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.

Love letters and technology help restore pivotal Swiss film from ashes

Scene of "Rapt" (1934), the first Swiss avantgarde film, directed by exiled Estonian author Dimitri Kirsanoff.

This content was published on Jul 15, 2025 “Rapt”, shot in 1934 by an Estonian who fled the Bolshevik Revolution, has won a new lease of life after meticulous restoration.

Aging society

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.

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, 2025 In Switzerland, all deaths through assisted suicide must be followed by a medical and legal investigation. This entails considerable costs for the state.

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

Love letters and technology help restore pivotal Swiss film from ashes

This content was published on Jul 15, 2025 “Rapt”, shot in 1934 by an Estonian who fled the Bolshevik Revolution, has won a new lease of life after meticulous restoration.

Total discretion: the offices of bankers Edmond de Rothschild in Geneva

‘Quiet neutrality’: snapshots of Switzerland’s embrace of oligarchs

This content was published on Jul 4, 2025 To what extent is Switzerland really ‘neutral’? Swiss-Russian artist Anastasia Mityukova’s photography project ‘Quiet Neutrality’ explores this question.

Literary world celebrates centenary of Swiss poet Philippe Jaccottet

This content was published on Jul 2, 2025 The centenary of the Swiss poet and translator Philippe Jaccottet, winner of both the Schiller and Goncourt literary prizes, is being marked by new editions of his work and seminars in Rome and Geneva.

Vincenzo de Bellis photographed at this year's Art Basel in Basel

Art Basel expands to Qatar despite the drums of war in the Middle East

This content was published on Jun 27, 2025 Art Basel will launch its first Qatar fair in 2026, led by the Italian curator Vincenzo de Bellis, with ambitious plans for the Middle East and North Africa region.

Patrick Chappatte: ‘The path for satire has been getting narrower’

This content was published on Jun 24, 2025 Patrick Chappatte is one of the most prolific cartoonists. We talked to him about the current state of satire, media and free speech in the world.

Self-portrait of Claudia Andujar in the Yanomami territory, 1974.

Claudia Andujar – from war trauma to defending Amazon communities

This content was published on Jun 12, 2025 Explore Claudia Andujar’s art and activism for Amazon communities. Discover her impact on indigenous rights.

Resting at the summer palace in the forbidden city of Beijing. Max Huber on the left.

Around the world with a young Swiss explorer in 1900

This content was published on Jun 7, 2025 Long before he became president of the Red Cross, Zurich-born Max Huber travelled the world for two years documenting every step of his adventure.

The architecture of Miroslav Šik doesn’t need to shout

This content was published on May 17, 2025 Unlike the attention-seeking buildings that dominate global discourse, the architecture of Swiss-Czech architect Miroslav Šik favours a quieter sensibility.

Ibrahim Mahama's installation at the Kunsthalle in Bern

Cultural aid cuts deal blow to Global South creatives – and Swiss diplomacy

This content was published on May 16, 2025 Switzerland is among many countries slashing foreign aid, including funding for the arts. Cultural institutions argue these cuts hurt artists – and donors’ national interests.

Photo of a woman in front of Kunsthalle museum

How a Swiss fund helps Global South artists connect with rest of the world

This content was published on May 16, 2025 SWI swissinfo.ch speaks to Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama as cuts to Switzerland’s cultural development assistance budget looms.

Fortune Mbitounou and Kevin Ossol, protagonists of the documentary "Kevine and Fortune"

Young filmmakers target Africa and hit Switzerland’s post-colonial legacy

This content was published on May 11, 2025 This year, the Visions du Réel Film Festival’s national competition featured three Swiss documentaries set in Africa.

Future of work

Switzerland has road tested some 30 driverless vehicle projects

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?

A visitor looks at a virtual version of her heart at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona 2024.

Digital citizens could shake up democracy in Switzerland and beyond

This content was published on Feb 4, 2025 Leading experts in medicine and business are pinning their hopes on digital twins. Two economists have a bold proposal that could reshape democracy.

