Thanks to numerous British influences, Switzerland became a footballing nation early on – and not only in its club names.
How Switzerland became a footballing nation

The Swiss Football Association was founded on 7 April 1895. But football actually became popular in Switzerland some time before that and can be attributed to the country’s strong international links in the 19th century.

Burial Ground in the South Seas. Painting by John Webber, around 1777.
Around the world with James Cook

The Swiss-British artist John Webber (1751-1793) served as the draughtsman in Captain James Cook's third expedition to Oceania, Canada, and Alaska. Webber’s artwork captures a unique moment in time – the first encounters of the British with indigenous peoples from around the Pacific Rim.

Two mercenaries of the Karrer Regiment, 1763. Hand-drawing, after 1850.
Swiss mercenaries in North America

Although not officially permitted, Swiss mercenaries were active in North America during the late Baroque period. Swiss fighters of the Karrer Infantry Regiment lost their lives in Mississippi during the war between France and the Native American tribes.

Latest posts

Switzerland’s high hopes at the 1992 Earth Summit

Dominik Matter 01.12.2023 Federal Councillor Flavio Cotti travelled to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio with high hopes, but he failed to return with much in terms of tangible results.
Flavio Cotti’s press conference on 22 June 1992 after he returned from Brazil.

Genevan exiles at Lake Constance

Felix Graf 29.11.2023 In November 1834, 17-year-old Amélie Macaire, the daughter of a Genevan manufacturer, married German Count Friedrich von Zeppelin on an island in Constance that was the site of a former monastery. French was the predominant language spoken. And not without reason...
The Inselhotel in Constance seen from the right bank of Lake Constance in autumn 2023. Today, the hotel belongs to the state-owned Rothaus brewery and is run by the Steigenberger Group.

The Klus affair

Adrian Baschung 27.11.2023 In the autumn of 1632, Solothurn and Bern came within a whisker of going to war. A last-minute trade-off averted an escalation. A bloody tale from the Thirty Years’ War.
In autumn 1632, the cantons of Bern and Solothurn clashed between Oensingen and Balsthal. Illustration by Marco Heer

From Vesuvius to Moscow – without leaving Switzerland

André Perler 23.11.2023 Sibirie, Afrika, Le Brésil, Himalaia – as toponyms go, none of these place names sounds particularly Swiss. And yet they are all to be found right here in Switzerland, where an estimated several hundred such ‘exotic’ names have been borrowed from elsewhere.
The whole wide world reflected in Swiss place names. Illustration by Marco Heer.
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Popular posts

The Battle on the Planta

James Blake Wiener 10.11.2022 On 13 November 1475, the Valaisans and their Confederate allies defeated the powerful army of Savoy at the gates of Sion. Their victory in the now little-known «Battle on the Planta» was of great importance for the Confederation and decisive for its successes in the Burgundian Wars.
The Battle on the Planta in the Zurich and Swiss Chronicle by Gerold Edlibach, between 1506 and 1566.

An ancient Greek computer

Thomas Weibel 02.11.2023 After decades of research, a seemingly innocuous find retrieved from a Roman shipwreck was revealed as a sensational scientific discovery, proving that the ancient Greeks were capable of making mechanical models of the cosmos with hitherto unimagined precision. The ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ is an analogue ‘calendar computer’.
The ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ can now be admired in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

The history of video games

Alexander Rechsteiner 29.01.2020 Eating dots with Pac-Man, rescuing the princess with Mario and Luigi, or wiping out your opponents in Fortnite: over about three generations now, video games have shaped the childhood of millions of people. A look back at 50 years of gaming history.
Controller for the Nintendo NES from 1985.

Emperor Haile Selassie, God of the Rastafarians

Murielle Schlup 28.01.2022 Emperor Haile Selassie (1892-1975), who was crowned ‘King of Kings’ in Addis Ababa in 1930, was believed in Ethiopia to have been chosen by God. The Rastafarians in Jamaica even ‘recognised’ him as their Messiah and God. A look at the dual ‘careers’ of a 20th-century figure who was as remarkable as he was controversial.
Haile Selassie I in his limousine during his state visit to Bern on 25 November 1954. His headdress is decorated with a lion’s mane.

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