Mark Twain zog es immer wieder in die Schweiz – besonders Luzern und die malerische Umgebung hatten es ihm angetan.
Mark Twain in Switzerland

Mark Twain (1835-1910) remains the most-celebrated humorist in the canon of American literature. The well-traveled and curious Twain made two personal trips to Switzerland, recording some of the happiest and most-solemn days of his life in and around the environs of Lake Lucerne.

Im Oktober 1944 kam es im Val Formazza nahe der Schweizer Grenze zu einem Kampf zwischen den sich zurückziehenden Partisanen und den deutschen und faschistischen Truppen. Einige Widerstandskämpfer konnten in die Schweiz flüchten.
The Ossola Republic

In autumn 1944, partisan groups liberated a sizeable territory around Domodossola from the Nazis and founded their own republic. But the resistance fighters were at odds with one another and after just over a month the dream of an independent state came to an end. The story of a tragedy on the border with Switzerland.

In autumn 1632, the cantons of Bern and Solothurn clashed between Oensingen and Balsthal. Illustration by Marco Heer
The Klus affair

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.

Latest posts

Jakob Wiedmer’s novel "Flut" and its damning indictment of tourism

Christian Rohr 04.11.2025 Archaeologist Jakob Wiedmer’s marriage to Wengen hotel owner Marie Stern exposed him to the tourist boom in the Bernese Oberland during the Belle Époque. He expressed his disapproval in his novel Flut, which led to the couple selling the hotel and moving away.
A satirical postcard from around 1910 shows the Jungfrau flooded with tourists in the future: trains, planes and hordes of visitors colonise the mountains.

The race to tame the Jungfrau

Helmut Stalder 30.10.2025 There was a public fascination in the 19th century with the idea of building a railway to the top of the Jungfrau. A competition launched in the mid-1880s prompted an animated response from the country’s engineers, with each one trying to outdo the other. Adolf Guyer-Zeller cherry-picked their ideas and got rid of the competition. He also opened up the mountain to mass tourism.
Jungfraujoch station – Europe’s highest railway station.

The Federal Council’s ‘Africa year’

Flurina Felix 28.10.2025 In 1994 Federal Councillors and high-ranking officials visited Africa like never before. Their dealings in Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa and Rwanda shine a light on the continent’s varying ties to Switzerland.
In 1994, the Federal Council maintained close contact with the African continent. Illustration by Marco Heer.

The pursuit of precision in timekeeping

Juri Jaquemet 24.10.2025 The Swiss Post was long responsible for bringing the exact time into households in Switzerland, whether by phone or by radio. Sometimes it also offered a morning wake-up call.
Remember when the exact time was given by the talking clock?
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Popular posts

Sexuality in the Middle Ages

Valérie Lüthi 13.06.2024 If we hazard a look at the medieval era, we discover a history of sexuality that is far more multilayered than we might at first have imagined. While the Christian church sought to extend its influence into private bedchambers, ‘lascivious’ attitudes and practices stood in the way of its ambitions.
Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, 1490-1500.

Mushroom mania

Hannes Mangold 07.10.2025 Foraging for mushrooms has become a popular pastime throughout Switzerland. And fungi hold immense promise in science and industry. Yet these fascinating organisms were once seen as harmful. How has this fundamental change in their image come about?
The fly agaric, depicted by Swiss artist and researcher Hans Walty, 1917.

A young girl’s death, a mother’s guilt

Patrik Süess 17.10.2025 In October 1878, a mother murdered her ten-year-old daughter in Fribourg. The case of Henriette Ruchat-Berger shook the whole of Switzerland.
The murder of a ten-year-old girl in Fribourg shocked Switzerland in 1878. Illustration by Marco Heer

The curious case of the arsonists and the clairvoyant

Adi Kälin 23.09.2025 In 1948, a former luxury hotel on Mount Rigi was bought at auction by a garage owner from Zurich. Ten days later, it burned to the ground. The subsequent trial for arson and insurance fraud captivated the nation – not least because a clairvoyant played a key role in the investigations.
Was the Hotel Rigi-First deliberately set on fire? If so, by whom? Illustration by Marco Heer

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