Artificial intelligence in Switzerland: what’s new for 2025

This content was published on Jan 27, 2025 New regulations, a “Swiss ChatGPT”, and autonomous vehicles: 2025 marks a pivotal year for the development of AI in Switzerland.

Yann Zopf, Head of Media at WEF, attend a remote Pre-meeting press conference of the World Forum Annual Meeting 2025

WEF 2025: banking on an AI revolution to overcome protectionism

This content was published on Jan 18, 2025 The World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos will try to make a case for collaboration by promising an AI revolution for all.

Swiss youth in vocational training seek jobs less prone to automation

This content was published on Dec 16, 2024 In Switzerland and around the world, younger generations are re-assessing their career choices in response to growing automation driven by AI.

Demographics

Suicides in Switzerland quadruple among older people

This content was published on Jul 10, 2025 The suicide rate among older people in Switzerland is reaching record levels – for a very specific reason.

Cooks at work in the kitchen, pictured during a look behind the scenes at Hotel Seedamm Plaza in Pfaeffikon, canton of Schwyz, Switzerland, on March 31, 2014. (KEYSTONE/Christian Beutler)

In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?

This content was published on Jul 7, 2025 Migration is increasingly shaping Swiss society. Almost 2.5 million people do not have Swiss nationality, and even more have foreign origins. Where do they come from, and what are their profiles?

Can Saudi Arabia’s billions unlock the secrets to a longer, healthier life?

This content was published on Jul 3, 2025 Longevity has been an underfunded area of biotech research but that is changing thanks to an unlikely source: Saudi Arabia.

Consular protection: more and more elderly Swiss are dying abroad

This content was published on Jun 27, 2025 The number of Swiss nationals travelling and living abroad is increasing resulting in more and more consular protection cases.

Property in Switzerland is expensive - and the debt burden is also high.

Mortgages in Switzerland: how the system works

This content was published on Jun 21, 2025 Home loans are cheap in Switzerland. There are good sides and bad sides to this. Here is what you need to know about mortgages in Switzerland.

Is Switzerland repeating England’s housing mistakes?

This content was published on Jun 16, 2025 Switzerland is about to repeat England’s mistakes in residential construction, says property economist Christian Hilber.

Flat-hunting in Switzerland’s cheapest and most expensive municipalities

This content was published on Jun 8, 2025 The town of Le Locle in the Jura and the municipality of Kilchberg on Lake Zurich are 2.5 hours’ drive apart – and thousands of francs per square metre.

Echoes from the Indian Ocean: Swiss stories of the 2004 tsunami

This content was published on Jun 6, 2025 This Swiss docufiction tells the stories of people whose lives were devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

How retiring baby boomers could crash Swiss property market

This content was published on Jun 2, 2025 If baby boomers sell their homes, the property market could collapse. Can younger generations hope for plummeting prices?

Novartis bets on ageing as next frontier in drug development

This content was published on May 23, 2025 Swiss pharma giant Novartis is diving into research on ageing to tap the growing market for drugs that help keep older adults healthy.

‘Without immigration, more than a third of the Swiss population would disappear per generation’

This content was published on May 12, 2025 Switzerland is a country of emigration but also immigration. This is typical of an open, globalised country, says political analyst Michael Hermann.

History

Love letters and technology help restore pivotal Swiss film from ashes

This content was published on Jul 15, 2025 “Rapt”, shot in 1934 by an Estonian who fled the Bolshevik Revolution, has won a new lease of life after meticulous restoration.

John Zubly merged religion with politics and compared parts of Swiss history to the American resistance against Great Britain.

The American Revolutionary War through the eyes of a Swiss immigrant

This content was published on Jul 13, 2025 The Swiss National Museum looks back at the story of the Swiss pastor John Zubly, a key figure in American independence.

Delegates inside the meeting hall in Locarno, 1925

Forgotten Swiss peace pact has lessons for Europe on ending bloodshed

This content was published on Jul 9, 2025 The Locarno Pact, negotiated in Switzerland 100 years ago, still reverberates today as Europe once again deals with war and US isolationism.

