Let’s go to Switzerland!
Edward Whymper aspired to be the first person to reach the summit of the Matterhorn, Thomas Mann wrote world-class literature about Davos, and Mark Twain visited the Rigi and a host of other places. In the 19th century, visitors from abroad came to Switzerland for all kinds of different reasons.
Katrin Brunner
Katrin Brunner is a self-employed journalist specialising in history and chronicler of Niederweningen.
Lord Byron, for example, was on the run from a series of scandals when he went to ground at Lake Geneva in 1816. It’s rumoured that composer Richard Wagner fled to Switzerland to escape from his creditors. Others saw scaling our mountain peaks as the only reason to come here, doing a bit of flag-waving for their own country along the way. In the race to make the first ascent of the Matterhorn – a race won by Englishman Edward Whymper in 1865, narrowly beating an Italian team – there was a dark side to the glory of being first to the top; four of Whymper’s companions lost their lives in the endeavour.
In his 1878 story Climbing the Riffelberg, American novelist Mark Twain presented a witty parody of the obsession with being first to reach the top of the mountain. From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, it was not uncommon for wealthy guests to remain for weeks at a time in tourist centres such as Grisons or Central Switzerland. Sometimes, these groups ran out of ideas for keeping themselves entertained. Lying in the sun and breathing in the pure mountain air can be pretty tedious. Some people wrote great works of world literature, others whiled away the time being carried aloft by the newly built Bergbahnen, Switzerland’s famous mountain railways.
