Time in Switzerland

Switzerland uses Central European Time (CET) during the winter as standard time, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+01:00), and Central European Summer Time (CEST) during the summer as daylight saving time, which is two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+02:00).[1]

## History

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The electrical telegraph was introduced in Switzerland in 1851, which allowed near real-time communication, especially amongst post offices. By July 1853, all telegraph and post offices across Switzerland were using Bernese time,[2] a local mean time measured from the Zytglogge clocktower[3] at UTC+00:29:45.5.[a] Bernese time was also used on train timetables by at least 1873.[5] On 1 June 1894, UTC+01:00 was officially adopted nationwide.[6] Daylight saving time was first attempted between 1941 and 1942, by moving the clocks forward one hour at 01:00 on the first Monday in May, and back again at 02:00 on the first Monday in October.[citation needed] The decision to observe daylight saving time was made by the Federal Council on behalf of the recommendation of the Federal Chancellery.[7]

Whilst DST was introduced in much of Western Europe in the spring of 1980, Switzerland did not implement DST until the following year due to popular opposition as expressed by a referendum in 1978.[8] This resulted in there being a one-hour time difference between Switzerland and most of Western Europe, including all of the bordering countries (with the exception of Liechtenstein) for around six months in 1980.[citation needed]

The German village of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a small exclave, entirely surrounded by Swiss territory, did not implement DST in 1980 either and observed the same time as Switzerland, meaning there was a one-hour time difference between this village and the rest of Germany. The zone Europe/Busingen was created in the 2013a release of the tz database,[9] because since the Unix time epoch in 1970, Büsingen has shared clocks with Zurich.[10]

Since 1981 the shifts to DST occur on the date as specified for European Summer Time.[citation needed]

## Solar time

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The difference of longitude between the western and easternmost points of Switzerland is equivalent to 4°32′09", resulting in a difference of approximately 18 minutes of solar time.[citation needed]

## IANA time zone database

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The IANA time zone database contains one zone for Switzerland in the file zone.tab, named Europe/Zurich. Columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself.[citation needed]

c.c.*  | Coordinates*  | TZ*  | Comments*  | UTC offset | UTC DST offset

|
|
|
|
|

CH | +4723+00832 | Europe/Zurich | Büsingen  | +01:00  | +02:00

Computers not supporting "Europe/Zurich" may use the older POSIX syntax: `TZ='CET-1CEST,M3.5.0/2,M10.5.0/3'`[citation needed]

## References

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1. ^ Europe. WorldTimeZone.com.
2. ^ Messerli, Jakob (1995). Gleichmässig – pünktlich – schnell: Zeiteinteilung und Zeitgebrauch in der Schweiz im 19. Jahrhundert (in German). Zürich. p. 72\. ISBN 3-905311-68-2. OCLC 717570797.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
3. ^ Stuewer, Roger H. (2009). The Physical Tourist: A Science Guide for the Traveler. Springer London. p. 128\. ISBN 9783764389338. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
4. ^ "Verordnung des Bundesamtes für Landestopografie über Geoinformation" [Ordinance of the Federal Office of Topography on Geoinformation] (in German). Fedlex: The publication platform for federal law. 26 May 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
5. ^ Black, Charles Bertram (1873). "Guide to Switzerland and the Italian Lakes". Sampson Low, Marston & Company. p. 21. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
6. ^ "Circulaire du conseil fédéral" (in French). Swiss Federal Council. 13 December 1893. Retrieved 28 March 2022 - via Swiss Federal Archives.
7. ^ "Protokol Sitzung des schweizerischen Bundesrates" [Minutes of the session of the Swiss Federal Council] (PDF) (in German). Swiss Federal Council. 7 November 1941. p. 24. Retrieved 28 March 2022 - via Swiss Federal Archives.
8. ^ O'Sullivan, Domhnall (2023-10-28). "Daylight Saving Time: when Switzerland was a 'lost island' in Europe". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
9. ^ Eggert, Paul (2013-03-02). "tzcode2013a and tzdata2013a available". ICANN.
10. ^ Olson, Arthur David (2012-03-03). "New zone for DE, split from Europe/Berlin". gmane.comp.time.tz.

### Notes

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1. ^ Measured at 46°57′08″N 7°26′22″E﻿ / ﻿46.95222°N 7.43944°E﻿ / 46.95222; 7.43944.[4]

## External links

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* Time in Switzerland at Lonely Planet

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