Military service for foreign sovereigns is an integral part of the history of the Swiss Confederation in the early modern period. The services were an important source of income, not only for the Cantons, but also for the soldiers involved. Mercenary service was a key element for the self-understanding of the patrician upper class, which supplied the officers. My thesis explains how the officers viewed their activity, especially during wartime, using diaries, autobiographies and letters as my source material. The swiss officers, serving mainly in France, adopted an officer mentality influenced by the values of nobility. The concept of honour was one the main elements of this mentality. The officer mentality influenced the way the Swiss thought and wrote about their war experiences. On the other hand the Swiss mercenary officers possessed their own kind of ethics which was distinguished, among other things, by a republican patriotism. Mercenary service continued to be popular among the upper class despite growing criticism in Switzerland from the second half of the 18th century onward.weiterlesen