Various historical facts about Zurich and its night watchmen
Night Watchman & City Stories
About the night watchmen in old Zurich.
Follow the nightwatch man trough Zurich's fascinating histories.
The origins of the Night Watchman Tradition
Before 1336, that is, before Zurich adopted a guild constitution, there were only occasional night watchmen – mainly, of course, in times of war and crisis.
Later, from the mid-14th century onwards, night watch duty was divided among the guilds. The Lindenhof and the area around St Peter’s, for example, had to be patrolled by members of the Guild of the Scales and by members of the Meisen guild.
On average – depending on the size of the guild – a man was assigned to the nightly citizens’ watch every 4 to 10 days. This arrangement remained in place well into the 17th century. In the event of illness, a watchman could be replaced only by a relative or, at most, by a fellow guild member.
In practice, however, there was often a wide gap between the council’s expectations and reality. Anyone clever enough – and with enough money – could, for a relatively small fee, simply hire a “Hintersasse” (an inhabitant of one of the villages around Zurich) to do the watch duty in his place. In many cases, these substitutes were far from reliable.
A council record from 1621 complains accordingly: “Item, that hardly any of the citizens now does his watch himself, but most send their servant or a Hintersasse instead.”
Former mercenaries were also sometimes employed as late watchmen.
These substitute watchmen were often the subject of complaints. Not only did they arrive late for duty – or sometimes not at all – some even had to be reported for drunkenness while on watch.
Disciplinary Rules and Duties of the Night watchmen
The 1630 regulations for Zurich’s nightwatchmen stated, among other things: “The watchmen on duty shall not swear, curse, tell improper jokes, gamble, eat or drink.” Excessive drinking was expressly listed as a serious offence.
Even so, in 1660 two night watchmen could not resist tapping into a wine barrel left standing in the Rindermarkt – cleverly using straws to do so. As punishment, they were locked in the Wellenberg tower for the rest of the night and made to sit on the shame donkey the following day. Any innkeeper who allowed a night watchman to stop for a drink also faced a heavy fine.
From the mid-17th century onwards, the Zurich authorities made increasing efforts to check that the night watchmen were actually doing their duty. They therefore ordered them to report once every hour to the guard post at the town hall.
On one occasion, however, no night watchman appeared at all. It was normally the guild beadle’s job to summon the guild members for night duty in the morning. In 1617, the beadle of the shoemakers’ guild apparently had a difficult day and forgot his task – with the result that no one patrolled Zurich’s streets that evening.
The number of night watchmen varied considerably. Depending on how threatened the council considered the city to be, sometimes only 12 were called out, while in times of war there could be more than 90.
Their first duty was to detect fires and raise the alarm as quickly as possible. They also had to report anything suspicious in the streets to their watch captain at once. Anyone causing a disturbance at night was to be sent home or, if they refused to cooperate, taken to the guard post. People found walking at night without a lantern could also be arrested. That alone was enough to make them suspect, as part of the so-called “light-shy rabble”.
Night watchmen were sometimes physically attacked in the streets or even pelted with stones. They were especially unpopular with those lingering in taverns after hours. Curfew was supposed to begin at nine in the evening, but hearty drinkers often ignored the rule. When the watchmen tried to enforce closing time, they were not infrequently met by angry customers brandishing chair legs.
At times, however, it was wiser for the night watchmen to avoid confrontation and join in with the late drinkers, as the following anecdote from 1799 shows. During the War of the Second Coalition, Russian soldiers were stationed in Zurich. One evening, 18 sturdy Russians discovered that the cellar of the house known as “Zur Glocke” contained 12 large wine barrels filled to the brim. They slipped into the cellar unnoticed and drank their fill. Around midnight, the night watchman finally noticed the rowdy Russians and immediately called for reinforcements. By dawn, the watchmen had apparently managed to drink the Russians under the table – probably the only way they could have dealt with them.
The Watchmen as Time-Callers
In 1667, the council of the city of Zurich decided to appoint 12 full-time night watchmen in addition to the guild or citizen watchmen. These men were known as alley watchmen or time-callers and served under the command of the town hall guard commander.
Their shift usually began after the ringing of the so-called gate bell, at 9 pm – or at 8 pm in winter. The first six watchmen stayed on duty until midnight. The second shift then patrolled the streets until 3 am, or until 4 am in winter.
The main duty of the alley watchmen was, of course, to call out the hours. The places from which they had to make their calls were precisely laid down, and in some streets even the direction of the call was specified.
It is easy to assume that light sleepers among the townspeople were regularly woken by these hourly calls and found them disturbing. Interestingly, however, there were also people in old Zurich who valued the calls so much that they paid the city to have the night watchman call out in front of their house.
The hourly call gave people a sense of security. It showed that the watch was at its post and keeping an eye out for possible fires or suspicious characters.
A night watchman who forgot the hourly call, or did not carry it out properly, faced a substantial fine. A proper night watchman’s call also ended with a short blast on the horn. As the chronicles tell us, not all night watchmen in old Zurich were able to produce anything like a clear note from the instrument. Because the horn was especially important in the event of fire – three distinct blasts signalled danger – the authorities often reprimanded those who failed to use it properly. In 1653, it was even ordered that watchmen who were poor at blowing the horn had to march out to the Sihlhölzli, 8 km outside the city, to practise the correct technique.
The alley watchmen also had the duty of checking on the high watchman in St Peter’s Tower once every hour. This was done with the control call: “So Hochgsell, so!” The high watchman then had to reply: “Hochwacht hie!” If necessary, the night watchman could later also use a bell to check whether the high watchman was present.
Clothing and Equipment of the Night watchmen
A 1779 regulation of Zurich’s city watch states: “A watchman wears a dark blue coat with red cuffs in the style of the time, white breeches (stockings), and a three-cornered hat.” His equipment also included a lantern, a horn, and a halberd.
In 1643, the following order on the arming of the night watchmen was also issued: “Every watchman, whether captain or not, shall be equipped with a good sword and halberd, a club spear or dog axe, and no one shall in future bring inferior forks or halberds to the service.”
The end of the Night watchmen in Zurich
After French troops marched into Zurich in April 1798, almost the entire city administration was reorganised from the ground up. The old council had to step down and was replaced by a municipal authority, which from then on – at first only with the approval of the French occupiers – directed the affairs of the city. It took more than a year, however, for a police commission to be established, which was responsible, among other things, for reorganising the watch system. In January 1800, the last night watchmen were finally dismissed from office and replaced by the newly sworn-in Zurich city police officers. In other towns, such as Schaffhausen, however, the office of nightwatchman survived until the end of the 19th century, in Schaffhausen’s case until 1893.
In the small town of Stein am Rhein, a night watchman was still doing his rounds as late as 1973.