Grütli Union

(Grütliverein), a Swiss petit bourgeois reformist organization (1838–1925). The Grütli Union was founded in Geneva as an educational alliance of artisans and workers. (According to legend, the name of the organization was derived from the name of the meadow Grütli [Rütli], where in 1307 three Swiss cantons formed a league to combat the Hapsburgs.) The central organ of the Grütli Union was the newspaper Grütlianer, which was founded in 1851. The organization transmitted bourgeois influence to the Swiss working-class movement (see V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 30, pp. 205, 304). The Grütli Union gradually lost influence (in 1891 its membership was more than 16,000, but by 1925 it had fallen to around 2,700). In 1925 it merged with the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland.