![Photograph of Gilberte Montavon in a military album, c. 1915.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gilberte-titel-300x225.jpg)
A waitress becomes a legend
During World War I Gilberte Montavon from Courgenay was a ray of light for Swiss-German soldiers, easing the drudgery of their day-to-day life on the border.
![Marianne in a painting by Eugène Delacroix, 1830.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/marianne-300x238.jpg)
![Film poster featuring lead actress Anne-Marie Blanc in the role of Gilberte de Courgenay.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/filmplakat-300x231.jpg)
![Federal Councillors Giuseppe Motta and Edmund Schulthess inspect the border fortifications in Boncourt, 1914.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/grenze-boncourt-300x180.jpg)
![Gilberte Montavon welcoming a guest, around 1915.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/begrussung-gilberte-209x300.jpg)
![The daily drill was part of a soldier’s day-to-day life.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/drill-300x180.jpg)
Hanns in der Gand sings the homage to Gilberte. YouTube
This article appeared in the Bieler Tagblatt. It was published in that newspaper on 10 July 2020 under the title “How a waitress became a legend”.
Read here how the legend lived on in World War II.