Kurt Messmer03.11.2022A walking tour of Obwalden’s principal town. A connection, a story, emerges from the juxtaposition of locations and features. It recounts the history of a dynasty, typical for Central Switzerland, embodied in buildings. Four generations of Imfelds.
Katrin Brunner13.10.2022Even before the outbreak of World War II, Migros founder Gottlieb Duttweiler was turning his mind to the issue of securing national supplies of essential goods. But not everyone was sold on his idea of submerging caches of grain and other foodstuffs in our lakes inside mammoth “tin cans”...
Thomas Weibel27.09.2022The Bundeshaus in Bern, Lucerne’s Kapellbrücke bridge, Geneva’s Jet d’eau: Switzerland has a whole host of landmarks. And yet there’s one of them to which we never give a second thought, even though we see it every day: the Swiss railway station clock.
Rachel Huber13.09.2022Which is better: getting an income and supplying energy for a distant city, or keeping your home and living in poverty? In the Graubünden village of Marmorera the verdict, reached democratically, was clear. Zurich needed electricity, and many of the villagers needed money. And so, in the middle of the 20th century, the town disappeared under the waters of a reservoir.
Petra Koci01.08.2022In 1796, Jean-Jacques Dufour emigrated from the Lake Geneva region with the stated aim of becoming a successful winegrower in distant America. The Swiss grower founded the colony of Vevay, Indiana, which did indeed manage to produce wine.
Nemo Krüger24.06.2022With the fall of the beer cartel, Switzerland’s breweries entered a new era. The way was clear for foreign corporations, alternative business models and smaller competitors. This phenomenon reflects the history of an entire national economy.
Michael van Orsouw27.05.2022Born in a mountain valley in Ticino, Carlo Gatti moved on to Paris and later to London. He was the first street vendor of ice cream in London, eventually earning a reputation as the uncrowned “Ice Cream King” of Victorian England.
Kurt Messmer29.04.2022On Labour Day, we celebrate the glories of work. We raise a glass to the workers, but also to the chroniclers, artists and photographers. The pictorial sources they created show people at work throughout the centuries.
