A German woman whose naturalisation application was rejected because she didn’t know some local folklore, will receive her Swiss passport after all.
A 49-year-old primary school teacher from Freienbach, canton Schwyz, sought to obtain Swiss citizenship in 2025 but her attempt was rejected – even though her husband and children completed the process successfully.
She failed, however, because she could not answer a question relating to a little-known (except, reportedly, in a village pub) local lore. The municipal naturalisation committee had therefore turned down her application.
READ MORE: How your Swiss commune plays a key role in your citizenship application
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‘Pfarrersgärtli’
The question she failed to answer asked for the location of the “Pfarrersgärtli” (the “pastor’s little garden” in Swiss German).
It concerns an incident that happened over two decades ago, when structural changes had been made to a stretch of road in a neighbouring community of Pfäffikon. Unaware of these changes, a local pastor got stuck and had to be pulled out of the mud by a tractor. The spot where this happened has been since named “Pfarrersgärtli.”
The woman appealed the decision to the administrative court, which had just ruled in her favour, saying that the falling pastor story is so little-known that even Swiss residents of Freienbach or Pfäffikon would not be able to answer this question correctly.
Her saga is just another example of how naturalisation committees – which, in small communities, are made up of local residents – deny citizenship to otherwise qualified foreigners for most mundane and arbitrary reasons:
READ MORE: The bizarre reasons applicants have been denied Swiss citizenship
The final ball in the court’s…court
However, the woman’s case also shows that being refused naturalisation by a local committee is not the end of the road for at least some candidates.
Like others before her, a number of ‘rejectees’ went on to appeal these decisions with the courts or cantonal authorities – and ultimately won.
Here are two examples:
Anti-cowbell campaigner
A Dutch woman had her Swiss citizenship application refused not once but twice by her local village council in Gipf-Oberfrick, Aargau, because she complained about cowbells and was, in their opinion a “big mouth” and “annoying.”
She didn’t take her double defeat lying down, however.
Instead, she appealed the decision to the canton’s immigration authorities, who took her side.
Teen shoplifter
An 18-year-old, also from Aargau, whose nationality is not mentioned, had his application for naturalisation rejected on the grounds that several years prior he stole a USB adapter worth 19.95 francs and a T-shirt worth 34.95 francs.
However, upon appeal, cantonal court had ruled in his favour, arguing that the refusal was “arbitrary” and “disproportionate” due to the shoplifting happening when the man was a minor.
Since then, there had been no other incidents and the man is now on the straight and narrow road, completing his apprenticeship.
