Hans Peter Tschudi was proud of his wife, whom he had married in spring 1952, and of her success as a scientist: “Towards the end of my time at the Trade Inspectorate, I had the good fortune to meet Irma Steiner, Dr. med. et phil. nat., a qualified lecturer and assistant at the pharmaceutical institute…
Gottfried Strasser was born on 12 March 1854 in Lauenen near Gstaad. His father Johannes, a clergyman, was married to Emilie Katharina Ludwig, whose father Emanuel had been a pastor at Bern Minster. The family moved to Langnau in the Emmental region in 1855. Gottfried grew up there, in a lively household of two sisters and…
In the early 19th century, Switzerland was traumatised by the French invasion of 1798 and there were fears that France would attack again. In Switzerland’s defence planning, Aarberg was a strategic military location as French armies could potentially cross the River Aare there. An obstacle was therefore needed. Dr. phil., Curator of the Information and…
The setting in which Jesus actually came into the world remains a mystery – but the way it has been imagined has shaped Christian Christmas culture for centuries. In art and crib building, the nativity scene has been depicted in various locations, including a stable, a cave, a ruin, and a house, in each case…
Medievalist Marcel Beck kept a diary throughout his military service. It reveals a different, rarely seen side of active service during the Second World War.
Between 1974 and 1976, Marcel Beck published several short extracts in the Badener Tagblatt newspaper from a diary he had kept during the Second World War, and which was subsequently believed to have gone missing. It was acquired from a private owner by Jakob Tanner a few years ago. The diary consists of a total…
Born in 1885 into a modest Romanian-speaking family in Transylvania, Liviu Rebreanu needed to learn both Hungarian and German to acquire a basic education in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary, and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After getting higher education, he also learned the “foreign languages” taught through the imperial school system. To…
“Nepal is a closed country.” These were the first lines penned by Byodo Tsushō, a Japanese Buddhist monk who published an account of his travels in Nepal in the 1935 issue of the Pan-Asianist journal, Dai Ajiashugi.[1] Three years earlier, Byodo Tsushō was sponsored by the Hongan-ji sect of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism to study in…
This special issue on Nordic transimperial careers and experiences investigates Nordic people operating in the world of empires ranging from Southeast Asia to Africa, and from Europe to the Caribbean and North America.[1] It focuses on border-crossing individuals, addressing inter-imperial questions of race, otherness, and the civilizing mission, and tying into existing networks, while seeking…
![Book Spotlight “Nationaliser le panafricanisme. La décolonisation au Sénégal, en Haute-Volta et au Ghana (1945-1962) [Nationalising Pan-Africanism: Decolonisation in Senegal, Upper Volta and Ghana (1945-1962)], Paris 2023”](https://oldupexcise.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766425080_Book-Spotlight-Nationaliser-le-panafricanisme-La-decolonisation-au-Senegal-en.jpg)
At the end of the Second World War, a new international order was to be defined, requiring reconfigurations in and around colonial societies. Empires becoming obsolete as a form of power were to be dismantled and colonial societies were longing for a fundamental change. As the socio-political order was being redefined, how was the new…