Switzerland: A Progressive Journal Announces Its End

After the loss of the Jesuit journal of French-speaking Switzerland, Choisir, last year, now the time has come for the Alemannic progressive journal Aufbruch to announce that it will cease to be published in November 2024.

Founded in 1988, in opposition to the conservative views of Bishop Wolfgang Haas of Chur (Switzerland)(later Archbishop of Vaduz, Liechtenstein), it will have lasted 35 years, but now it must accept that it has reached its end: its readership has waned inexorably, dropping from 11,000 subscribers to 2,000.

According to Benno Bühlmann, one of its founders, the editorial direction was clear: “all that emerges from the margins of confessions and religions,” the journal fought against “all which impedes religious awakenings.” It was intended to be “the engine of resistance against the backward aspirations of the Church regarding liberation theology.”

According to the Swiss news agency cath.ch, “Aufbruch conveyed theological impulses, especially spiritual and social, to the generation of the Vatican II council (1962-1965).” It is clear that this generation has not experienced a renewal.

As Lucienne Bittar, editor in chief of the journal Choisir, bitterly claimed at the time of its end: “the rush of creativity and dynamism which followed Vatican II is slowing down.”

Aufbruch, which is intended to be a “starting point” [in Germany], is being forced to stop. It’s a forced stop and the end of the line!