Christophe Vuilleumier09.05.2023For almost seven years, from September 1742 to February 1749, Savoy villages neighbouring the city of Geneva were occupied and troubled by Spanish troops. Although part of the War of the Austrian Succession and therefore the great history of Europe, the occupation has been all but forgotten by historians.
Numa Graa20.04.2023What rights does a person have in judicial proceedings? It was 2011 before Switzerland had a standard set of rules on how those proceedings are to be conducted. Previously, the Federal Supreme Court had derived procedural rights from the Federal Constitution and made them enforceable.
Martin Lengwiler13.04.2023The Federal Constitution guarantees the right to privacy. Yet, time and again, this fundamental right has been restricted – in state security, the education system and taxation.
Josef Lang23.03.2023The Federal Constitution only became secular in 1874 when it granted religious freedom to the Jewish minority. In the current version, there are still two exemption clauses concerning Muslims.
Peter Egloff21.03.2023In his ‘Rätoromanische Chrestomathie’, unconventional Graubünden politician and cultural scholar Caspar Decurtins (1855-1916) created the most important older source text on the Romansh culture of his home canton. And did so while accomplishing a great deal more.
James Blake Wiener02.03.2023From peasant’s son to almost Pope: Matthäus Schiner (c. 1465-1522), who came from the Upper Valais, was a decisive figure in European politics during the height of Swiss power in Europe. He remains controversial to this day.
Beatriz Chadour-Sampson26.01.2023Rings can be more than simply adornment, expression of personal sentiment or symbols of status, they can also conceal or openly show allegiance to a political cause. In some cases, such affiliations could have dangerous consequences, even death.
Murielle Schlup19.01.2023French king Louis XIV liked to use dance as a way of projecting his absolute power. A year before his glorious coronation, he embodied the rising sun – dressed as the sun god, Apollo – in the centre of the planetary system.
