Swiss episodes from the 20th century

3 May 2023

This German-language anthology brings together 50 Swiss episodes from the 20th century, most of which are mere footnotes in Swiss history and already forgotten. It reinterprets these events with today’s knowledge. The result is not only entertaining. The sum of individual events also says a lot about a country.

Some examples include a Russian assassin at the Grand Hotel Jungfrau, birthday wishes from the government to Hitler, a nuclear accident in Lucens, Picasso’s love for Basel, herds of cows being poisoned by the army or the miraculous journey of a Swiss aviation pioneer to the realm of the Ethiopian “King of Kings”. What once occupied the public, politics and the media is largely forgotten today.

(Marc Tribelhorn (ed.), Die Schweiz als Ereignis, Zurich 2017)