Thomas Bürgisser03.10.2023At the end of the Cold War, the concept of neutrality lost something of its relevance. This in turn led, at the beginning of the 1990s, to the breakup of the grouping that had brought together Europe’s four neutral nations: Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Finland.
Alexander Rechsteiner27.09.2023Dialects play different roles in Switzerland’s language regions: in German-speaking Switzerland they dominate everyday life, while in French-speaking Switzerland they have virtually disappeared, and in Italian-speaking Switzerland they are only spoken with close friends and family. The reasons behind these differences can be found in history.
Rachel Huber21.09.2023Armed with a steely resolve and tape recorder, Hanny Christen from Basel-Landschaft preserved folk music during the 1950s, just as it was in danger of dying out.
James Blake Wiener19.09.2023Around 400 years ago, scholars began to address the education of deaf people and developed sign language for the first time. Switzerland played an interesting, complex and perhaps outsized role in this process.
Helmut Stalder15.09.2023Kaspar Stockalper built up a conglomerate in Valais that shrewdly exploited the crises of the 17th century. To him, amassing wealth was a religious mission and a ticket to eternal salvation. But that didn't save him from a political conspiracy through which his rivals brought about his downfall.
Helmut Stalder14.09.2023Amidst the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War, Kaspar Stockalper held three trump cards: the Simplon pass, mercenaries and salt. From the seat of his trading empire in Brig, he developed the cunning yet lucrative strategy of international double dealing.
Helmut Stalder13.09.2023In the middle of the Thirty Years’ War, Kaspar Stockalper made the Simplon pass into a major European transport artery. A man of immeasurable wealth, he was Switzerland’s first serial entrepreneur. Stockalper mixed with emperors, kings and popes. He was also involved in European politics – until it all fell apart.
Raphael Rues11.09.2023On 12 September 1943, a German commando raid liberated deposed dictator Benito Mussolini from the hotel in the Italian mountains where he was being held. The SS claimed the credit for the momentous operation, however it was actually a German major with Swiss roots who led the mission.
