Materialising Identity: The Co-construction of the Gotthard Railway and Swiss National Identity
Judith Schueler
Jan 2008 · Technology and European History Series Book 1 · Amsterdam University Press
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About this ebook
Since 1882, the Gotthard Railway, with its fifteen-kilometerlong tunnel under the Gotthard Mountains, has provided a crucialinternational link through the Swiss Alps, between North-WesternEurope and Italy. Its symbolic meaning has never sunk into oblivion.In Swiss society today, references to the railway evoke images of atechnological railway project, with allusions to Swiss history, alpinenature, and national identity. Reading this book helps us understandcontemporary discussions about the future of the Gotthard Railway,the region in which it lies, and the Swiss national identity.To illustrate to what extent historical actors co-constructedthe railway and Swiss identity, the book starts with an engineeringdiscussion about tunneling methods. Then it examinesreactions in Switerland to the inauguration of the railway line.Subsequently, it describes how the railway line was portrayedin travel guides of the belle poque. The last chapter capturesthe glory days of the Gotthard myth, before and during the SecondWorld War, with a focus on novels and plays in which theGotthard Tunnel construction occurs. This historical overviewoffers insight into the multiple roles that technology plays in theconstruction of a sense of national identity.
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