Preconceptions are wrong. Preconceptions about certain nationalities are particularly wrong!
Jürg Fischer was a special case. After all, our moral integrity does not permit us to accept the idea, that he, being Swiss, might have innocently confirmed all the ugly prejudices about his nation with regard to soberness, punctuality and work quality. Certainly someone who so completely proves all the common preconceptions about the Swiss must have been an agent provocateur (and a very good one at that), bent on corrupting our pure sense of neutrality and openness.
Jeannine Athas, Jürg’s neighbor in Residence, reports: “I did not need a watch or a clock, since I had Jürg’s schedule to provide the time. At precisely 9:00 p.m., he would play a marvelous selection of classical music and then shut it off at precisely 9:30 p.m., along with the lights. Time to sleep. In the morning, his routine began at 7:00 a.m. and the door opened and closed at precisely 7:30 a.m. Without Jürg, I would have lost all sense of time.”
Jürg’s deceitful behaviour not only fostered the hideous stereotypes about his fellow countrymen, but at the same time harmed the nation’s watch industry by effectively making it superfluous for Jeannine to buy a Swiss watch.
