Franziska Rogger02.12.2025She was one of the country’s first natural science professors and he shaped social policy in Switzerland: Irma and Hans Peter Tschudi-Steiner reached the top of their respective professions – all while staying humble.
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.
Nadja Ackermann25.11.2025During times of political unrest – especially during the two world wars – state censors monitored private as well as military correspondence. They made no attempt to hide their actions.
Sabine Richebächer20.11.2025The name Sabina Spielrein (1885-1942) mostly conjures up images of a very young woman who was both patient and friend to C. G. Jung before later becoming a psychoanalyst in her own right. But as well as practising as a therapist, she played a key role in shaping many theoretical and organisational aspects of the nascent field of psychoanalysis.
Christophe Droesch18.11.2025After Alsace-Lorraine was annexed from the rest of France in 1942, the German Reich forcibly conscripted young men from these regions to fight for the Wehrmacht. This led many to try and flee to Switzerland, including René Grienenberger, the only survivor from a group of 18 young men who tried to escape.
Nils Widmer13.11.2025Elsa Roth from Bern was a ski racer, ski instructor and winter sports official. She co-founded the Swiss women’s ski club and helped run the Swiss national skiing association for almost 35 years from 1939. Today, very few people have heard of Roth.
Thomas Weibel11.11.2025Street signposting in Switzerland takes the form of white writing on a blue background. But not in Bern’s old town, where the street signs are red, green, yellow, black and white. The City of Bern inherited this bright design from the French military campaign in 1798.
