Doctoral Project
How the Swiss National Bank Disappeared into the Alps, 1934–1971
Doctoral Project
Ludo Groen
Prof. Dr. Laurent Stalder
since 2021
The Swiss National Bank is commonly identified with distinct headquarters institutionalising its presence in the cities of Zurich and Bern, but throughout the twentieth century the bank extended its architectures discreetly, deep into the Alps. From railway lines climbing mountain passes, to military bunkers piercing geological strata, the bank utilised the public infrastructures laid out by the Swiss Federal Railways and the Swiss Armed Forces to store, transport, and trade gold bars and coins. Until today, these architectures remain undocumented, classified in archives, and therefore excluded from the writing of history. Through the lens of architectural history, this doctoral research presents an alternative economic history of an era, documenting the transfer and storage sites of gold as reification of the economic policies of gold standards, including the Swiss Banking Law of 1934, the Bretton Woods system of 1944, and the Zurich Gold Pool in 1968.
This research is part of the project Switzerland: A Technological Pastoral, a collaboration between Prof. Dr. Laurent Stalder and Prof. Milica Topalović, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Ludo Groen
Ludo Groen
Prof. Dr. Laurent Stalder
since 2021
The Swiss National Bank is commonly identified with distinct headquarters institutionalising its presence in the cities of Zurich and Bern, but throughout the twentieth century the bank extended its architectures discreetly, deep into the Alps. From railway lines climbing mountain passes, to military bunkers piercing geological strata, the bank utilised the public infrastructures laid out by the Swiss Federal Railways and the Swiss Armed Forces to store, transport, and trade gold bars and coins. Until today, these architectures remain undocumented, classified in archives, and therefore excluded from the writing of history. Through the lens of architectural history, this doctoral research presents an alternative economic history of an era, documenting the transfer and storage sites of gold as reification of the economic policies of gold standards, including the Swiss Banking Law of 1934, the Bretton Woods system of 1944, and the Zurich Gold Pool in 1968.This research is part of the project Switzerland: A Technological Pastoral, a collaboration between Prof. Dr. Laurent Stalder and Prof. Milica Topalović, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
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Ludo Groen
