The transfer of Laufen District in north-western Switzerland from the canton of Bern to the canton of Basel-Landschaft in 1994 was preceded by decades of protracted political and legal disputes, also known as the Laufental question.
The district's cantonal affiliation was closely linked to the Jura question. Like the Jura region, the valley of Laufen () once belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Basel and only became part of Bern in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna. The region had little influence on cantonal politics, while economic and cultural ties with the Basel metropolitan area remained close. The same amendment to the Bernese cantonal constitution that enabled the founding of the canton of Jura in the nearby French-speaking areas after the Jura plebiscites in 1979 granted the district, which had become an exclave, the right to decide whether to join one of its neighboring cantons.
In 1978, the people of Laufental decided to initiate the procedure, and in 1980 they chose the canton of Basel-Landschaft as their preferred accession option (other options would have been the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Solothurn). On September 11, 1983, however, they voted against the change of canton with 56.7% of the votes. When the Bernese financial affair was uncovered in 1984, it came to light that the cantonal authorities had massively influenced opinion-forming through secret illegal payments to the Aktion bernisches Laufental (Bernese Laufental Action) campaign. In 1988, the Federal Supreme Court upheld a constitutional complaint by the separatist Laufentaler Bewegung and declared the result of the vote invalid. The repeat of the vote on November 12, 1989, resulted in a majority of 51.7% in favour of the change of canton. In 1991, Basel-Landschaft agreed to the incorporation of Laufental, and in 1993 the people and cantons also gave their approval in a federal referendum. The transfer finally took place on January 1, 1994.
Laufental in the prince-bishopric of Basel
In the Middle Ages, the Laufental valley came under the influence of the bishops of Basel. In 1006, Henry II granted the villages of Duggingen and Grellingen to the Prince-Bishopric of Basel. In 1141, the Saint Blaise Abbey ceded a manor comprising Laufen, Röschenz, Wahlen and Zwingen. In 1269, the prince-bishopric acquired the lordship of Burg im Leimental from the Habsburgs, the village of Liesberg from the County of Ferrette in 1271 and the village of Roggenburg from the Thiersteiners in 1454. Finally, in 1462, Blauen, Brislach, Dittingen and Nenzlingen were added from the Ramstein inheritance.Cueni et al.: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, p. 154. There were close ties with the prince-bishop's bailiwicks of Birseck and Pfeffingen, as well as with the city of Basel. After the French Republic occupied the north of the prince-bishopric in 1792, revolutionary forces proclaimed the Rauracian Republic. In 1793, France annexed its sister republic, which now formed the department of Mont-Terrible. Despite territorial expansions, it remained the smallest of all the departments and was absorbed into the department of Haut-Rhin in 1800.Oeschger: Vom Bär zum Siebedupf (Teil 1). 2018, p. 58. In the latter, the municipalities belonged to the canton of Laufen (with the exception of Roggenburg in the canton of Delémont).
Coalition troops conquered the former prince-bishopric in 1813. After the Treaty of Paris restored the borders of 1792, Governor Conrad Karl Friedrich von Andlau-Birseck continued to administer the area provisionally. The Laufentalers petitioned to be annexed to the Canton of Basel.Henecka: Die jurassischen Separatisten. 1972, p. 43–45. The Congress of Vienna ignored this request, as Prince Metternich proposed that the Canton of Bern be compensated for the loss of its subject territories in Vaud and Aargau with the former prince-bishopric; Basel was also to receive a share.Henecka: Die jurassischen Separatisten. 1972, p. 47–48. It is assumed that the diplomats were more confident that the Bernese could reliably defend Switzerland's north-western border than the geographically exposed Baslers, which is why they drew the border at Angenstein Castle above the Birs on 20 March 1815. Another common explanation is that they simply had inaccurate knowledge of local conditions.Werner A. Gallusser: Das Laufental als Heimat der Bevölkerung und regionale Wirklichkeit. In: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, p. 17. The deeds of union formalized the division of the territory on December 15, 1815.Henecka: Die jurassischen Separatisten. 1972, p. 48–49. This split the bailiwick of Pfeffingen in two: Aesch and Pfeffingen together with the Birseck went to Basel, Duggingen and Grellingen together with the Laufental went to Bern. This division was in line with the wishes of the Reformed inhabitants of Basel, who distrusted the Catholics and therefore did not want to take in too many of them.
The Laufental in the canton of Bern The integration of the Laufental into the Canton of Bern, which was also Reformed, proved to be difficult, which was demonstrated in particular by the Baden Articles (1836) and the Kulturkampf (1873–1880), when the cantonal government took action against Catholic priests loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the people of Laufental did not seek separation, but rather the preservation of their distinct characteristics and greater autonomy within the canton. In the early years, the Laufental belonged administratively to the French-speaking district of Delémont, but despite sharing a Catholic majority, it did not feel adequately represented. Separatist efforts were nevertheless limited, apart from the actions of Joseph Ferdinand Gerster. When the Bernese cantonal constitution was revised in 1846, the demand for a separate district was granted. Politically, it hardly played a role, as its representation in the cantonal authorities was low and its strongest party, the Catholic Conservatives (CVP from 1970), was of little importance at cantonal level. In the following decades, more and more Bernese moved to Laufental, including civil servants, police officers and teachers. However, cultural and above all economic relations continued to exist predominantly with the Basel area. These became ever closer, especially after the construction of the Jura Railway in the 1870s. The Laufental developed into one of the wealthiest districts in the canton, but relations with Bern remained distant.Hans Tschäni: Vom schwierigen Weg der direkten Demokratie. In: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, p. 94–95. A hundred years later, the Laufental experienced a significant population surge due to the arrival of commuters who worked in Basel and the surrounding area.Werner A. Gallusser: Das Laufental als Heimat der Bevölkerung und regionale Wirklichkeit. In: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, p. 21.
