Property and Freedom Podcast, Episode 300.

This talk is from the recently-concluded 19th annual PFS 2025 Annual Meeting (Sep. 18–23, 2025, Bodrum, Turkey).

David Dürr (Switzerland): A Brief History of Swiss Anarchism [Sebastian Wang, “David Dürr on Swiss Anarchism – Property and Freedom Society Bodrum 2025,” Libertarian Alliance [UK] Blog (Sep. 21, 2025)] Shownotes and transcript below.

Other talks appear on the Property and Freedom Podcast. Other videos may also be found at the PFS 2025 Youtube Playlist.

Grok shownotes

PFP300 Show Notes: David Dürr – A Brief History of Swiss Anarchism (PFS 2025)

Overview

In his 10th PFS appearance (coinciding with the conference’s 20th anniversary), Swiss lawyer and anarchist thinker David Dürr traces Switzerland’s history through the lens of external and internal anarchism: no vertical integration into larger empires (external) and no centralized monopoly of power within (internal). Far from chaos, anarchism here means voluntary, horizontal structures and resistance to coercion.

Key Historical Arc

• Ancient Roots: Helvetii tribes resist Roman yoke (100 BC); early fragmentation hints at anarchist tendencies.


• Medieval Emergence: Switzerland forms in the 13th century as Habsburgs expand—small valleys and towns band together in defense pacts (Rütli Oath, William Tell myths).


• Holy Roman Empire Era: Switzerland remains a loose, recognized entity among larger blocks; internally a patchwork of cantons, towns, and languages.


• 1515 Marignano Debacle: Attempt to conquer northern Italy fails spectacularly—Swiss lack of centralized command proves both weakness and strength; retreat preserves autonomy.


• Westphalia (1648): Formal external recognition; internal diversity intact.


• Napoleonic Interruption: Helvetic Republic (1798–1803) briefly centralizes; Napoleon admits he cannot coordinate the quarrelsome Swiss.


• Vienna Congress (1815): Restores loose confederation of 22 sovereign cantons—peak of dual anarchy.

The Turning Point: Sonderbund War (1847–48)

Liberal Protestant cantons illegally force Catholic conservative cantons into a unified federal state via majority vote (no required unanimity). Dürr calls this an illegal coup d’état that ends internal anarchism and creates the modern Swiss Confederation.

Modern External Anarchism

• Switzerland stays out of NATO and EU; rejects EEA in 1992 by razor-thin margin.


• Ongoing EU pressure via new bilateral treaties—resistance weakening.

Why the Center Cannot Hold

Switzerland lacks unifying glue:

• Two main religions (Protestant north/west, Catholic center/south).


• Urban/rural cultural divide.


• 26 cantons competing on taxes.


• 4 national languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh).
  
  Dürr predicts breakup by 2048 (Schlussbericht 2048—a satirical “final report” from a dissolved Confederation).

Philosophical Coda

Rejects “nation of will” (Willsnation) as Hobbesian fiction: Leviathan’s composite body has many people but one head. Real unity comes from diverse individual wills, not a mythical collective one.

Teases his pet topic: even strong individual wills are not truly “free”… but that’s another story.

Books Mentioned

• Schlussbericht 2048 (German; fictional dissolution narrative).


• Staat oder Oper (the state as grand theatrical illusion).

A witty, map-rich romp through 2,000 years—proving Switzerland is less a nation than a stubborn anarchist experiment still running.

Grok/Youtube transcript

PFP300 | David Dürr: A Brief History of Swiss Anarchism (PFS 2025)

Introduction and Anniversary Reflections

[0:00 ]

Don’t applaud too early. You have to endure me now for the 10th time already. This is my 10th anniversary as a speaker at PFS, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of your conference. So that’s a big honor for me, of course, and many thanks again for the invitation to Guido and Hans.

Topic Selection and the Cradle of Anarchism

[0:28 ]

As usual, since about two or three years, I made a proposition to Hans: what about the topic of free will, which is not free but it’s very useful that we think it’s free? And he always says, “Oh, David, that’s another story. Why won’t you speak about Javier Milei?” That was last year. Or, “Why won’t you speak about a brief history of Swiss anarchism?” That’s a fine idea, that’s a suggestion. I think it’s a good one and not that other story with the free will.

[1:20 ]

Now, a brief history of Swiss anarchism. This is really something interesting. One could even say that a brief history of Switzerland is anarchism. Maybe this is a fairly good example of anarchism. However you define it, one can say some people say that in 1976 there was a football club Bakunin, and they said—this is what I found on the internet—in 1976 they said Switzerland is the cradle of anarchism. This is a football game of young people; at that time this was about like Hans looked like as a young leftist revolutionary. Maybe he did not play football, I do not know. But when they celebrated Switzerland as the cradle of anarchism, they looked back a century ago when this cradle started to exist.

The 1869 Basel Convention and Bakunin

[2:24 ]

And they referred to this event in 1869: that was an anarchist workers’ union convention in Basel in Switzerland, the place I live. And the famous, internationally well-known and chased anarchist Mikhail Bakunin spoke at that convention in that beautiful hotel—I know the hotel where it is. And he did not plead against capitalists or bourgeois state or things like that, but against other socialists, against this centralist attitude of Marx. So there were not just socialist leftists but anarchists. This was very typical and important for them, and that took place in Basel. So it seems that Basel is, or Switzerland, let’s say, is the cradle of anarchism.

[3:44 ]

This is the same convention conference—you see, beautiful, this hotel. This is like anarchists celebrate their conventions, their reunions here at this beautiful hotel with this terrace with the stairs. They all looking friendly at the photographer. This is how anarchists celebrate their convention. [Applause]

Swiss Anarchist Highlights: Geneva Assassination

[4:18 ]

And of course we are the heroes of anarchism because in Geneva the famous empress was assassinated by an anarchist. So Switzerland is the cradle of anarchism.

Defining External and Internal Anarchism

[4:38 ]

But after this episode, let me try to go a bit deeper into what anarchism is and namely what Switzerland is about with anarchism. I distinguish between external and internal anarchism. If a country, a population has an anarchist attitude, there is an external, international so to speak aspect, and on the other side the internal one.

[5:13 ]

The external one means, I would say, not being vertically integrated into a bigger entity, not just being a small part of a bigger thing. This is the external aspect of anarchy. Anarchy which means—without a Greek—which means first superior, without central monopolized power. This is anarchy, and this is the meaning if you look at the external aspect of anarchy. What is not excluded is that you have horizontal contractual relationships that can be binding, but it’s not a vertical integration. That’s the external aspect.

[6:07 ]

And now the internal one: this means that internally, within this group, within this population, within this country, there is no center of power. There is no involuntary collectivity. This is the meaning of the internal side of anarchism. But here again, what is not excluded is that there are centers—in the plural—centers of power: economic centers, scientific, cultural centers, whatever, with voluntary memberships. So anarchism does not mean lack of structure, lack of organization, but no integration outside and no monopoly inside.

Early Swiss History: Helvetii and Resistance to Rome

[7:01 ]

What does this mean now for Switzerland? The Helvetia, Switzerland, Confederatio Helvetica. This is the official notion. Helvetii,