Emmanuel Schmid: coachman to the social elite during the Belle Époque
Coachman Emmanuel Schmid from Graubünden regularly drove his famous passenger Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen around the Alps in the late 19th century.
Peter Egloff
The folklorist Peter Egloff is a publicist in Zurich.
In the 19th century, the leisure class of Europe and the United States discovered the charms of the Alpine region and went mad for snow-covered peaks, whooshing waterfalls and wild, untouched nature. This can also be seen as an early reaction to the environmental casualties of industrialisation as the crisp mountain air blocked out the smoking factory chimneys and polluted river valleys. The upper classes would therefore leave behind the boulevards, cafés and salons of the big cities – albeit temporarily, and to begin with mainly in the summer months – and make their way to the Alps, now styled the ‘playground of Europe’, to stay at hotels in the popular destinations. In the beginning, this type of summer retreat was the preserve of a very narrow section of society. In the second half of the 19th century, however, the number of tourists grew rapidly, although there was still no such thing as legal holiday entitlement. From 1858, Chur was connected to the north by a rail link. The important mountain passes in Graubünden were opened up to transport in rapid succession, and while the Swiss Post’s mail coaches disappeared from the Swiss Plateau when the expansion of the railways took off, they experienced a heyday in the Swiss Alps.
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This was therefore a very lucrative business for Emmanuel Schmid. But it wasn’t without its own problems, least of all in Graubünden. Word quickly spread throughout the whole Alpine region about the deep pockets of the international visitors. Competition for this well-heeled clientèle was stiff, and the practices employed crude. The government in Bern soon recognised the need to legislate and enacted the first stagecoach regulations for the Bernese Oberland in 1856. This was about guaranteeing the safety and security of passengers, protecting them from harassment and fraud, and safeguarding the region’s good reputation as a tourist destination. The governments of other mountain cantons with tourist traffic followed suit and introduced their own sets of rules for stagecoaches.
Schmid’s little book reveals the breakdown of nationalities of his documented clientèle: Germany 45, United Kingdom 25, France 10, Holland 4, United States 3, Denmark 1. With 9 entries, Berlin is the most common place of origin mentioned. Only three entries are written by Swiss passengers, including one by Leopold Iklé, one of the most famous textile barons in St. Gallen at the time.
![Left-hand side: “Emanuel Schmid drove me and my family from Chur to Biasca, and I would like to express my complete satisfaction with the carriage and horses, Mr Schmid’s talent as a coachman, and his courteous and friendly manner. Biasca 31 Aug [18]82, Leopold Iklé from St. Gallen”.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ikle-lohnkutschrei-1882.webp)
