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Summary

• 1848–1920s Vice-Chancellor as Secretary to the Council of States
• 1848–1980 Vice-Chancellor as Secretary to the Council of States
• 1920s–1934 two ’ordinary’ secretaries or translators as clerks of court in the National Council
• 1934–1968 Federal Chancellor again Secretary to the National Council
• 1969–2007 two ’ordinary’ secretaries or translators as clerks of court in the National Council
• 1981– Member of the General Secretariat of the Parliamentary Services as Secretary to the Council of States
• 2008– Member of the General Secretariat of the Parliamentary Services as Secretary to the National Council

When the Swiss Confederation was founded in 1848, it was decided that the Federal Chancellor would serve as secretary to the National Council and the Vice-Chancellor as secretary to the Council of States.

In the 1920s, regulations were adopted for the Federal Chancellery that set out its tasks in detail. These regulations newly established the function of 'Secretary to the Councils' (with technical and organisational tasks such as file transfer between the Councils). During the deliberations on these regulations, it was also decided that the Chancellor should continue to attend National Council meetings whenever possible, but should no longer take the minutes. This task was assigned to two secretaries or rather one secretary and one translator[1]. Since then, the Chancellor has only been responsible for business transactions between Parliament and the Federal Council. This has reduced close contact with the National Council and the influential position of the chancellor. However, the Council of States wanted the Vice-Chancellor to continue to perform his duties as recording secretary or secretary.

The introduction of two secretaries to take minutes in the National Council in the 1920s was not, however, universally welcomed. In 1934, this service was reduced because the then newly elected Federal Chancellor, George Bovet, retained the office of National Council Secretary even after his election. The Chancellor ultimately kept the minutes in the National Council until 1967/68 (resignation by Federal Chancellor Karl Huber) and the Vice-Chancellor in the Council of States until 1980 (resignation by Vice-Chancellor François Couchepin).​ 

In 1962, the revised Parliamentary Procedure Act on business transactions between the Councils and the Federal Council gave the Parliamentary Services greater independence from the Federal Chancellery: the Secretary General of the Federal Assembly was placed under the authority of the presidents of the two Councils. In 1972, the Parliamentary Services were definitively separated from the Chancellery in functional terms, even though they remained administratively subordinate to it. With the total revision of the Federal Constitution (Cst.) in 1999, the Parliamentary Services were finally administratively separated from the Federal Chancellery (Art. 155 and 179 Cst.).

From 1969 to 2007, the duties of the secretaries of the National Council were again limited to keeping the minutes. Since 2008, the secretaries of the National Council have no longer been referred to as minute takers but as secretaries.

[1] Only the first of the two names listed in the Federal State Calendar has been included in the above list.​

Sources

Annuaire fédéral 1848-2011

Un tour d'horizon de l'histoire de la Chancellerie fédérale. En ligne sur Internet (état au 21 juin 2011)​