Swiss Identity

From fine arts to cultural traditions, demographics and the future of work, we look at factors shaping and representing Swiss life and how it compares to elsewhere in the world.

When Swiss traditional customs offer up a mirror to the ridiculous

This content was published on Mar 6, 2026 French photographer Charles Fréger has produced images that reflect Swiss winter rites while posing questions about the present-day.

Aging society

Detail view of a thousand Swiss franc note

Switzerland no longer wants to foot the bill for ‘suicide tourism’

This content was published on Feb 21, 2026 In Switzerland, all deaths through assisted suicide must be followed by a medical and legal investigation. This entails considerable costs for the state.

An assisted suicide room, with a glass and a vial labelled 'sodium pentobarbital' in the foreground.

Swiss politicians decide against monitoring assisted-suicide tourism

This content was published on Feb 2, 2026 How many people travel to Switzerland to end their lives? Swiss politicians do not want a precise count. Parliament has rejected a proposal to introduce monitoring.

Pegasos association rekindles controversy over assisted suicide in Switzerland

This content was published on Oct 29, 2025 British families have accused the Swiss association Pegasos of helping their loved ones to die without genuine medical justification. What is behind this accusation?

Readers share their thoughts on how to die with dignity.

What does a ‘dignified death’ mean to you?

This content was published on Apr 3, 2025 More European countries are legalising assisted dying because of the growing recognition of the right to die.

After the first ‘Sarco pod’ death, will Switzerland introduce stricter rules for assisted suicide?

This content was published on Feb 6, 2025 The first death to come about using the Sarco capsule has reignited debate on whether assisted dying should be more tightly regulated in Switzerland.

Actor Tilda Swinton in a scene from The Room Next Door.

How film and literature have influenced the acceptance of assisted suicide

This content was published on Jan 6, 2025 Powerful stories of assisted dying are etched in our collective memory. Now, a research project from Switzerland is gathering artistic works on the subject.

To what extent do you think assisted suicide should be a legally available option to those who want to end their lives?

Switzerland legalised assisted suicide in the 1940s. More than 1,000 seriously ill or disabled people end their lives with the help of suicide assistants in Switzerland each year.

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Yoshi travels from Japan to Switzerland to die

This content was published on Sep 13, 2021 A Japanese man came all the way to Switzerland to die. SWI swissinfo.ch accompanied him on the final part of his journey. This is his story.

Why assisted suicide is ‘normal’ in Switzerland

In Switzerland, assisted suicide is considered a legitimate way to end your life.

Culture

When Swiss traditional customs offer up a mirror to the ridiculous

This content was published on Mar 6, 2026 French photographer Charles Fréger has produced images that reflect Swiss winter rites while posing questions about the present-day.

Catalogue of the Spring Frère factory in Geneva.

The Swiss chalet kit: a little-known success story of the Industrial Age

This content was published on Mar 5, 2026 Between 1850 and 1920, the Swiss chalet enjoyed its golden age, embraced first by aristocrats and later by the bourgeoisie.

A drama set on the peaks of global capitalism: "Enjoy Your Stay" premiered at Berlin International Film Festival.

‘Enjoy Your Stay’ at the Berlinale: a tale of exploitation in Alpine ski resorts

This content was published on Feb 28, 2026 Undocumented Filipino migrant workers who slave away as cleaners in luxury Swiss ski resorts are given a voice in a new film created by a Swiss–Filipino duo.

Museum of the Kings and Amazons of Dahomey

Swiss chosen to develop four museums in Benin

This content was published on Feb 22, 2026 Swiss palaeontologist Jacques Ayer has been appointed by the government of Benin as managing director of four new public museums that will showcase Beninese art, culture and history.

"First Days" picks up where "Last Days", Gus van Sant's 2005 film, ends: the after-death.

Swiss filmmaking duo follow Kurt Cobain’s afterlife to cheers in Rotterdam

This content was published on Feb 21, 2026 Kim Allamand and Michael Karrer created an experimental film that also seduces a general audience. It premiered at Rotterdam Film Festival.

Edna Politi was the first Israeli who made a feature documentary about Palestinian refugees ("For the Palestinians", 1974). Later she focused on the music and composers of the 20th century.

Solothurn honours Edna Politi, a filmmaker shaped by exile, memory and resistance

This content was published on Jan 23, 2026 Politi is the first non-Swiss to be chosen as guest of honour of the Solothurn Film Days.

The modern apartment, assembled at the Art and History Museum in Geneva for the exhibition "And it began so marvellously". More than a historical movement, Modernism became a marker of taste, refinement, and connoisseurship. Its influence extends to today’s fascination with secondhand Modernist furniture.

One size does not fit all: Zurich architects reevaluate Modernism’s legacy

This content was published on Jan 4, 2026 Le Corbusier never rests in peace: two professors from ETH Zurich discuss how to reframe the forgotten narratives and exclusions that lie beneath Modernist architecture.

Opening day of Art Basel Paris at the Grand Palais last October: the French capital became the most exclusive venue of the world's leading art fair, but the money and the glitter are flowing to the Persian Gulf.

Swiss arts outlook for 2026: the perks of inequality

This content was published on Jan 2, 2026 From record inheritances to Gulf power plays, 2026 promises to be a year when money talks louder than ever in the cultural arena.

Christmas without snow this year? A woman collects her fresh red fir from the Zurich city forest, on Saturday, December 13, 2025, in Zurich.

Snapshots of 2025 through a Swiss lens

This content was published on Dec 30, 2025 Switzerland faced many challenges in 2025. But there were also many cheerful moments and traditional events.

