History of Switzerland
Switzerland's most important exports during the war were precision machine tools, watches, jewel bearings (used in bombsights), electricity, and dairy products. During World War Two, the Swiss franc was the only remaining major freely convertible currency in the world, and both the Allies and the Germans sold large amounts of gold to the Swiss National Bank. Between 1940 and 1945, the German Reichsbank sold 1.3 billion francs worth of gold to Swiss Banks in exchange for Swiss francs and other foreign currency.
Geography of Switzerland
Switzerland is also divided by language. There are four official languages: German (spoken by 63.7% of population), French (by 20.4% of population), Italian (by 6.5%) and Romansh (0.5%). From Bern east (except Ticino) the population generally speaks German. West of Bern, the population generally speaks French. In the southern Canton of Ticino, most people speak Italian. Romansh, a group of dialects descended from Vulgar Latin, is spoken in several regions in the canton of Graubünden.