Olten Action Committee (OAK) Federal Council Robert GrimmFriedrich SchneiderFritz PlattenErnst Nobs Felix Calonder The 1918 Swiss general strike (German: Landesstreik) took place from 12 to 14 November and involved around 250,000 workers.

[5] It was led by Robert Grimm, the editor of the socialist newspaper Berner Tagwacht and a member of the lower house of parliament, the National Council.

[6] On 5 November 1918 the Federal Council, Switzerland's executive, deployed two infantry regiments and two cavalry brigades to Zürich.

It claimed that economic and political instability could give radicals, particularly foreigners in Zürich, the opportunity to cause disturbances and to attempt a revolution and that the soldiers were needed to maintain order.

[11] In Zürich, however, labor leaders considered the committee's one-day strike overly cautious and vowed to continue the struggle until the army withdrew from the city.

The next day, a Sunday, Zürich's labor movement had made plans to celebrate the first anniversary of the Russian October Revolution.

When troops dispersed a crowd on the square Münsterplatz, the resulting disorder left four protesters injured and one soldier dead.

French speakers exhibited more support for the Allies in World War I and some suspected Grimm of harboring sympathy for the Germans.

[16] On 12 November both chambers of the Swiss legislature assembled for a special session, with some delegates requiring military assistance to reach Bern.

In Zürich, the labor movement, led by Ernst Nobs, was incensed by the decision to end the strike and considered ignoring it.

[19] The 1918 general strike was the most significant domestic crisis in Switzerland since the Sonderbund War of 1847 and the formation of the Swiss federal state in 1848.

Grimm, Schneider, and Fritz Platten were convicted for their involvement in the publication and dissemination of the pamphlet calling for the general strike.

Les signes parmi nous, written by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz in 1919, tells the story of a Bible salesman who travels throughout Switzerland and is led to believe that the Apocalypse is coming because of the Spanish flu and the general strike.

Jean-Paul Zimmermann's L'étranger dans la ville, written in 1919 but only published in 1931, deals with the way the strike was perceived in the town of Le Locle.

[22] In film, the strike was the subject of the 2018 docufiction Generalstreik 1918: Die Schweiz am Rande eines Bürgerkriegs, directed by Hansjürg Zumstein, which praises the sense of responsibility exhibited both by labor leaders and government officials to avoid a bloodshed.