Christophe Vuilleumier16.01.2024Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was famous in the 17th century for travelling as far as India. The adventurer and author wanted to retire in Aubonne. But his settled life did not last long.
Christophe Vuilleumier08.12.2023Seven of the first 36 federal councillors came from Vaud. And all of them were lawyers. This is not surprising, as jurisprudence was highly valued in the west of Switzerland.
Maria Becker20.10.2023The estate of Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber contains letters from their young readers that highlight how the books resonated with people.
James Blake Wiener19.09.2023Around 400 years ago, scholars began to address the education of deaf people and developed sign language for the first time. Switzerland played an interesting, complex and perhaps outsized role in this process.
Peter Erismann05.09.2023Lisa Tetzner, who co-authored the famous books for young people ‘The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle’ and ‘The Black Brothers’ earned a living in her younger years as a wandering storyteller.
Kurt Messmer21.02.2023Over is over. The past is finished, set, unchangeable. History, on the other hand, is open, vivid, changeable, and thus disputable. Is there any such thing as certain knowledge? Yes – just not for ever.
Menoa Stauffer13.01.2023Comics smoulder, books burn: in Aargau in 1965, mounds of so-called “trashy fiction” ended up on a fire. The campaign was called “Fight the trash", and it was intended to set the scene for further book burnings. But the scheme backfired.
Thomas Weibel19.07.2022Nicolaus Copernicus is considered one of the founders of modern astronomy. His heliocentric planetary model unleashed an outcry in Reformation circles, especially in Switzerland.