Short
history of the «Stadtzunft»
In
1798, the guild regiment of Zurich, active since the middle ages, was
placed under serious attack, and was finally abolished in 1866. Previously,
any established citizen, who was also a landowner, needed to belong to a
guild in order to exercise his right to vote. It was the guilds which
elected the Large City Council
and therefore exercised great power. The right to vote was a privilege,
which belonged only to the guilds and their members. Besides the regular
guild members, the guild also accepted members who only exercised their
right to vote as a privilege of the guild and were known as Political
Guild Members. But in 1866 the new municipality law for the canton of
Zurich gave the right of vote to all inhabitants, and the role of the Political
Guild Members became suddenly unimportant. The new Community
Order destroyed the political function of the guilds.
Some
of the Political Guild Members
would have gladly remained in the guild as regular members after the
political decline of the guilds. But it was not possible to accept so many
applicants as the guild halls could not house such a large number of
members. For this reason, on March 26, 1867, 30 men assembled in the hotel
Zum Schwanen in answer to an advertisement calling the former Political
Members and new citizens to meet and form a new General
City Guild. Just a few days, on April 1st the newly founded
Stadtzunft with its first 43 members took part in Sechseläuten
as the 14th guild of Zurich, and celebrated the first
Nach-Sechseläuten (After-Sechseläuten)
a week later.
The
young guild was very active and its membership increased within one year
to 118 members, 78 of whom were not citizens of the city. In accordance
with the first principle of their statutes, the main goal of the new guild
was the celebration of Sechseläuten
and the promotion of friendship among the guild members. With these words,
the future objectives of the guilds were generally set. The upholding of a
liberal tradition was also considered of great importance.
In
1887, eight years after its establishment, the Stadtzunft was officially recognized by the Central Committee as a member of the guilds of Zurich.
The
Stadtzunft retained its quarters in the Schwanen until 1887. Then, forced to move because of the sale of the
hotel, it found a new home in the Hotel
Storchen. After 1906, it moved to the Hotel
Habis Royal (now the Café
Edoardo, near the main station of Zurich), and in 1947 to the Bahnhofbuffet (restaurant of the railway station). In 1973 it found
its latest and definitive quarters in the newly built Hotel Zürich (now Marriott
Hotel, Zurich).
