Exhibition: Switzerland "in the fire of propaganda"
Switzerland was bombarded with massive propaganda during the First World War. From Thursday, the Museum of Communication and the Swiss National Library will be showing what this looked like with 200 documents in a joint exhibition in Bern.
"In the Fire of Propaganda" is the first co-production between the two institutions, as they announced on Tuesday. With a few exceptions, the 200 or so documents on display come from the collections of the two institutions. Almost all of them can be seen in the original. They include newspapers and magazines, posters and postcards, photographs and graphics, leaflets and dispatches, manuscripts, books and films. The exhibition begins at the Museum of Communication with an introduction to the topic and is continued and explored in greater depth at the Swiss National Library.
Inner turmoil exploited
Although Switzerland was spared the actual war between 1914 and 1918, it was nevertheless caught between the ideological fronts. While a large part of German-speaking Switzerland sympathized strongly with Germany and Austria-Hungary, the hearts of the French-speaking part of the country beat for France and its allies. This inner conflict was also perceived by the foreign war powers, the exhibition organizers write. The warring powers took advantage of this situation to wage a propaganda war on Swiss territory for the first time on this scale, for example by founding their own press agencies and magazines.
The Exhibition at the Museum of Communication and the Swiss National Library in Bern runs from August 21 to November 9 and is accompanied by a series of free special tours. (SDA)
