Category: 20th / 21st century

3. December 2019

20th / 21st century | Technology

de en fr

Please connect me! Automating our telephone exchanges

by Luca Thanei

On 3 December 1959, PTT replaced Switzerland’s last manual telephone exchange with a fully automated switching system. This major feat of engineering also signalled the end of the switchboard girl, or ‘Fräulein vom Amt’, as the telephone operators were known.

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28. November 2019

20th / 21st century | Culture

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Festival of symbols and customs

by Andrej Abplanalp

At Christmas, it has become the norm for diverse symbols and traditions to be intermingled. But that hasn’t always been the case. A look back.

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20. November 2019

20th / 21st century | Photography

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Federal Councillor’s public appearance

by Aaron Estermann

There was a time before mobile phones, a time when press photographers were the eyes of an entire nation. Many of the images they captured are now forgotten. For example, Federal Councillor Rudolf Minger’s appearance at Bern’s Reithalle riding arena in November 1940.

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15. November 2019

20th / 21st century | Economy

de en fr

The cheese collective

by Peter Moser

From 1914, the Schweizerische Käseunion (SKU, the Swiss Cheese Union) ensured people at home and abroad were kept supplied with Swiss cheese. For that purpose, the Cheese Union monitored both production and prices.

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13. November 2019

20th / 21st century | Food

de en fr

Fondue – a ‘natural processed product’

by Peter Moser

Until the Second World War, fondue was unheard of in most areas of Switzerland. The cheese speciality only became the ‘national dish’ as the result of a marketing campaign run by the Schweizerische Käseunion (Swiss Cheese Union).

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