Locarno City Archives, Rodolfo Huber, Locarno Pact centenary

How Locarno became the ‘city of peace’

This content was published on Jul 9, 2025 The Swiss city of Locarno rose to diplomatic fame in 1925 when a set of post-war treaties were negotiated there, leaving behind an enduring legacy of peace and tolerance.

King Albert I enjoyed climbing in the Swiss Alps, where he went almost every year. The picture was coloured using AI by the National Museum.

King Albert I: the mountaineering monarch

This content was published on Jul 6, 2025 The Swiss National Museum looks back at the tragic story of Albert I of Belgium, the mountaineering king who performed some of his exploits in Switzerland.

The Zytglogge, the mechanical heart of the city of Bern

This content was published on Jul 5, 2025 The Zytglogge in Bern has one of the very few astronomical clocks in Europe that still works and is fully mechanical.

Mennonite movement turns 500 in Zurich, where it all began

This content was published on Jun 28, 2025 On its 500th anniversary, the worldwide Mennonite movement remembers its Swiss roots.

Around the world with a young Swiss explorer in 1900

This content was published on Jun 7, 2025 Long before he became president of the Red Cross, Zurich-born Max Huber travelled the world for two years documenting every step of his adventure.

Children play at a traveller site in Nidau, near Biel, 1954.

How Switzerland, Scotland and Norway seized children from itinerant families

This content was published on May 15, 2025 In the 20th century, Yenish children in Switzerland were placed in institutions as part of a state-backed effort to destroy their way of life. Similar practices existed in Norway and Scotland.

It's all on TV (Untitled, 2023): Lázaro Antonio Martínez Duran uses drawings and collages to communicate beyond his intellectual deficiency.

Two Art Brut exhibitions 40 years apart expose the state of the arts in Cuba

This content was published on May 3, 2025 Isolated in an isolated island, Cuban outcast artists have been celebrated in Lausanne’s Art Brut museum, which revisited and revamped an exhibition from 1983.

swiss parliament building surrounded by mist

‘One for all, all for one’ – how the Swiss government makes decisions

This content was published on Apr 22, 2025 Secret meetings, no prime minister, and a seven-member executive that defends decisions collectively – the Swiss system of “collegiality” explained.

The American Revolutionary War through the eyes of a Swiss immigrant

This content was published on Jul 13, 2025 The Swiss National Museum looks back at the story of the Swiss pastor John Zubly, a key figure in American independence.

Forgotten Swiss peace pact has lessons for Europe on ending bloodshed

This content was published on Jul 9, 2025 The Locarno Pact, negotiated in Switzerland 100 years ago, still reverberates today as Europe once again deals with war and US isolationism.

How Locarno became the ‘city of peace’

In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?

King Albert I: the mountaineering monarch

This content was published on Jul 6, 2025 The Swiss National Museum looks back at the tragic story of Albert I of Belgium, the mountaineering king who performed some of his exploits in Switzerland.

The Zytglogge, the mechanical heart of the city of Bern

This content was published on Jul 5, 2025 The Zytglogge in Bern has one of the very few astronomical clocks in Europe that still works and is fully mechanical.

‘Quiet neutrality’: snapshots of Switzerland’s embrace of oligarchs

Can Saudi Arabia’s billions unlock the secrets to a longer, healthier life?

This content was published on Jul 3, 2025 Longevity has been an underfunded area of biotech research but that is changing thanks to an unlikely source: Saudi Arabia.

Literary world celebrates centenary of Swiss poet Philippe Jaccottet

Mennonite movement turns 500 in Zurich, where it all began

This content was published on Jun 28, 2025 On its 500th anniversary, the worldwide Mennonite movement remembers its Swiss roots.

Consular protection: more and more elderly Swiss are dying abroad

This content was published on Jun 27, 2025 The number of Swiss nationals travelling and living abroad is increasing resulting in more and more consular protection cases.

Art Basel expands to Qatar despite the drums of war in the Middle East

Patrick Chappatte: ‘The path for satire has been getting narrower’

This content was published on Jun 24, 2025 Patrick Chappatte is one of the most prolific cartoonists. We talked to him about the current state of satire, media and free speech in the world.

