Michael van Orsouw

Michael van Orsouw

Michael van Orsouw has a PhD in history and is a performance poet and author. He regularly publishes historical books.

Website: geschichte-texte.ch

The emperor who spoke Swiss-German

Michael van Orsouw 13.06.2025 Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (1808–1873) grew up in Salenstein in the canton of Thurgau, which is why he spoke the local Swiss German dialect. Although he was French, the people of Thurgau awarded him honorary citizenship. When Switzerland refused to expel him, it almost resulted in war with France.
Louis-Napoleon, who was later to become Emperor Napoleon III, grew up in Thurgau and spoke fluent Swiss-German. Illustration by Marco Heer.

The royal philanderer

Michael van Orsouw 11.06.2025 Louis-Philippe (1773–1850), Duke of Orléans and the man who would eventually become King of the French, spent some time in Switzerland after fleeing the turmoil that followed the French Revolution. He lived in the cantons of Zurich, Zug, Aargau and Graubünden – and his story continues to inspire Swiss novelists to this day.
The future king Louis-Philippe, incognito as a teacher in Reichenau, points at the globe.

The prince who took a short cut

Michael van Orsouw 03.06.2025 Prince Philip, the Queen’s consort and father of the current British monarch, visited Switzerland many times ‒ far more often than his wife. On one such occasion, he took part in the 1981 European Four-in-Hand Carriage Driving Championship held in Zug, where his actions placed the jury in a delicate situation.
Prince Philip on the box seat: more of a gentleman than an athlete. Photo taken at the opening of the Driving World Championship for Four-in-Hand in the Netherlands in August 1982.

The queen of watercolours

Michael van Orsouw 01.05.2025 In her day, Queen Victoria was the most powerful woman in the world. She came to Switzerland in 1868 to rest and recuperate, and made numerous sketches and paintings of the Swiss scenery. Many of these watercolours and drawings survive today.
An original by Queen Victoria: a view of Mount Titlis from Engelberg, painted on 2 September 1868.

King Albert I: the mountaineering monarch

Michael van Orsouw 10.04.2025 King Albert I of Belgium was a keen and experienced mountain climber. He scaled many Swiss peaks and even completed a first ascent in 1907. Tragically, despite his mountaineering skills, a climbing accident ended his life.
King Albert I enjoyed climbing in the Swiss Alps, where he went almost every year. The picture was coloured using AI by the National Museum.

The royal seal of approval

Michael van Orsouw 13.03.2025 Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi, visited Switzerland nine times and was an admirer of Swiss art, of which she purchased two pieces – setting in motion a trail of events that led all the way to the Federal Palace in Bern.
The National Council Chamber: with the mural by Charles Giron and the sculpture by Antonio Chiattone to the left.

The inventor in a Benedictine cowl

Michael van Orsouw 12.11.2024 Father Athanasius Tschopp (1803–1882) was a monk in Einsiedeln, and something of a science whizz. Besides his daily monastic duties, he always found the time to make pioneering discoveries – one of his many accomplishments was inventing the precursor to the fax machine.
Athanasius Tschopp invented the precursor to the fax machine. Lithograph circa 1840. Coloured using AI.

Switzerland’s Karl May

Michael van Orsouw 03.09.2024 Franz Heinrich Achermann (1881–1946) is no longer remembered today. Nonetheless, the Lucerne clergyman wrote about 40 novels and dramas and was once Switzerland’s most widely read author of books for young people.
A charismatic servant of the Lord: genre author Franz Heinrich Achermann.