The Geneva Escalade

In December 1602, the Duke of Savoy attempted to take the city state of Geneva with a surprise attack. Referred to as the ‘escalade’ because of the wooden ladders used to scale the city walls, the attack was thwarted and the city finally became independent.

Christmas postcard from Germany dating from about 1900, featuring the Christkind and Santa Claus.
Christkind, or Samichlaus?

On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the gifts are handed out! But has it always been that way? 150 years ago, 6 December was always the big day for children.

In December 1880 the Nebelspalter printed defamatory illustrations of Fridolin Anderwert.
Suicide in the Bundesrat

Fridolin Anderwert took his own life on 25 December 1880. The Federal Councillor’s suicide came after a smear campaign by the media.

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The ‘glacier pastor’

Reto Bleuer 04.12.2025 Gottfried Strasser served as Grindelwald’s pastor for more than 30 years and left a marked impression on the village.
Gottfried Strasser served as Grindelwald’s pastor for more than 30 years and left a marked impression on the village.

An extraordinarily successful couple

Franziska Rogger 02.12.2025 She was one of the country’s first natural science professors and he shaped social policy in Switzerland: Irma and Hans Peter Tschudi-Steiner reached the top of their respective professions – all while staying humble.
The Tschudis at dinner – the ordinariness of this scene is in stark contrast with their career achievements.

The bombing of the Sihl plain

Adi Kälin 27.11.2025 The damming up of Lake Sihl to create a reservoir started on 30 April 1937. A few days later, the Swiss air force bombed two vacated farmhouses in the area designated for the lake as part of a training exercise. The media interest was huge. Hundreds of people who had been evacuated from their homes to make way for the reservoir also followed the spectacle.
The Sihl plain near Einsiedeln was cleared in the 1930s to make way for a reservoir. The Swiss military conducted tests with aerial bombs before the water came. Picture from a report in the Zürcher Illustrierte.

The right to privacy, except during wartime

Nadja Ackermann 25.11.2025 During times of political unrest – especially during the two world wars – state censors monitored private as well as military correspondence. They made no attempt to hide their actions.
The postal service reads your mail. From the 20th century onwards, it mainly searched for messages written in invisible ink. Illustration by Marco Heer.
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Bern’s subversive street signs

Thomas Weibel 11.11.2025 Street signposting in Switzerland takes the form of white writing on a blue background. But not in Bern’s old town, where the street signs are red, green, yellow, black and white. The City of Bern inherited this bright design from the French military campaign in 1798.
Coloured street signs to help the French army find its way through Bern. Illustration by Marco Heer.

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.

Medieval badges and their risqué designs

Jasmin Mollet 23.05.2024 A look at the badges people wore in the Middle Ages reveals many designs that one would not normally associate with the period: fantastic creatures made out of genitalia call into question how prudish people really were in medieval times.
Medieval badges bearing obscene motifs.

The Battle on the Planta

James Blake Wiener 10.11.2022 On 13 November 1475, the Valaisans and their Confederate allies defeated the powerful army of Savoy at the gates of Sion. Their victory in the now little-known «Battle on the Planta» was of great importance for the Confederation and decisive for its successes in the Burgundian Wars.
The Battle on the Planta in the Zurich and Swiss Chronicle by Gerold Edlibach, between 1506 and 1566.

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