Switzerland has played host to sovereigns such as Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria, Sisi and many others – and huge crowds have always turned out to greet these royal personages.
In 1988, Prince Charles of England was caught in an avalanche in Klosters. While he got away with a shock, his friend died in the snow. The accident had drastic consequences.
The last representative of the Ottoman Empire was Rachid Osman. He spent his twilight years in a small village in Glarus. His wife Rosa Osman-Keller earned a living as a village hairdresser to support herself and her once fabulously wealthy husband.
Short bobbed haircuts, figure-hugging skirts, flat shoes – the new fashions of the 1920s were wildly popular, but they also had their avowed opponents. Seeking a return to the values of the past, these groups set about re-establishing Switzerland’s long-dormant customs of traditional dress.
100 years ago, Weggis opened the first Strandbad, a lido or outdoor swimming area with a beach for sunbathing, with no segregation of the sexes. It gave the local tourist trade a boost, but not everyone was happy about it!
On 9 August 1924, the church at Innerthal was blown up. Then the floodwaters came. The reason for this was the growing demand for electricity in Switzerland and, as a result, the construction of a reservoir.
Today coronavirus is spreading fear, alarm and uncertainty – 100 years ago, it was tuberculosis and the Spanish Flu that cut a deadly swathe through Switzerland.
