Helmut Stalder27.01.2026Johannes Badrutt sought to offer guests at the Kulm Hotel in St. Moritz a truly exclusive experience. He built Switzerland’s first hydroelectric plant and installed its first electric lighting system in the hotel dining room – and all before Edison had invented the light bulb. An historic event with unexpected results.
Helmut Stalder30.10.2025There was a public fascination in the 19th century with the idea of building a railway to the top of the Jungfrau. A competition launched in the mid-1880s prompted an animated response from the country’s engineers, with each one trying to outdo the other. Adolf Guyer-Zeller cherry-picked their ideas and got rid of the competition. He also opened up the mountain to mass tourism.
Helmut Stalder23.01.2025Engineer Maurice Koechlin created some of the icons of engineering prowess: the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and numerous bridges. Yet others reaped the glory.
Helmut Stalder27.06.2024Pietro Caminada had a simple idea to turn the inconceivable into reality: huge cargo ships crossing the Alps without using self-propulsion. The stroke of genius by the engineer with Graubünden roots was a viable project – at least he thought so.
Helmut Stalder28.03.2024Lenin’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.
Helmut Stalder15.09.2023Kaspar Stockalper built up a conglomerate in Valais that shrewdly exploited the crises of the 17th century. To him, amassing wealth was a religious mission and a ticket to eternal salvation. But that didn't save him from a political conspiracy through which his rivals brought about his downfall.
Helmut Stalder14.09.2023Amidst the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War, Kaspar Stockalper held three trump cards: the Simplon pass, mercenaries and salt. From the seat of his trading empire in Brig, he developed the cunning yet lucrative strategy of international double dealing.
Helmut Stalder13.09.2023In the middle of the Thirty Years’ War, Kaspar Stockalper made the Simplon pass into a major European transport artery. A man of immeasurable wealth, he was Switzerland’s first serial entrepreneur. Stockalper mixed with emperors, kings and popes. He was also involved in European politics – until it all fell apart.
