By 1803, the state of Grisons became a part of Switzerland, of whose population half spoke Romansh. The strength of the central government of Grisons began to impose on the Romansh-speaking people, as the official language was German which resulted in many Romansh speakers to adopt German. With the 20th century came a rise in tourism that took the focus away from the region's agricultural focus and German became the more practical language to learn. Many in the intellectual class found this to be beneficial to the local population, as Romansh appeared to hinder their intellectual development as noted by Heinrich Bansi, a notable priest in 1897: "The biggest obstacle to the moral and economical improvement of these regions is the language of the people". This viewpoint was countered with the belief that the Romansh language was a hybrid of both Italian and German, allowing the Romansh speakers to have a moderate understanding of the other two more widely used languages.