Topics of the Week 20

A special moment: Swiss Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider stands before Jacques-Louis David’s (1748–1825) "Portrait of Baroness Pauline Jeanine" during her visit to the Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz” on May 9, 2026.

Following an comprehensive renovation of the historic villa, over 200 European masterpieces from one of the world’s preeminent 20th-century private collections have been ceremoniously restaged and reopened to the public.

Ingeborg Bachmann, who would have celebrated her 100th birthday on June 25, demonstrated long before the rise of the feminist movement that social oppression is the continuation of wartime violence by other means. Through seminal works such as Malina, she exposed the hidden structures of power within society.

Utilizing a radical critique of language, she further questioned whether a tongue shaped by patriarchy and the legacy of National Socialism was even capable of expressing female experience or true identity.

As a pivotal intellectual figure, she proved to successive generations that profound lyrical sensibility and analytical rigor are not contradictions, but rather complementary forces.

Ingeborg Bachmann, whose quest for a truth that "humanity can bear" remains as relevant today as ever, passed away in Rome in 1973.

This week marks the definitive end of the Dienstbüchlein—the military service record book that, for generations, was a fixture in almost every Swiss household, tucked away in yellow or grey folders.

Experts estimate that since the introduction of compulsory military service, well over 10 million of these iconic booklets have been issued. Each one represents a seamless chronicle of a citizen’s life in service.

Now, tradition is giving way to total digitalization. As of June 2026, the digital "Service Manager" app will handle all administrative tasks. The iconic booklet, with its hand-stamped entries and meticulous records, is moving permanently from the soldier’s pack to the museum shelf.

By the numbers.

The traveling exhibition «Versorgt, Verdingt. Vergessen?» (Institutionalized. Contracted. Forgotten?) is dedicated to one of the darkest chapters in Swiss social history. It sheds light on the fates of tens of thousands of people who were subjected to compulsory social welfare measures until well into the 1980s.

Commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, the exhibition combines personal life stories with evidence-based insights into the long road toward political reconciliation and justice.

Visitors are directly confronted with the question of whether past suffering can ever truly be redressed, and how such events can be prevented from happening again.

The exhibition is on display at the Museum of Lucerne from May 14 to October 23.