Swiss Coins 5 Francs 1981 500th Anniversary Stans Convention of 1481
Commemorative issue: 500th Anniversary - Stans Convention of 1481
Obverse: Stylized design - Klaus von Flüe.
Statue of Klaus von Flüe in Niederalteich (Niederalteich is a village on the Danube in Bavaria. Germany. It is best known as the location of Niederaltaich Abbey.)
Lettering: STANS 1481.
Engraver: Kurt Wirth.
Reverse: Value and date.
Lettering: HELVETIA 5 FR 1981.
Edge Lettering: DOMINUS | PROVIDEBIT | * * * * * * * * * * | * * *
Composition: Copper-Nickel (Cu 75 / Ni 25).
Weight: 13.2 g.
Diameter: 31.3 mm.
Shape: Round.
Convention of Stans of 1481 the Tagsatzung solved the latent conflict between the rural and urban cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy, averting the breaking of the Confederacy, and triggering its further expansion from 8 to 13 members until 1513.
The tensions between the cantons had arisen in the wake of the Burgundy Wars, among other things due to disagreement over the distribution of spoils which culminated in the Saubannerzug.
According to Diebold Schilling the Younger, who was present at the session of the Tagsatzung, the conflict was resolved as on 22 December the pastor of Stans, Heini Amgrund, brought a message from the hermit Niklaus von Flüe. Upon reception of the message, the quarrels were laid aside. The content of the message is unknown.
The compromise solution entailed the accession of Fribourg and Solothurn as full members of the Confederacy.
Diet of Stans
On December 22nd, 1481, the Convention of Stans was accepted by the Diet of Stans, agreement whereby civil war among the member states of the Swiss Confederation was averted. When the five rural cantons of the federation — Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, and Glarus — concluded a treaty of common citizenship between themselves and the bishopric of Constance (1477), the three other, urban cantons — Luzern, Bern, and Zürich — retorted by concluding a similar treaty for themselves with two other cities, Fribourg and Solothurn. The rural cantons objected to this, chiefly because it seemed to portend the admission of two new cities in the federation and so to upset the existing five-to-three majority of the rural districts over the urban. The ensuing controversy threatened to disrupt the confederation. A conference at Stans, in the Nidwalden subdivision of Unterwalden, in November 1481 failed to achieve anything until a pious hermit of Obwalden, Niklaus von Flüe (Bruder Klaus), was asked to mediate. On his advice, both the five and the three denounced their controversial treaties; and all eight made a new alliance with Fribourg and Solothurn, which thus entered the confederacy on the understanding that they were to make no separate alliances of their own without the approval of a majority among the eight. The result was a positive strengthening of the federal union, which was to be sworn formally every five years; and the admission of French-speaking Fribourg to a federation that had hitherto been exclusively a German-speaking one was highly significant for the future development of Switzerland.
Nicholas of Flüe
Saint Nicholas of Flüe (German: Niklaus von Flüe) (1417 – 21 March 1487) was a Swiss hermit and ascetic who is the patron saint of Switzerland. He is sometimes invoked as "Brother Klaus." A farmer, military leader, member of the assembly, councillor, judge and mystic, he was respected as a man of complete moral integrity, Brother Klaus's counsel to the Diet of Stans (1481) helped to prevent war between the Swiss cantons.