Thomas Weibel05.09.2024For 125 years, the 'funiculaire' in the city of Fribourg has been running on a particular kind of renewable energy: wastewater. The 'funi', as the heritage-listed railway is known locally, is an important reminder of Fribourg's industrial past.
Patrik Süess15.08.2024 The restrictive divorce laws of the 19th century repeatedly led to human tragedies. In the case of the Buser couple, they even resulted in murder.
Isabelle Hausmann08.08.2024Alcohol has been a companion to humankind since the year dot: as an enjoyable beverage and addictive substance, but also as a hygienic alternative to water and even as a remedy for intestinal worms. A short cultural history of an everyday toxic substance.
James Blake Wiener30.07.2024A dazzling array of celestial phenomena occurred over the skies of Basel in July and August 1566. The spectacle was so unusual that it precipitated much public discussion and the publication of a leaflet which reflects a Switzerland grappling with deep social unease and tensions.
James Blake Wiener30.05.2024The exquisite death mask of Joan of France (1464-1505) mirrors the grace, courage, and moral convictions of a long-suffering disabled woman who was briefly queen of France and later canonized as a saint.
Jasmin Mollet23.05.2024A look at the badges people wore in the Middle Ages reveals many designs that one would not normally associate with the period: fantastic creatures made out of genitalia call into question how prudish people really were in medieval times.
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.
James Blake Wiener15.04.2024Over a century after her dramatic demise, the Titanic lingers omnipresent in the human imagination. The stories of the Titanic’s Swiss staff and passengers are a rich kaleidoscope of a maritime disaster and an era on the precipice of tremendous change.
