cold war

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At the end of the Second World War, the Association Switzerland-USSR was very popular. There was growing demand to renew diplomatic relations with the victorious power who had prevailed at Stalingrad. The advance of the Red Army at the eastern front had left a deep imprint on the collective memory and the end of the war raised hopes for international peace.

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The Swiss-American Society for Cultural Relations (SASCR) was one of the organisations supporting and promoting science diplomacy and cultural relations between Switzerland and the United States.

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Ever since the beginning of the Cold War, Swiss cultural policy had kept on this side of the Iron Curtain which divided Europe.

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Between 1930 and the end of the 20th century, radio was an essential vehicle for information.

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Pro Helvetia is the most important instrument of the Confederation’s cultural policy. It was a product of the Spiritual defence and the National exhibition of 1939. In the context of the threats of totalitarianism in the 1930s, the Federal authorities realised the importance of culture for the national identity. To justify Switzerland’s autonomous existence surrounded by the major powers in Europe, it was essential to have an indigenous national identity. The Spiritual defence portrayed Switzerland as the result of three European cultures meeting in one territory.

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A “second path” for Third-World countries

1970 to 2000

By their very nature, museums of ethnography are part of a country’s cultural relations.

The Swiss abroad – promoting cultural influence

1916 to 1976

For  a long time, Switzerland had been a country of emigration, its inhabitants leaving because of

Cultural relations and the National Commission for UNESCO

1949 to 2016

By joining UNESCO in 1949, Switzerland not only became part of one of the agencies of the UN, but

Rousseau made in Switzerland

1945 to 1968

Quite often, Rousseau was instrumentalised, reinvented and “helvetised” by Switzerland’s cultural

A brief survey of Swiss culture in Japan

1950 to 1970

In Japan book fairs enjoy high regard.

A young historian thinking about Switzerland’s cultural influence

1946

Pro Helvetia was founded in 1939 to join the struggle for the Spiritual Defence.

The architects and the renewal of cultural relations between Switzerland and Germany after World War II

1945

After the war, the question of cultural relations with the German neighbour remained something of

The origins of the Swiss pavilion at the “Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris"

1925 to 1933

Combining cultural and science diplomacy, the Swiss pavilion at the “Cité Internationale Universit

Men and women working for Pro Helvetia

1939 to 2012

First and foremost, Pro Helvetia is a Board of Trustees, originally consisting of 25 members, and

Switzerland and UNESCO - a culture of peace

1946

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must b