The Swiss Guard have been famously fierce mercenaries from the 15th to 19th centuries, but now only 100 are left, serving just the Pope & Vatican City.
January 22nd, 1506, is the official date of birth of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, because on that day, towards the evening, a group of one hundred and fifty Swiss soldiers commanded by Captain Kasparvon Silenen, of Canton Uri, passed through the Porta del Popolo and entered for the first time the Vatican, where they were blessed by Pope Julius II.
1885 - 1973
Herbert ConstamOver the course of three centuries many Swiss immigrants and their descendents have distinguished themselves as soldiers in American armies, but for an American-born soldier to reach the highest grade in the Swiss army is an exceptional occurrence.
Herbert Constam was born in Zurich, but his New York-born father had come to Switzerland only a few years earlier to study chemistry at the Zurich Polytechnic, and did not obtain Swiss citizenship until 1908.
Although Constam studied law, he shortly afterwards became a career soldier. His first position was as an instructor at the shooting school in Walenstadt, Canton St Gallen, where he spent much of his career in between holding other positions. He also gained experience commanding mountain troops, and both before and after World War II he taught tactics and mountain warfare at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
He twice went for further training with the French army, and in 1937 he was sent to observe Franco's army in the Spanish Civil War.
Faced with the threat of war in 1939, Switzerland mobilised its reserves and appointed Henri Guisan as commander-in-chief with the rank of general - a position which only exists in the Swiss army at time of war.
Guisan promoted Constam to the rank of Corps Commander - the equivalent of a 3-star general. At that time he was almost certainly the highest ranking officer of Jewish descent anywhere in the world. (Constam's father had converted to Christianity a few years before his marriage, and changed his name from Kohnstamm.)
As an adviser to Guisan, Constam played an important role in developing the plan for a "redoubt" in the Alps, from which resistance would be organized should there be an invasion. It was hoped that even if most of Switzerland came under Nazi occupation, the redoubt would remain impregnable.
Constam was admired not only for his abilities as a teacher and a leader, but for his personal commitment and his care for his subordinates.
Although Constam's mother was Swiss from St Gallen, the family kept close ties with the US. His father was US Vice Consul in Switzerland from 1892-95. His brother Ernst - a pioneer of ski lifts - made his home in the US from 1940, but continued to build ski lifts in both countries, while another brother, Georg, a specialist in diabetes, worked for three years (1925-28) at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York.
Emil Frey1838 - 1922
Six Civil War veterans became President of the United States; only one became the president of another country - Switzerland.
Emil Frey might have seemed predestined for a political career: his father was an active politician in his native canton of Basel-Country. It was less predictable that he would fight with distinction in two of the major battles of the Civil War.
Frey arrived in the US in the fall of 1860. He took up residence in the colony of Highland, Illinois, which had been established by Swiss emigrants some 30 years earlier. He found work with Friedrich Hecker, an old acquaintance of Frey's father. Hecker was a German revolutionary who had been forced to leave his native country after the failed revolution of 1848, and had for a time been given refuge by the Frey family.
When the Civil War broke out Frey signed up to fight. For him the importance of the Unionist cause went beyond the borders of the US.
"The dismemberment of the Union would seriously injure the cause of liberty in the world," he wrote.
Hecker established the 82nd Illinois volunteer infantry, for which Frey helped him recruit. He signed up for H company a number of men from Highland, who unanimously elected him captain. The company "was soon considered one of the best in the regiment," he wrote in a letter home.
Frey's company fought with distinction at Chancellorsville in May 1863 (the battle known as "Lee's greatest victory") and he was promoted to acting major.
At Gettysburg two months later he was taken prisoner by the Confederates, and spent 18 months in the Libby prison in Richmond, where he nearly starved. He was exchanged in January 1865.
After the war, Frey returned to Switzerland, where he entered politics. For many years he was active in Basel-Country, serving for six years (1866-72) in the cantonal government. In 1872 he became editor of the "Basler Nachrichten" newspaper, and at the same time was elected to the National Council at Federal level. He was the Council speaker in 1876 - the annually rotating post whose holder is the highest-ranking person in Switzerland.
He returned to the US in 1882, this time as Swiss minister in Washington, where his duties included overseeing the interests of Swiss immigrants.
He remained in this post until 1888, then went back to Switzerland where he again became a newspaper editor and was again elected to the National Council.
In 1890 he finally fulfilled his long-held ambition to be elected as a member of the Federal Council, the Swiss government. He remained in the Council for just over six years, for all of which he headed the military department. In this position he strengthened Switzerland's defence capabilities, among other things by building fortifications on the St Gotthard pass (now a museum).
In 1894 Frey served as President - under the Swiss system a position which rotates annually between the members of the Federal Council.
He stepped down from the Council in 1897, and became director of the Bernese office of the International Telegraph Union, a post he held until 1921.