Spiders, puppets and avatars explore Zurich’s digital ‘Museum of the Future’

This content was published on Dec 29, 2025 Visitors can plunge into a medieval battle, step into the world of a spider, and even engage with an uncanny avatar that mirrors their own identity.

The four-metre-long painting "Sonntag der Bergbauern" [Sunday of the Mountain Farmers, 1923-24/26] had to be removed by a crane from the German Chancellery in Berlin for the exhibition in Bern.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: a ‘true German artist’ who found peace in Switzerland

This content was published on Dec 14, 2025 Nearly a century after a solo exhibition that Kirchner curated himself in Bern, the Swiss capital is revisiting that show – with some help from the German chancellor.

Future of work

The banking sector has been particularly affected by redundancies.

Why unemployment in Switzerland is increasing more than elsewhere in Europe

This content was published on Feb 24, 2026 The number of people in Switzerland who are out of work increased for the second year in a row. This contrasts with the situation in the European Union.

The 1974 Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation redefined the role of Christianity in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

How a conference in Lausanne changed the Protestant faith

This content was published on Dec 4, 2025 A conference in Lausanne in 1974 permanently shaped the way the Protestant faith was to be lived and interpreted.

Is AI for sign language promising or futile?

This content was published on Oct 2, 2025 Labs and start-ups in Switzerland are working on using AI to advance sign language interpretation, but they face many challenges.

Jean-Stéphane Bron directing his first fiction series, 'The Deal'.

Behind the cranes, Jean-Stéphane Bron exposes the architecture of inequality

This content was published on Sep 13, 2025 The Swiss filmmaker talks about “The Deal” and “Le Chantier”, two films about power, labour and architecture that premiered in Locarno this year.

Damien Hauser revamps the tenets of Afrofuturism - a genre that centers Black history and culture and incorporates science-fiction, technology, and futuristic elements - by mixing indie filmmaking (low budgets, non-professional actors) with AI tools to create grandiose sceneries.

Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker sets lo-fi love story in hi-tech future

This content was published on Sep 7, 2025 Damien Hauser’s ‘Memory of Princess Mumbi’ awed audiences at the Venice Film Festival by exploring the ethical and creative tensions of using AI in cinema.

A man standing in front of an image of a smartphone

How semiconductors are made

This content was published on Aug 4, 2025 Making semiconductor chips for computers, machinery, transport and other devices is a costly and a lengthy process. How exactly is it done?

Swiss roads could see driverless vehicles within three years

This content was published on May 27, 2025 A recent Swiss law change has raised the possibility of automated vehicles operating in real-life conditions in around three years.

How we work: artificial intelligence

This content was published on May 26, 2025 In this short video, editor-in-chief Mark Livingston answers your questions on how we use artificial intelligence (AI) at SWI swissinfo.ch.

UBS deploys AI analyst clones

This content was published on May 20, 2025 Zurich-based bank using OpenAI and Synthesia models to create lifelike avatars of its experts.

AI is playing an increasing role in determining career paths

AI recruitment machines map out workers’ career paths

This content was published on Mar 28, 2025 AI is increasingly influencing hirings, firings and promotions among the workforce.

Three people, seen from below, hold smartphones while standing behind a concrete barrier against a clear blue sky.

Social media fragmentation: do online platforms drown democracy in noise?

This content was published on Feb 10, 2025 With online platforms under pressure and AI set to flood the internet with content, is it all over for the ideal of a harmonious digital public sphere?

Demographics

History

Swiss Identity

More

When Swiss traditional customs offer up a mirror to the ridiculous

More

Switzerland no longer wants to foot the bill for ‘suicide tourism’

More

Swiss politicians decide against monitoring assisted-suicide tourism

More

Pegasos association rekindles controversy over assisted suicide in Switzerland

More

What does a ‘dignified death’ mean to you?

More

After the first ‘Sarco pod’ death, will Switzerland introduce stricter rules for assisted suicide?

More

How film and literature have influenced the acceptance of assisted suicide

More

To what extent do you think assisted suicide should be a legally available option to those who want to end their lives?

More

Yoshi travels from Japan to Switzerland to die

More

Why assisted suicide is ‘normal’ in Switzerland

More

When Swiss traditional customs offer up a mirror to the ridiculous

More

The Swiss chalet kit: a little-known success story of the Industrial Age

More

‘Enjoy Your Stay’ at the Berlinale: a tale of exploitation in Alpine ski resorts

More

Swiss chosen to develop four museums in Benin

More

Swiss filmmaking duo follow Kurt Cobain’s afterlife to cheers in Rotterdam

More

Solothurn honours Edna Politi, a filmmaker shaped by exile, memory and resistance

More

One size does not fit all: Zurich architects reevaluate Modernism’s legacy

More

Swiss arts outlook for 2026: the perks of inequality

More

Snapshots of 2025 through a Swiss lens

More

Spiders, puppets and avatars explore Zurich’s digital ‘Museum of the Future’

More

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: a ‘true German artist’ who found peace in Switzerland

More

Why unemployment in Switzerland is increasing more than elsewhere in Europe

More

How a conference in Lausanne changed the Protestant faith

More

Is AI for sign language promising or futile?

More

Behind the cranes, Jean-Stéphane Bron exposes the architecture of inequality

More

Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker sets lo-fi love story in hi-tech future

More

How semiconductors are made

More

Swiss roads could see driverless vehicles within three years

More

How we work: artificial intelligence

More

UBS deploys AI analyst clones

More

AI recruitment machines map out workers’ career paths

More

Social media fragmentation: do online platforms drown democracy in noise?

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