Swiss Social Archives

The Swiss Social Archives (German: Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, French: Archives Sociales Suisse) in Zurich, Switzerland is a historical archive, an academic library, a collection of topical documentation and a research infrastructure specialising on social issues and social movements.^[1]

Profile

The Swiss Confederation recognizes the Swiss Social Archives as the leading research infrastructure and center of competence on social issues and social movements in Switzerland.^[2] The Social Archives run their own research endowment fund, the Ellen Rifkin Hill Foundation.^[3] Through various activities, the Social Archives play a crucial role in communicating scholarly findings to the wider community. They have convened several essay collections and exhibitions on Swiss social history and run regular lecture series, presentations and information sessions. The Swiss Social Archives work closely with Swiss institutions of secondary and higher education, archives and libraries as well as with similar institutions abroad.^[4][5][6] Additionally, the Social Archives are a founding member of the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI).^[7]

Organization

The Swiss Social Archives are run by an independent association and funded by the Swiss Confederation, the Canton of Zurich, the City of Zurich and other sources.^[8] They deploy approximately 20 historians, archivists and librarians. The director of the Swiss Social Archives is Christian Koller.^[9][10][11]

History

The Swiss Social Archives were founded in 1906 by Paul Pflüger. He was a social reformer, a politician and a pastor from the working-class district of Aussersihl (Zurich).^[12][13] Initially named "Centre for Switzerland's Social Literature" and inspired by the Musée social in Paris, their aim was to document the "social question". In the early days, customers included many emigrants from Germany and Russia (most notably Lenin and Trotzky).^[14] During the interwar period antifascist refugees from Italy and Germany were frequent visitors to the reading room. In the 40s the name of the institute was changed to "Swiss Social Archives". During the Cold War, the reading room became a popular meeting point for East European refugees. In 1974, the Swiss Confederation acknowledged the Swiss Social Archives as a research infrastructure.^[15] In 1984 the Social Archives moved to their current base at the Sonnenhof (Stadelhoferstrasse 12, CH-8001 Zurich).^{[16][17][18][19]}

Literature

• Jacqueline Häusler: 100 Jahre soziales Wissen: Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, 1906-2006. ed. Swiss Social Archives. Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, Zurich 2006.
• Arbeitsalltag und Betriebsleben: zur Geschichte industrieller Arbeits- und Lebensverhältnisse in der Schweiz. ed. Swiss Social Archives. Rüegger, Diessenhofen 1981, ISBN 3-7253-0140-9. 2nd edition 1982.
• Urs Kälin: Fixierte Bewegung? Soziale Bewegungen und ihre Archive, in: Arbido 3 (2007). pp. 74–77.
• Christian Koller: Bibliotheksgeschichte als histoire croisée: Das Schweizerische Sozialarchiv und das Phänomen des Exils, in: Rafael Ball/Stefan Wiederkehr (eds.): Vernetztes Wissen - Online - Die Bibliothek als Managementaufgabe. De Gruyter, Berlin 2015. pp. 365-392.
• Karl Lang: 75 Jahre Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, in: Nachrichten VSB/SVD 57 (1981). pp. 152–157.
• Stefan Länzlinger: Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv – Die Abteilung Bild + Ton, in: Rundbrief Fotografie, N.F. 75 (2012).
• Hanspeter Marti: Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, Zürich. In: Urs B. Leu et al. (eds.). Handbuch der historischen Buchbestände in der Schweiz, vol. 3. Hildesheim 2011, pp. 317–325.
• Fritz N. Platten, Miroslav Tucek: Das Schweizerische Sozialarchiv. Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, Zurich 1971.
• Eugen Steinemann, Eduard Eichholzer: 50 Jahre Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv 1907–1957: Festschrift zum fünfzigjährigen Bestehen und zur Einweihung des neuen Sitzes des Schweizerischen Sozialarchivs in Zürich. Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, Zurich 1958.
• Anita Ulrich: Le »Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv«: Stratégies de conservation et de valorisation des archives du mouvement ouvrier, in: Alda De Giorgi/Charles Heimberg/Charles Magnin (eds.): Archives, histoire et identité du mouvement ouvrier. Geneva 2006. pp. 92–101.
• Anita Ulrich/Konrad J. Kuhn: Soziale Bewegungen und internationale Solidarität: Archivbestände und offene Forschungsfragen, in: Sara Elmer/Konrad J. Kuhn/Daniel Speich Chassé (eds.): Handlungsfeld Entwicklung: Schweizer Erwartungen und Erfahrungen in der Geschichte der Entwicklungsarbeit. Basel 2014. pp. 231–251.

References

Coordinates: 47°22′00″N 8°32′51″E / 47.3668°N 8.5475°E / 47.3668; 8.5475