When escape requires a cantonal border

For years, Katharina lived with fear, humiliation and violence. In the end, safety did not begin in Thurgau, but in Winterthur — after she and her two sons took a taxi and crossed the cantonal border to a women’s shelter. That detail says more about Switzerland’s tidy federalism than any glossy brochure ever could.

Katharina, whose real name is withheld, describes a marriage of 19 years in which her husband controlled everything. She says he belittled her, called her names and subjected her to psychological abuse and sex against her will. According to her account, he also threatened suicide several times and even the killing of the whole family. She says she tried to shield her sons from what was happening at home and told them nothing of the full extent of it.

Her escape came only after years. One morning she finally told her children they were leaving for a safe place. The destination was Winterthur, because Thurgau, where they lived, has no women’s shelter. That is the awkward reality: the canton with more than 300,000 residents still relies on a service outside its borders, under a service agreement. For those who need protection, the geography of politics matters more than the map on the wall.

The shortage is not abstract. Last year, Thurgau handled requests for protective accommodation for 25 women and 27 children. Across eastern Switzerland, including Zurich, women’s shelters were running at an average occupancy of 89 percent in 2025. In other words, the system is strained before one even begins to discuss what happens to the next woman who needs to leave quickly.

Katharina remembers her first evening in the shelter clearly. A caregiver told her that from then on, it was about her, and that she mattered. She says she had never heard such words before. At nearly 50, she felt as if she had been falling freely and had finally landed somewhere gentle. Still, she would have preferred to stay in Thurgau, not least for her children, who might have been able to return sooner to their own surroundings and school.

The case has now become political. The Feminist Strike Collective Thurgau has been demanding a women’s shelter for months, with demonstrations and vigils, and its petition has gathered more than 16,000 supporters. In the cantonal parliament, pressure is also building: SP, Greens, Mitte/EVP, GLP and FDP are either backing a Thurgau shelter or at least want the government to rethink the situation.

After the shelter, Katharina had to find both work and housing again. She is now employed and divorced. The newspaper confronted her ex-husband with the allegations, but he declined to comment. Katharina, for her part, says leaving was the best decision of her life. One can hardly blame her for preferring freedom to a system that first made her flee, then made her cross a border to be protected.

Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com