“Area for the Swiss Abroad”

The Swiss Path symbolises the Confederation as a whole. It consists of stages assigned to each of the 26 cantons. However, Switzerland would be incomplete without its many citizens living abroad. The Area for the Swiss Abroad represents the fact that the 800,000 Swiss currently living abroad belong to Switzerland. It is often referred to as the “Rütli of the Fifth Switzerland”.

The area in the bay of Brunnen was acquired following a global fundraising drive among Swiss nationals abroad and thanks to a considerable contribution from the Confederation. The Area for the Swiss Abroad is owned by a foundation in which the Confederation, the canton of Schwyz, the local commune of Ingenbohl, the Schwyzer Kantonalbank and SwissCommunity, formerly the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad, are represented.

For further information please consult auslandschweizerplatz.ch and wiegederschweiz.ch.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Area for the Swiss Abroad, the poster exhibition, which had been set up in the early 1990s, was presented in a new setting. President Johann Schneider-Ammann attended the anniversary event on 15 April 2016, but was unable to visit the square itself due to heavy rain. The exhibition comprises 20 posters explaining why Swiss citizens emigrated all over the world, describing their lives as emigrants and highlighting their contribution as ‘ambassadors’ for Switzerland, which they are able to make thanks to their contacts and, in many cases, their reputation in their host country. The posters were designed by the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad and the Auslandschweizerplatz Foundation.

Discover the permanent poster exhibition on the “Area for the Swiss Abroad”.