Adi Kälin27.11.2025The damming up of Lake Sihl to create a reservoir started on 30 April 1937. A few days later, the Swiss air force bombed two vacated farmhouses in the area designated for the lake as part of a training exercise. The media interest was huge. Hundreds of people who had been evacuated from their homes to make way for the reservoir also followed the spectacle.
Barbara Basting21.10.2025Edouard Kaiser of La Chaux-de-Fonds was from a watchmaking family and dedicated a part of his artwork to the trade, which was in upheaval at the time.
Mégane Cavin09.10.2025The guest book of the Suchard chocolate factory in Neuchâtel bears witness to a rich local heritage. A throwback to a prosperous industrial past, it contains a reminder of an unforgettable royal visit: that of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III in 1960.
Thomas Weibel21.08.2025In the late 1860s, the rural canton of Fribourg was staking everything on industrialisation. Guillaume Ritter, a young engineer from Neuchâtel with bold plans for revolutionary ‘long-distance mechanical power transmission’ therefore came along at just the right moment.
Reto Bleuer14.08.2025The stretch of A6 motorway between Thun and Spiez follows the path of a former riverbed and crosses a pioneering project of Swiss water cor-rection dating from the early 18th century. The Kander river deviation had a big impact on the region around the town of Thun and on the man who initiated and managed the project: Samuel Bodmer.
Anne Hasselmann12.08.2025The collection store of the museum in Grenchen holds a mysterious package dating back to the Cold War era. Its contents ‒ unused certificates of entitlement to food ration cards ‒ show how Switzerland was preparing for a much-feared war in the 1960s.
Claudia Aufdermauer17.06.2025Systematic hunting, changes in habitat and pollution are all contributing to otters dying out, as it says on the label describing an over 100-year-old prepared specimen on exhibit in the Naturama natural history museum in Aarau. The ‘end of the otter in Switzerland’ in 1990 is closely intertwined with the country’s economic history.
Dominik Landwehr05.06.2025Johann Philipp Ziegler was a merchant from Winterthur. In the late 19th century, his company was the biggest exporter of Oriental carpets from what is now Iran.
