175Y Swiss Constitution

Celebration of the Swiss Federal Constitution

The Federal Constitution of 1848 was the first constitution of the Swiss Confederation that the Swiss people gave themselves; because the revolutions in neighbouring countries failed, it made Switzerland a democratic republican island in the midst of the monarchies of Europe for the second half of the 19th century. On 12 September 1848, the Diet declared that the Federal Constitution was "thus adopted and valid as the fundamental law of the Confederation". The old federal treaty remained in force for several weeks alongside the new constitution.

Free access to unbiased knowledge is a cornerstone of a democratic society. The 175th anniversary of the Swiss Federal Constitution is an occasion for Wikimedia CH to highlight its mission for free knowledge and the importance of Wikipedia as well as its sister projects for democracy. We also want to highlight the importance of GLAM institutions in preserving our heritage and our history.

How to participate and contribute

Wikipedia Articles

As a beginner or intermediate Wikipedia author you can contribute for example by improving and completing an existing article, inserting appropriate images and image galleries, inserting links to archival collections on webarchives and portals, updating info boxes or inserting Wikidata info boxes into Wikipedia articles. If you are an expert Wikipedia author you might engage in creating a completely new article.

Wikimedia Commons

If you like to work with media files, you might want to upload collections, archives related images and documents to Wikimedia Commons. Please remember that taking onsite photographs need to be compliant with the legal framework when uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Maybe you still have many images, you did not have time to share and upload into Wikimedia Commons. Nevertheless, some institutions have released images collections and documents under a free license the past years. The collections are accessible through their portal or webarchive but are not yet available in Wikimedia Commons or embedded in a Wikipedia article.

Wikidata

If you like to work with meta data, you can help us to complete the geographical visualization on archives in Switzerland linked to Wikimedia content on Wikidata. Every contribution counts.

Contact

If you would like to contribute to this Wikimedia project, you need support in your activities, or you want to learn more about the association, contact us directly.

WMCH
For voluntary community
DE: ulrich.lantermannwikimedia.ch
FR: flor.mechainwikimedia.ch
IT: lia.berettawikimedia.ch
GLAM
sandra.beckerwikimedia.ch
amandine.cabriowikimedia.ch
Press contact
Kerstin Sonnekalb, presswikimedia.ch