**Louis-Napoleon, the future Emperor of the French, earned his military stripes at the military academy in Thun.** Thun Castle collection

When Napoleon III went to school in Thun

The Swiss town of Thun was a magnet for tourists in the 19th century. The future Emperor Napoleon III also came to the Bernese Oberland, though not for leisure, but to attend the military academy there.

Medea Vögeli

Medea Vögeli studies history at the University of Bern and works at Thun Castle.

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III, was born in Paris on 20 April 1808. His parents were Louis Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I, and the latter’s stepdaughter Hortense de Beauharnais. When Napoleon’s reign came to an end following the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the family was forced into exile. Hortense de Beauharnais moved to Thurgau, where two years later she acquired Schloss Arenenberg. As well as stays in Constance and Augsburg, Charles Louis Napoleon – also known as Louis-Napoleon – spent most of his childhood in Arenenberg and was fluent in the local dialect. At the age of 22, he began training at the Eidgenössische Central-Militärschule, the federal military academy in Thun.

**Louis-Napoleon moved from the plush Schloss Arenenberg...** Wikimedia / Swiss National Library

**... to the military barracks in Thun, at least for his training. But, as befitting his social rank, he stayed at a hotel.** Swiss National Museum

After the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna re-established the independence and neutrality of Switzerland. The country was to serve as a buffer zone between the major powers of France and Austria to stabilise the fragile peace in Europe. It would also be defended militarily if necessary. However, this required Switzerland to establish a national army. The General Military Regulations of the Swiss Confederation were subsequently adopted in 1817. While the training of soldiers remained the responsibility of the cantons, a number of inter-cantonal training camps were held. Organising military training soon pushed the cantons to their limits, with widespread shortcomings, particularly in officer training. The centralised military academy (Eidgenössische Central-Militärschule) was therefore set up in Thun in the Bernese Oberland in 1818 to hone Switzerland’s future senior military officers. The first courses were held on the piece of common ground known as the Allmend in 1819, some of which were given by Guillaume Henri Dufour, one of the school’s founding members.

**Portrait of the young Guillaume Henri Dufour, circa 1830.** Wikimedia

As Louis-Napoleon had a great interest in the military and the Eidgenössische Central-Militärschule also accepted foreign nationals, he applied for the first time in 1828. Dufour, who was chief instructor at the school until 1831, initially rejected the application. A year later, Louis-Napoleon tried again, and this time he was accepted. In mid-July 1830, he moved into the Hotel Freienhof in Thun with some other officers and embarked on his military training on the Allmend. He was so enthusiastic about daily life at the school that just a few weeks later he applied to continue the programme the following year. And there was enthusiasm in the east of the country, too – not about the military school in Thun but about its student Louis-Napoleon. The canton of Thurgau made Louis-Napoleon an honorary citizen in 1832, leading him to acquire Swiss citizenship. This enabled the future Emperor of the French to be appointed as an artillery captain in Bern in July 1834 and to take part in federal training camps.

**A Bernese artillery captain named Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Lithograph, circa 1836.** Thun Castle collection

Louis-Napoleon’s training continued until 1836. That same year, he attempted to stage a coup against King Louis Philippe in Strasbourg. When it failed, he was exiled to America. But just a year later, the French-Swiss dual national returned to Thurgau to the bedside of his dying mother Hortense de Beauharnais. This soon led to political disgruntlement, with France demanding his extradition. But the Swiss couldn’t countenance expelling one of their own citizens. In the end, the voluntary departure of Napoleon III prevented military escalation between the two countries. In 1848, Louis-Napoleon was elected President of France, and around four years later he was crowned Emperor of the French, like his uncle Napoleon I almost 50 years earlier. His reign came to an end after a decisive defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Napoleon III was captured in Sedan in 1870 and subsequently exiled to England, where he died three years later.

**Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, painted in 1869.** Library of Congress

His interest in arms and military topics led him to pen an artillery manual which was released in 1833 entitled ‘Manuel d’artillerie à l’usage des officiers d’artillerie de la République Helvétique’. Through this, he made an important contribution to the modernisation of the Swiss Army, which implemented a number of ideas from his publication, such as the introduction of the French 8-pound mountain howitzer in the artillery.

**Napoleon’s work on the Swiss military, 1830s.** e-rara

Louis-Napoleon and Guillaume Henri Dufour bonded over their fascination with all things military, and Dufour soon became a fatherly friend to the Frenchman, which also had an impact on the latter's actions. As co-founder of the Swiss Red Cross and the Geneva Convention, Guillaume Henri Dufour embodied humanitarian principles that were central to the Swiss, particularly in wartime. These principles also appeared to rub off on Napoleon III, who, unlike his uncle, was war-averse and saw armed conflict as a last resort. Where armed conflict could not be avoided, Louis-Napoleon took a humanitarian approach similar to Dufour’s. This was exemplified at the Battle of Sedan in 1870 when Napoleon III gave himself up in a bid to save the lives of his officers and soldiers when the French Army was surrounded. As a result, he was captured and sent into exile.

**Napoleon III surrendering in Sedan in 1870. Painting by Richard Knötel, 1914.** Wikimedia

Napoleon III's relationship with Switzerland can probably best be summed up by a quote from a letter to his mother: “Every person carries a world inside of them that is made up of everything they have ever seen and loved, and to which they keep returning even when roaming in a foreign world.”

Visiting Royals – From Sisi to Queen Elizabeth

13.06.2025 09.11.2025 / National Museum Zurich

Although Switzerland has no royal tradition, royal families have long held a certain fascination for the Swiss. All royal visits, whether by an emperor, empress, king, queen, prince or princess, and for whatever reason, whether politics, business or personal, had one thing in common: they triggered – both then and now – immense excitement and fascination among the Swiss public. The exhibition demonstrates this through many pictures and exclusive possessions of these bluebloods.

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