The origins of rock music are (partly) in Basel... Illustration by Marco Heer
The electric guitar and its Basel origins

In the early 20th century, Karl Schneider and Adolph Rickenbacker turned a conventional string instrument into an electric super device for hard sounds and the big stage.

Lenin giving a speech in Moscow in 1920.
From Zurich’s backstreets to the centre of world revolution

Lenin’s explosive ideology, which would go on to shake the world, was partly concocted in Bern and Zurich. Yet he considered his Swiss comrades social romantics and opportunists.

Fritz Zwicky looking into space using the then brand-new Schmidt telescope in 1936.
Fritz Zwicky: an overlooked Swiss genius

Fritz Zwicky from the canton of Glarus was one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. The story of an overlooked genius.

Latest posts

The Carnation Revolution

Mattia Mahon 25.04.2024 In April 1974, one of Europe's oldest dictatorships collapsed in Portugal. In Switzerland, people were worried about the future of Portugal. Not least because of the fragile political balance in southern Europe.
Weapons and flowers: the Carnation Revolution combined the two in a peaceful upheaval.

Physician Ida Hoff’s feminist interpretation of Hodler

Franziska Rogger 23.04.2024 Born in Russia, Ida Hoff became one of the first women to attend university in Switzerland around 1900. In addition to pursuing a career in medicine, she was a staunch advocate of women’s rights, guided by her feminist conscience and a penchant for irreverence. She found an outlet for the latter at the second Swiss Congress for Women's Interests in 1921, where she wittily subjected Ferdinand Hodler’s painting “The Day” to a fresh new feminist interpretation.
In Ida Hoff’s interpretation, Ferdinand Hodler’s painting “The Day” depicts “the varying attitudes of women to the issue of women’s rights”. Ferdinand Hodler, “The Day”, 1899-1900 (detail).

Knocked off his pedestal

Peter Egloff 18.04.2024 In the last-but-one series of Swiss banknotes, the thousand-franc note depicted Auguste Forel as a wise researcher turning his alert gaze on the world, as an icon of science and Helvetic national symbol. But this stylised heroic image failed to stand up to closer investigation. A story illustrating the pitfalls of the culture of commemoration.
Auguste Forel depicted on the thousand-franc note (front) that came into circulation in 1978.

Swiss on the Titanic

James Blake Wiener 15.04.2024 Over a century after her dramatic demise, the Titanic lingers omnipresent in the human imagination. The stories of the Titanic’s Swiss staff and passengers are a rich kaleidoscope of a maritime disaster and an era on the precipice of tremendous change.
The Titanic leaving the harbor in Southampton.
All posts

Find blog posts on the map

The number in the circle shows how many blog posts are in the corresponding region. Zoom in with the +/- keys on the right or with Ctrl and the mouse wheel to display the individual articles. Click on a circle without a number to select the blog article.

Popular posts

Swiss on the Titanic

James Blake Wiener 15.04.2024 Over a century after her dramatic demise, the Titanic lingers omnipresent in the human imagination. The stories of the Titanic’s Swiss staff and passengers are a rich kaleidoscope of a maritime disaster and an era on the precipice of tremendous change.
The Titanic leaving the harbor in Southampton.

Emperor Haile Selassie, God of the Rastafarians

Murielle Schlup 28.01.2022 Emperor Haile Selassie (1892-1975), who was crowned ‘King of Kings’ in Addis Ababa in 1930, was believed in Ethiopia to have been chosen by God. The Rastafarians in Jamaica even ‘recognised’ him as their Messiah and God. A look at the dual ‘careers’ of a 20th-century figure who was as remarkable as he was controversial.
Haile Selassie I in his limousine during his state visit to Bern on 25 November 1954. His headdress is decorated with a lion’s mane.

The 100-year history of the Centovalli Railway

Jean-Luc Rickenbacher 03.04.2024 The Vigezzina-Centovalli Railway crosses 83 bridges and goes through 31 tunnels. It connects Switzerland to Italy and is the most direct route between the Gotthard and Simplon lines. The legendary narrow gauge railway in southern Switzerland celebrates its centenary in 2023/24.
The electric railcar BCFe 4/4, No. 18, passing the church in Tegna, photographed on 24 August 1925.

The guillotine maker

Michael van Orsouw 05.04.2024 Johann Bücheler was a regular carpenter from Kloten. In 1836, he was commissioned by the canton of Zurich to build a guillotine. That proved the end of “normality” as he knew it.
The Zurich guillotine was tested on a sheep in 1836. Illustration by Marco Heer

Suggest a topic

Do you know an exciting story or would you like an article on a specific topic? Write us! If possible, we will implement your suggestion.

Write us at blog@nationalmuseum.ch