The ruined castle of Unspunnen near Interlaken became the site, in 1805, of a festival of sports and pastimes. Although such festivals had an earlier run-up in popular culture, the 1805 Unspunnenfest gave them a new political and national meaning, following, as it did, the dissolution of the Helvetian Republic (a French client-state). A press announcement hailed the end of “long years of French-imposed humiliation” and offered the Swiss nation (Schweizervolk) a feast where “Swiss competitive games and songs would bolster self-awareness and national consciousness”. Among these Swiss competitive games were pastimes traditionally played out in village feasts and among young farmers and cowherds, such as stone-throwing, wrestling and hornussen (a team sport involving the throwing and catching of a puck). A second Unspunnenfest was held in 1808, in commemoration of the 5th centenary of the Rütli Oath of 1307. The festivities then lapsed, and were only revived in 1905, by which time they could profit from the burgeoning tourist trade. Since that date they have become a recurring fixture, and the gamut of traditional pastimes has been extended to include yodelling. Yodelling had found its way into organized, middle-class culture around 1830, when the first yodelling clubs and choirs had been formed and yodel songs with background accompaniment began to be composed. The Austrian ethnomusicologist Josef Pommer (1845-1918; a vehement völkisch nationalist) had between 1889 and 1902 published various collections of yodel themes; a Swiss yodel association was founded in 1910.

Another sports-and-pastimes festival predated the 1905 revival of the Unspunnenfest by a decade; the triennial Confederate Festival of wrestling and alpine pastimes (Eidgenössisches Schwing- und Älplerfest). Around the same time, these traditional/revived sports were also given organizational structures: the Eidgenössischer Schwingerverband (Wrestling Federation) was founded in 1895, the Hornusserverband in 1902. Stone-throwing (often involving very heavy stones) and Swiss wrestling were also incorporated into the German Turn-activities.

These turn-of-the-century developments were the culmination of a century-long build-up. Commemorations of decisive battles, or of cantons joining the Confederation (Zurich commemorating 1351 in 1851) were celebrated throughout the century: the 5th centenary of the Battle of Laupen in 1839, the 4th centenary of the Battle of St Jakob an der Birs in 1844, the 5th centenary of the Battle of Sempach in 1886. This last event took the form of a newly evolving cultural genre, the Festspiel: choral tableaux with collectively spoken texts and incidental music evoking important episodes from the national past. After Sempach 1886, Festspiele were held with increasing frequency throughout the 1890s and up to 1914.

This build-up had received a major impetus from the German Schiller commemorations of 1859. Coming as they did after the failure of 1848, these festivities highlighted Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell, with its joint celebration of transregional unity and democratic rights; and that play was, of course, an evocation of the Swiss national founding myth. The author of Wilhelm Tell was fêted by the three original confederate cantons, and honoured with a monument in 1860, the Mythenstein. It was around this event that the idea of nationally Swiss festivities crystallized. Gottfried Keller’s essay Am Mythenstein of 1861 described the occasion and used it to develop the model of the mass-participation cultural Festspiel. In the cultural repertoire, the myth of Wilhelm Tell dominated Swiss historicist culture. A fresco-ornamented chapel (the Tellskapelle) was constructed in 1879-82 on the spot where the hero had made his daring leap into Gessner’s boat; in 1884 it became the destination of an official civic pilgrimage, held annually.