Thomas Bürgisser30.04.2024In spring 1967, Stalin’s daughter travelled to Switzerland. In the middle of the Cold War. The story of a diplomatic high-wire act.
Franziska Rogger23.04.2024Born in Russia, Ida Hoff became one of the first women to attend university in Switzerland around 1900. In addition to pursuing a career in medicine, she was a staunch advocate of women’s rights, guided by her feminist conscience and a penchant for irreverence. She found an outlet for the latter at the second Swiss Congress for Women's Interests in 1921, where she wittily subjected Ferdinand Hodler’s painting “The Day” to a fresh new feminist interpretation.
Helmut Stalder28.03.2024Lenin’s explosive ideology, which would go on to shake the world, was partly concocted in Bern and Zurich. Yet he considered his Swiss comrades social romantics and opportunists.
Simon Engel17.08.2023Should athletes participate in events held in countries at war or governed by authoritarian regimes? That is the perennial question. Politicians have no qualms about recommending that their sporting associations impose a boycott. However, sport is per se apolitical. That was the backdrop to the West’s boycotting campaign in the run-up to the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Murielle Schlup18.04.2023In 1823 around 160 Greek revolutionaries ended up in Switzerland, having been defeated and persecuted by the Ottomans. They escaped on foot on a route that took them via Odessa, Bessarabia, Poland and through German states to the border in Schaffhausen.
Petra Koci25.03.2022Ukrainians are fleeing westwards into the unknown, with some also heading to Switzerland. More than 200 years ago, Swiss settlers migrated east to Ukraine and established two Helvetic colonies: Zürichtal in Crimea. And Shabo near Odessa.
Nada Boškovska21.03.2022The war between Russia and Ukraine is driving people westwards. But Switzerland is an old hand at helping refugees from Eastern Europe, as a look back at the past shows.
Katrin Brunner23.10.2020The Thirty Years’ War devastated Europe. Though not involved in the war, Switzerland also suffered. Many people left the country, moving north, and also eastwards. Some emigrants, such as goldbeater Heinrich Schlatter, found a happier future in their new homelands.
