Michael van Orsouw

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

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.

Europe’s highest open-air lift

Michael van Orsouw 11.06.2024 The Bürgenstock has always known how to skilfully attract attention, as it did back in 1905 for example with the spectacular Hammetschwand lift – a marvel of Swiss engineering. Over the years, the lift has been a source of both admiration and rumour.

The Bürgenstock: an idyllic ensemble with hotels, mountains, lake and lift. Postcard from 1928.

The birth of Interlaken

Michael van Orsouw 08.05.2024 Aarmühle was a place in the Bernese Oberland. As a name it was rather uninspiring and thus unlikely to appeal to potential visitors from all over the world. Hence the renaming of Aarmühle as Interlaken in 1891, which turned the town into a tourist destination of international renown.

A view of Aarmühle in the 1860s (on the left bank of the Aare) – better known as Interlaken.

The guillotine maker

Michael van Orsouw 05.04.2024 Johann Bücheler was a regular carpenter from Kloten. In 1836, he was commissioned by the canton of Zurich to build a guillotine. That proved the end of “normality” as he knew it.

The Zurich guillotine was tested on a sheep in 1836. Illustration by Marco Heer

The dramatic rescue of a composer’s remains

Michael van Orsouw 27.02.2024 Alberik Zwyssig (1808–1854), the musical monk from Uri who composed the Swiss Psalm, had an unhappy life. And then, after his death, his remains were dug up and reburied during the Second World War.

Macabre memorial: the glass sarcophagus containing the remains of Alberik Zwyssig.

The undead lady of Lucerne

Michael van Orsouw 04.12.2023 Marie Josse d’Hemel was a distinguished lady who married a Lucerne patrician. She is also said to have died twice. The first time a gravedigger wanted to steal her expensive clothes, which prompted her to return from the dead and live on for another 20 years – a cautionary tale for any would-be grave robbers.

Marie Josse Pfyffer-d’Hemel is said to have had 20 years added on to her life because of a grave robber.

Bernese whey receives royal approval

Michael van Orsouw 24.08.2023 Sisi, the famous Empress Elisabeth, was a much more frequent visitor to Switzerland than previously known. She visited the Bernese Oberland in 1892, where she very much enjoyed a local product normally used as pig feed...

Sisi felt very much at home in the Bernese Oberland. And not just because of the excellent whey, which she drank by the litre.

The VW camper van: an iconic vehicle with a Swiss connection

Michael van Orsouw 06.07.2023 Nowadays, the VW camper van has cult status. It was invented by a Dutchman named Bernadus Pon who spent a lot of time in Switzerland after building a villa there. In 1965, Pon, who by then had become very wealthy, gifted every schoolchild in a small Swiss village with a savings account.

A rough sketch of the first VW camper van: Ben Pon’s notebook from 1947.