Felix Graf18.07.2024The fossilised skeleton of a giant salamander found in the stone quarries at Öhningen is one of the most famous fossil finds in history. Zurich-born Johann Jakob Scheuchzer believed it to be the remains of a human who had drowned in the biblical Flood.
Felix Graf29.11.2023In November 1834, 17-year-old Amélie Macaire, the daughter of a Genevan manufacturer, married German Count Friedrich von Zeppelin on an island in Constance that was the site of a former monastery. French was the predominant language spoken. And not without reason...
Felix Graf16.10.2023Zurich watchmaker Rudolf Stadler came to a bloody end on 16 October 1637. At the age of 32, the first Court watchmaker to the Shah of Persia in Isfahan was executed by sword. His story sounds like a tale from One Thousand and One Nights.
Felix Graf23.12.2020Carefully staged work of chivalric self-aggrandisement: The barons of Hohenklingen are depicted in front of the stable in Bethlehem, the same size as the Three Wise Men.
Felix Graf30.10.2020In Brazil, illustrator and graphic artist Oswaldo Goeldi is considered a master of the art of expressionist xylography – the art of engraving on wood. In Switzerland, the work of this Swiss-Brazilian dual national is yet to be discovered.
Felix Graf24.07.2020A drinking bowl from Stein am Rhein is among a trove of precious glass finds dating from the Roman era. The piece itself is spectacular, but the circumstances of its discovery are just as remarkable.
Felix Graf06.03.2019His, more than any other, was the hand that shaped Switzerland’s image in the 19th century: Zurich-born artist, watercolourist and art publisher Rudolf Dikenmann. His prints produced using the aquatint technique were churned out in their thousands: for travellers, collectors and members of the public.
Felix Graf28.02.2019In 1720, not long after its publication, the first German translation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe came out. Zurich academic Johann Jakob Bodmer recommended it to the ladies of Zurich for reading. In 1818, a 'Little Robinson for the entertainment of young persons' was published in Zurich.