Mortgages in Switzerland: how the system works

This content was published on Jun 21, 2025 Home loans are cheap in Switzerland. There are good sides and bad sides to this. Here is what you need to know about mortgages in Switzerland.

Is Switzerland repeating England’s housing mistakes?

This content was published on Jun 16, 2025 Switzerland is about to repeat England’s mistakes in residential construction, says property economist Christian Hilber.

Claudia Andujar – from war trauma to defending Amazon communities

This content was published on Jun 12, 2025 Explore Claudia Andujar’s art and activism for Amazon communities. Discover her impact on indigenous rights.

Flat-hunting in Switzerland’s cheapest and most expensive municipalities

This content was published on Jun 8, 2025 The town of Le Locle in the Jura and the municipality of Kilchberg on Lake Zurich are 2.5 hours’ drive apart – and thousands of francs per square metre.

Around the world with a young Swiss explorer in 1900

This content was published on Jun 7, 2025 Long before he became president of the Red Cross, Zurich-born Max Huber travelled the world for two years documenting every step of his adventure.

Echoes from the Indian Ocean: Swiss stories of the 2004 tsunami

This content was published on Jun 6, 2025 This Swiss docufiction tells the stories of people whose lives were devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

How retiring baby boomers could crash Swiss property market

This content was published on Jun 2, 2025 If baby boomers sell their homes, the property market could collapse. Can younger generations hope for plummeting prices?

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.

Novartis bets on ageing as next frontier in drug development

This content was published on May 23, 2025 Swiss pharma giant Novartis is diving into research on ageing to tap the growing market for drugs that help keep older adults healthy.

Nestlé CEO Laurent Freixe is attempting to re-focus the Swiss-based food giant on its core brands and attempting to restore the culture he feels has been lost.

Nestlé boss says his predecessor ‘weakened the fabric’ of the company

This content was published on May 22, 2025 Laurent Freixe criticises diversification efforts under previous CEO Mark Schneider as he takes Nestlé back to basics.

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.

The architecture of Miroslav Šik doesn’t need to shout

Cultural aid cuts deal blow to Global South creatives – and Swiss diplomacy

How a Swiss fund helps Global South artists connect with rest of the world

This content was published on May 16, 2025 SWI swissinfo.ch speaks to Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama as cuts to Switzerland’s cultural development assistance budget looms.

How Switzerland, Scotland and Norway seized children from itinerant families

‘Without immigration, more than a third of the Swiss population would disappear per generation’

This content was published on May 12, 2025 Switzerland is a country of emigration but also immigration. This is typical of an open, globalised country, says political analyst Michael Hermann.

Two people in silhouette look at mobile phones while a contrail of an aircraft is seen in the sky in the evening twilight, at Zurich Kloten Airport, pictured in Ruemlang, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (KEYSTONE/Michael Buholzer)

No house generation: the impossibility of buying property in Switzerland

This content was published on May 12, 2025 In many countries, buying a home is slipping further out of reach for young people. Switzerland is no exception.

Young filmmakers target Africa and hit Switzerland’s post-colonial legacy

This content was published on May 11, 2025 This year, the Visions du Réel Film Festival’s national competition featured three Swiss documentaries set in Africa.

Swiss true crimes: the child serial killer Werner Ferrari (part 2/2)

This content was published on May 9, 2025 This two-part documentary film looks back at the police investigation into the shocking story of Switzerland’s infamous child serial killer.

Passports for sale? Golden visa schemes are residency for the rich.

Swiss Golden Visa scheme faces opposition

This content was published on May 7, 2025 Switzerland wants to snap up as many wealthy globetrotters as possible, but not everyone agrees with the methods being used.

The Basel researcher whose work triggered a longevity revolution

This content was published on May 7, 2025 Basel-based scientist Michael Hall’s discovery of the gene Target of Rapamycin has fuelled one of the fastest growing trends – longevity.

Scene of "Obscure Night - Ain't I a Child?"

Last chapter of Sylvain George’s migration trilogy heads to Cannes

This content was published on May 6, 2025 The French director talks to SWI swissinfo.ch as his film “Obscure Night – Ain’t I a Child?” premiered in Switzerland before being selected for Cannes.