The First World War and Switzerland

21 June 2018

The association Switzerland in the First World War (La Suisse dans la Première Guerre mondiale/Die Schweiz im Ersten Weltkrieg) was founded during the centenary of the First World War in 1914.

It aims to analyse the history of Switzerland during this period and make it understandable to the public. The war also strongly influenced and changed neutral Switzerland.

Tensions between social classes, as well as between French- and German-speaking Switzerland, workers and peasants, and officers and soldiers, increased sharply during the four years of war. They culminated in the general strike of November 1918.

Using a visual scenography, the exhibition presents these growing tensions in thematic chapters: economy, society, army, and politics.

Hundreds of photographs, documents, films, and objects tell the story of a Switzerland that, although spared from war, faced political, economic, and social challenges.

(Source and further information: www.grandeguerre.ch and  www.14-18.ch).