The wheellock pistols used in the 1659 duel were not reliable, so the horsemen had to shoot at point blank range.
Pistols sing the song of death

Why did two respectable Schaffhausen noblemen have a duel on a freezing cold January afternoon in 1659? And in Solothurn? The story of a long-standing family feud.

Blowing the competition out of the water: Rösli Streiff won the slalom and combined titles at the World Ski Championships in Italy in 1932.
Switzerland's first women's ski champion

Rösli Streiff won both the slalom and combined titles at the second Alpine World Ski Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1932. A look back at the life of the trailblazing skier from Glarus and the early days of women’s downhill skiing.

Still life by Willem Claeszoon Heda, 1634. The artist placed the silver salt cellar in the exact centre of the picture.
The salt of life

Salt is much more than just a seasoning. Salt is essential to life, and therefore a valuable commodity. For centuries Switzerland was dependent on salt imports. In 1836, a determined German drilling specialist and ‘salinist’ changed that for good.

Latest posts

The smuggling king of Chur

Noah Businger 13.01.2026 Unlike today, wars were almost constantly raging on the borders of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the 17th and 18th centuries. As well as representing the culmination of ongoing conflicts, this warfare opened up lucrative new lines of business for people like Thomas Massner.
Around 1700, the Splügen, San Bernardino, Septimer and Julier passes were some of the main Alpine crossings, making them strategically important to the warring powers of the time. This image shows the Splügen Pass circa 1810.

Psychotropics – from lab to billboard

Pascale Meyer 08.01.2026 From LSD and Largactil to Valium, psychotropic drugs fundamentally changed the treatment of mental disorders in the 1950s and quickly became marketing-driven products. Swiss pharmaceutical companies played a key role in this.
“Sicherheit mit Tofranil” (safety with Tofranil): the advertisement for the drug made by Geigy depicts medicines as safe and effective solutions for mental disorders.

Inventing Saxon Switzerland

Barbara Basting 06.01.2026 The mountain peaks and cliff tops of Saxony reminded Swiss artist Adrian Zingg of his homeland. He captured them in his drawings, thus helping them on their way to fame, and coined the name by which the region is still known today: Saxon Switzerland.
Print by Adrian Zingg, created in 1770. The landscape is that of Saxony but could just as easily be Switzerland.

Remembering the Second World War – but how?

Thomas Bürgisser 01.01.2026 In 1995, Switzerland commemorated the end of the war in 1945, and the Federal Council issued an official apology for the country’s refugee policy during that period. At the time, nobody could have anticipated that Switzerland’s role in the Second World War would feature so much in Swiss foreign policy for years to come.
On 7 May 1995, the then Swiss President Kaspar Villiger addressed the United Federal Assembly. He commemorated VE Day 1945 and apologised for Switzerland’s refugee policy during the Second World War.
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Popular posts

Defending Switzerland against attacks that never happened

Juri Jaquemet 09.12.2025 In the early 19th century, Switzerland was traumatised by the French invasion of 1798 and there were fears that France would attack again. In Switzerland’s defence planning, Aarberg was a strategic military location as French armies could potentially cross the River Aare there. An obstacle was therefore needed.
Work was still ongoing in Aarberg long after Napoleon had been defeated and the threat of a French attack had been averted. Illustration by Marco Heer.

Hammer and sickle on the Gotthard

Jakob Tanner 16.12.2025 Medievalist Marcel Beck kept a diary throughout his military service. It reveals a different, rarely seen side of active service during the Second World War.
Letter-writing was part of everyday life during the Second World War, as depicted in this photo from 1942. Some people, like Marcel Beck, also wrote diaries.

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.

When Chaplin's corpse was kidnapped

Michael van Orsouw 13.06.2023 Celebrated actor-director Charlie Chaplin died in 1977 and was buried in the cemetery at Corsier-sur-Vevey. But then, grave robbers dug up his body and demanded large sums of money from the family for its return. A macabre story that could have come straight from one of Chaplin's films, but did in fact happen.
Stop, the story isn't quite over yet! Charlie Chaplin in front of his house in Corsier-sur-Vevey, circa 1965.

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