Gabriel Heim

Gabriel Heim

Gabriel Heim is a book and film author and exhibition organiser. He is principally concerned with research into topics of modern and contemporary history and lives in Basel.

Amusing travel journal reveals Switzerland of 1837

Gabriel Heim 09.02.2023 German theologian Carl August Wildenhahn documented his journey through 19th century Switzerland with humorous observations and comic strip-style pictures.
Carl August Wildenhahn immortalised Switzerland in his journal from 1837 – in the form of both text and illustration.

City on the Rhine as centre of the Zionist movement

Gabriel Heim 29.08.2022 The Stadtcasino Basel was the key location on the road to a Jewish state. The World Zionist Congress met ten times in the city at the elbow of the Rhine. 2022 marks the 125th anniversary of the founding Congress.
Theodor Herzl opens the first Zionist congress at the Basel Stadtcasino in 1897.

Finding sanctuary in Geneva

Gabriel Heim 08.07.2022 During World War II, hundreds of Jews fled from France into Switzerland via Geneva. After the border was closed in August 1942 this escape route became more difficult to navigate, but not impossible, as the stories of Lilian Blumenstein and Lili Reckendorf show.
Border between France and Switzerland in Geneva, September 1943.

Secret agents at Lake Geneva

Gabriel Heim 19.01.2022 The Soviets received vital information from Switzerland during World War II. The spies of the ‘Red Three’ knew exactly what Hitler was up to.
The end of a career in espionage. Police photos from Geneva. It was from here that Edmond Hamel transmitted to Moscow.

A spy called Lucie

Gabriel Heim 10.01.2022 Rudolf Rössler was a mild-mannered journalist who ran a publishing firm in Lucerne. At the same time, he was supplying the Soviets with highly sensitive information straight from the Führer’s headquarters. The story of the master spy Lucie.
Request by Rudolf Rössler for the issuance of an identity card, 1938.

Double agent Leo

Gabriel Heim 13.08.2021 Jakob Leonhard spied for the Nazis. When they realised that the information he was feeding them had been rubber-stamped by Switzerland, his life hung by a thread.
Jakob Leonhard was officially a Nazi spy. Unofficially, he worked for Switzerland. Illustration by Marco Heer.

The White Hell of Piz Palü

Gabriel Heim 06.01.2021 In 1929, mountain film pioneer Arnold Fanck shot his global hit The White Hell of Piz Palü in southern Graubünden. The secret star of filming was the Bernina railway, a track system that could handle tough winter operation.
The Bernina railway has provided a year-round connection between St Moritz and Tirano in Valtellina, Italy, since 1910.

When Switzerland was still exporting ‘Crocodiles’

Gabriel Heim 09.09.2020 In 1925, the Schweizerische Maschinen- und Lokomotivfabrik in Winterthur was contracted to build ‘Krokodil’/‘Crocodile’ locomotives for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway.