’s native part of NW-Switzerland. There mostly catholic and French speaking people are living, but they belonged to the “canton” Bern which is more protestant and German speaking. The people of the Jura suffered from not being well represented in Bern. In the sixties they fought for their own canton. After many difficulties, on Jan. 1st 1979, the northern part of Jura became a canton for itself by referendum, the 26th Swiss canton. A dream of our friends was realized! Bernard, the historian, became the responsible man for the local heritage and history, so they moved from Fribourg to the Jura, his native place.
Mado became a deputy for the Christian party in the Swiss parliament.
Our friendship continued: By the marriages of our children – four in Sw. and two in G.
Now we have 11 grandchildren, the majority of course being in Sw.: 9 : 2 for Switzerland!
The youngest daughter, Françoise, is married to a German who since a long time is living in Switzerland with his parents. So they want that their children, 5,5 and 2,5 years old, don’t forget German. Therefore they asked me if it might be possible for them to spend some holidays with me, and I agreed. So they came here in October for 2 weeks, and we tried to find a lot of occasions to speak German.
A highlight for them was a trip to Munich, firstly because the Swiss family wanted to see where the parents resp. grandparents had lived 45 years ago, secondly for visiting one of my sons who lives there with his family and whose second son had his first birthday. So three generations enjoyed our Swiss and German friendship.
Martin, the Swiss boy, was able to speak German rather well, but he said e. g.: I cannot play war in German! And the mother could not blame her children in German. So we had sometimes funny conversations in two languages.
There are not many photos. One of them was taken in 1987, when we, my son Gregor and I, said good bye to daughter no. 4 when her parents came to take her back – with daughters no. 1 and 5 – who was here now, 22 years later. The second photo shows the third generation: Daniel and Florian, German, Martin and Alice, Swiss.
Our friends are, as many people in Switzerland, a good example for living together with different languages and cultures – which is necessary for their country, but also for their position in the middle of Western Europe. Even if they prefer to be independent - they are not members of the European Union and so they don’t have the Euro – we can say that “Europe is possible” with this Swiss people.
When Mado, our friend, read this essay she said: “Europe for us is a matter of course, it is normal for most of the Swiss people even if the politicians are cautious. All our laws are compatible with European right, they are worked out already for our participation to Europe.”