Jura separatism, which flared up again in 1947 after the Moeckli Affair, initially had only a marginal impact on the Laufental. In the early years, the Rassemblement jurassien (RJ) strove for a new canton that would encompass the entire historical Jura, i.e. the area of the former prince-bishopric belonging to the canton of Bern, comprising the districts of Courtelary, Delémont, Franches-Montagnes, La Neuveville, Laufen, Moutier and Porrentruy.Henecka: Die jurassischen Separatisten. 1972, pp. 116–117. Individual prominent Laufental residents actively supported this demand, above all Adolf Walther, the long-serving governor. He was vice-president of the RJ and editor of the separatist magazine Der Laufentaler from 1953 to 1959.Oeschger: Vom Bär zum Siebedupf (Teil 1). 2018, p. 60. On July 5, 1959, the cantonal plebiscite initiative, with which the separatists in the seven Jura districts wanted to bring about a referendum on the establishment of the canton, failed by a clear margin; in the district of Laufen itself, the rejection rate was 73.1%. As a result, the RJ gradually replaced its hitherto purely historical argumentation with an ethnolinguistic strategy that emphasized French ethnicity. For this reason, it gave up its already very vague claim to the LaufentalHenecka: Die jurassischen Separatisten. 1972, pp. 236–238. and interest in the Jura question there declined sharply.Werner A. Gallusser: Das Laufental als Heimat der Bevölkerung und regionale Wirklichkeit. In: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, p. 19.
Effects of the Jura plebiscites on the Laufental
The situation changed abruptly on September 9, 1969, when the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern approved a proposal by the cantonal executive without a dissenting vote: an amendment to the Bernese cantonal constitution would allow the seven districts to decide whether they wanted to remain part of the Canton of Bern or be part of a new canton to be founded. The Bernese authorities assumed that the district of Laufen would refuse to join a French-speaking canton and thus become an exclave. They therefore felt compelled to grant it a separate right of self-determination, which would allow voters to decide whether to join a neighboring canton in north-western Switzerland.Christian Jecker: Vom Musterfall zum Skandal. In: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, p. 31. The journalist Heinz Däpp argues that most Bernese politicians at the time regarded the Laufental as merely an appendage to the highly controversial Jura issue and were only interested in the distant district in this context. On the other hand, in the numerous debates, the people of Laufental had never played a noticeable role in shaping Bernese Jura policy and had shown a demonstrative lack of interest. The district could not be categorized as either "evil separatists" or "good Bern loyalists" and was therefore declared a special case. The official stance of explaining the right to self-determination with the exclave situation was only a pretext to influence opinions in the Jura; the Laufental people themselves had never been asked beforehand.Heinz Däpp: Ein Niemandsland hinter dem blauen Berg. In: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, pp. 146–149. The March 1, 1970 referendum on the constitutional amendment resulted in an approval rate of 93.3% canton-wide and 88.7% in the district of Laufen.Staatsarchiv des Kantons Bern, StABE A 3.1.3180.
In the first Jura plebiscite on June 23, 1974, the people of Laufental had to vote against the creation of the canton of Jura in order to keep the option of joining another canton open. Bern may have hoped that the votes of the Laufentalers would thwart Jura's efforts to gain autonomy, but this did not succeed.Christian Jecker: Vom Musterfall zum Skandal. In: Lehrblätz Laufental. 1993, p. 32. Although 74.2% of voters in Laufental rejected the proposal, 51.9% of voters across all districts voted in favor.Staatsarchiv des Kantons Bern, StABE A 3.1.3192a. On September 18, 1974, the Laufental District Commission was formed on a voluntary basis. It was chaired by governor Jacques Gubler and prepared the second Jura plebiscite. In order not to be part of the new canton, the districts that rejected the proposal had to submit popular initiatives signed by at least one fifth of the voters. In the districts of Courtelary, La Neuveville and Moutier, the anti-separatist Force démocratique organized the collection of signatures, while in the district of Laufen, the district commission did so. It submitted the initiative on February 24, 1975, with 3,312 valid signatures. According to Gubler, it was "not responsible for making any decisions about the political future of our valley; however, it had to lay the groundwork so that the political decision could be made by the citizens entitled to vote."Oeschger: Vom Bär zum Siebedupf (Teil 1). 2018, p. 62. On September 14, 1975, 94.6% of Laufental residents voted yes to the question "Do you want the district of Laufen to remain part of the canton of Bern, subject to annexation to a neighbouring canton?"