gnomes of Zurich

After World War II, British Labour party politicians were worried about speculation against the pound undermining the economic regime. Economic growth in the United Kingdom was low, only half that of Germany and France. The demand for pound sterling started to fall.{{cite web

| work = BBC News Magazine

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8534936.stm

| title = Why are Swiss bankers called gnomes?

| author = Chris Bowlby

| date = 25 February 2010

}}{{cite book

| author = William Norris

| title = One from Seven Hundred: A Year in the Life of Parliament

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EBSoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA10

| date = 17 May 2014

| publisher = Elsevier Science

| isbn = 978-1-4831-3712-4

| pages = 10–

| quote = The gnomes of Zurich, as international money speculators had been labelled by the Labour Party, were being given a hard fight. But for some ...

}}

Although Swiss bankers had been criticised in Britain since the 1950s, the term "gnomes of Zürich" originated in a crisis meeting of the Labour politicians in November 1964.{{cite book

| author = Daniel Fasnacht

| title = Open Innovation in the Financial Services: Growing Through Openness, Flexibility and Customer Integration

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=37GNaOKEuwsC&pg=PA76

| date = 11 February 2009

| publisher = Springer Science & Business Media

| isbn = 978-3-540-88231-2

| pages = 76–

| quote = So, he snapped after a meeting 'the gnomes of Zurich are at work again.' T.R. Fehrenbach published 2 years later his bestseller 'The Gnomes of Zurich.' His book provided the first searching look behind the geranium-boxed barred windows}} The politicians blamed Swiss bankers for raising speculation against the pound.{{cite magazine

| author = Adam Smith

| title = My Friend the Gnome of Zurich Says Don't Look Over Your Shoulder, A Major Money Crisis is Gaining on You

| magazine = New York

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=puECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17

| date = 24 June 1968

| page = 17

| quote = You will recall that the phrase 'the Gnomes of Zurich' came from George Brown, Deputy Prime Minister of Great Britain, in 1964. When the pound was under attack, Mr. Brown said it was 'the Gnomes of Zurich'

}} During the meeting, politician George Brown criticised the Swiss bankers and said, "The gnomes of Zürich are at work again." The term "Gnomes of Zürich" was then used by many other politicians of the time. Then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson vowed to resist the gnomes' sinister power.{{cite book

| author = Diccon Bewes

| title = Swiss Watching: Inside the Land of Milk and Money

| url = https://archive.org/details/swisswatchingins00dicc

| url-access = registration

| date = 9 March 2012

| publisher = Nicholas Brealey Publishing

| isbn = 978-1-85788-991-8

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/swisswatchingins00dicc/page/108 108]–

| quote = pocket was still worth twenty shillings, Harold Wilson damned them to be known for ever more as the gnomes of Zurich. ... where Gringotts Bank is run by goblins, the gnomes' uglier cousins, also traditionally cast as the bad guys in fairytales.

}}

Paul Rossy, a top banker in Zürich at the time, stated, "In the world it is not the image, but the substance behind the image which counts." The phrase "gnomes of Zürich" was adopted by the Americans as well.

Soon after the catchphrase became famous, a few Swiss bankers started answering their phone as "Hello, gnome speaking". A Swiss banker who moved to London was nicknamed the gnome of Notting Hill. The phrase also gave name to the 1966 T. R. Fehrenbach book on the history and practices of Swiss private banking, The Gnomes of Zurich.{{cite book

| author = T. R. Fehrenbach

| title = The Gnomes of Zurich

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=37GNaOKEuwsC&pg=PA76

| date = 1 January 1966

| publisher = Anchor Press

| isbn = 978-0-856-32021-7

}} The Wall Street Journal listed the gnomes of Zurich with the military-industrial complex, The Establishment, and Illuminati as part of the shadow government.

In the early 21st century, Zürich bankers are still very wealthy, but less powerful compared to London, New York, Dubai, and Shanghai as leading financial capitals. The Zürich Money Museum displays the sculpture of a gnome - founder Jürg Conzett says that nowadays, bankers see gnome as almost a noble title. Bankers currently based in London who are agitated by rising taxes, stricter regulation and public animosity towards investment banking have considered moving in large numbers to Zürich itself, where banking is "the state religion".

• The 1969 British television sitcom The Gnomes of Dulwich is an allusion to the phrase.{{Cite web |last=McCann |first=Graham |date=27 June 2021 |title=Stranger Things: When sitcoms strain to be different - Comedy Chronicles |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy_chronicles/strange-sitcoms/ |access-date=17 December 2023 |website=British Comedy Guide |language=en}}
• The phrase is reflected in the traditions of the Zürich Grasshoppers Rugby Club, whose mascot is a gnome and which occasionally plays a third/casual team called the Gnomes.{{fact|date=March 2022}}
• Gnomes of Zurich is also the name of a 1960s rock band from North East England, and a 1990s psychedelic rock band from Minneapolis.{{cite book

| author = CMJ Network, Inc.

| title = CMJ New Music Report

| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-GfsnLZugi0C

| date = 6 September 1999

| publisher = CMJ Network, Inc.

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-GfsnLZugi0C/page/n26 28]–

| quote = Unfortunately, Courtney Love, who lived in Minneapolis at the time, got her hooks into Weiland, and it wasn't long before the two of them headed off ... Butch Vig's production turned the band's blunt-instrument thud into an assault weapon blast. ... Tad Hendrickson Year Released: 1989 For Fans Of: Big Black, Drunks With Guns, Killdozer Bio Facts: Breuer went on to form Janitor Joe and Gnomes of Zurich.

}}

• The Gnomes of Zürich are one of the playable factions in Steve Jackson's card game of conspiracy, Illuminati. Their goal is to collect a specified amount of megabucks, the game's currency.{{cite book

| author1 = John Kaufeld

| author2 = Jeremy Smith

| title = Trading Card Games For Dummies

| url = https://archive.org/details/tradingcardgames00kauf

| url-access = registration

| date = 10 February 2006

| publisher = John Wiley & Sons

| isbn = 978-0-470-04407-0

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/tradingcardgames00kauf/page/207 207]–

| quote = You can turn the tables on the whole conspiracy-theory realm when you take over the world in Illuminati: New World Order, ... For instance, the Illuminati sect called The Gnomes of Zurich loves corporations and banking, so they get a bonus for ...

}}

• The phrase is reflected in the Black Swan Man comic, where the main character gained deep financial knowledge by living with Alpine gnomes in his youth. {{cite web|url= http://blackswanman.com/#lg=1&slide=16| title=The Birth of the Black Swan Man| publisher=J. Galt Holdings, LLC. | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181103112711/http://blackswanman.com/ |archive-date=3 November 2018| url-status=live}}
• The original version of the computer game Zork makes reference to an "epicene gnome of Zurich".
• Valiant Comics' Archer & Armstrong features a group of literal gnomes referred to as the Gnomes of Zurich, one of many factions within the Sect formed to kill the titular Armstrong.
• The Cyberpunk 2020 adventure-book Northwest Passage plays on the term by featuring a stockbroker family called the Zuriches in the city of Nome.

{{reflist}}

{{Harold Wilson}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gnomes of Zurich}}

Category:Pejorative terms for European people

Category:Banking in Switzerland

Category:History of Zurich

Category:Harold Wilson

Category:1964 in the United Kingdom

Category:Switzerland–United Kingdom relations

Category:Slang terms for people

Category:1964 quotations

Category:1964 neologisms

Category:Economics catchphrases