Swiss National Exhibition 1939
The fourth Swiss National Exhibition of 1939 , called Landi 39 , took place in Zurich and lasted from May 6th to October 29th.
Planning and venues
The exhibition was originally planned for 1933, then it was postponed to 1936 and 1938 and finally held in 1939. The governing body was put together in February 1936, and the actual preparatory work lasted just under two and a half years.
The exhibition venues were various squares and meadows on the lower lake basin of Lake Zurich . The overall management of Landi lay with the architect and politician Armin Meili . The chief architect was Hans Hofmann from Zurich , while Heinrich Oetiker was in charge of the overall management of the buildings. 49,500 people attended the opening ceremony on May 9, 1939. Federal President Philipp Etter gave the opening speech .
In addition to numerous concerts, theatrical performances and various attractions, the Federal Costume Festival , the Swiss “Landi Schwinget ” and a lake night festival with large fireworks on 23 August were held at the Landi .
access
The exhibition was accessed through two main and three side entrances. In Wollishofen, the main entrance was at the train station, on the opposite side at the level of Klausstrasse. Entry for an adult cost 2 francs, an evening ticket from 6 p.m. 1 franc and a season ticket 32 francs. The Landi was open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Sundays from 9 a.m. The restaurants were open until 11 p.m., on Sunday until midnight. The entertainment venues in the narrow area were open until 3 a.m. every day. Most of the visitors - 163,567 - were counted on Sunday, October 15th. Overall, the Landi was visited by 10,507,735 paying people.
background
In 1939 Switzerland was under the impression of the aggressive annexation and conquest policy of Nazi Germany , which led to the outbreak of World War II during the Landi . The exhibition was under the sign of intellectual national defense as a political-cultural program of official Switzerland at the time, which was shaped by the fascist threat.
The purpose of the Landi was formulated as follows: “The LA should convey a picture of Swiss individuality and culture, Swiss thought and work, it should collect and present the advancing economic, cultural, social and political forces of our country, the people of Switzerland and foreigners Show guests the capabilities of the Swiss people [...] Likewise, by emphasizing what is generally Swiss and common, it should be an impressive national rally. "
Intellectual national defense
Half a year before the opening of the national exhibition, the Federal Council published the first cultural message under the title “Sense and Mission of Switzerland”. In the state doctrine of spiritual national defense based on this , backward- looking images of an Alpine peasant culture were particularly meaningful. With the pathetic evocation of old traditions, glorious history, home and soil, the Landi should be a symbol of patriotism, defensiveness and solidarity, a bulwark against everything non-Swiss, at the same time a place of edification where one could draw strength.
After the outbreak of the Second World War and the mobilization of the army on September 1, the Landi was closed for three days to remove those weapons that were intended for use. The re-opening of the exhibition was arranged by the newly elected general, Henri Guisan .
Elements of the exhibition
The main squares were the Landiwiese on the left bank of the lake in Wollishofen and the Zürichhorn on the opposite side of the lake, where the Landidörfli with houses in the traditional architectural styles of different cantons was a popular attraction. A total of around 15,000 seats were available in 25 restaurants.
On the left side of the lake in Wollishofen, modern Switzerland was presented with new architecture, industry, trade and technical achievements. The following topics were presented, often in their own buildings: clocks, tourism, transport, railways, post and telephones, clothes and fashion, food, electricity, iron and machines, aluminum, rubber, chemistry, finance and wood. The “Höhenstrasse” was entirely under the motto “Home and People”. One of the Landi's most popular buildings was the “Bierhus” by Thun architect Arnold Itten, which with several halls and terraces offered space for 1,400 people and had its own butcher's shop.
The subjects of building, gas and water, living, prevention and healing, sport, flowers, learning, graphic arts, theater, literature and art were presented more against the confines. The Nestlé children's paradise was also on the left bank, where, among other things, the then 20-year-old Trudi Gerster told the children fairy tales.
On the right side of the lake in Riesbach was the official festival hall, which covered an area of 7500 m² and whose roof could be opened. In the Landidörfli , conservative and rural Switzerland was represented with twelve buildings from different cantons. Separate exhibitions were devoted to the subjects of agriculture, cultural technology, market and propaganda, plant cultivation, cider making and viticulture, vegetable cultivation, animal breeding, dairy farming and cheese production, agricultural machinery, hunting and fishing, bird protection and traditional costumes / Heimatwerk.
Landidörfli
In Landi Doerfli two were Riegelhaus -Bauernhöfe built with red tile roofs, a mountain farm in the canton of Schwyz, a cheese factory and a tower with a decorated village-town hall with its own post office just behind the Schwanen.
In the Dörfli there were several restaurants such as the “Schwan”, the “Rebe”, the popular “Chüechliwirtschaft” with the huge hall right on the lake, as well as restaurants from Eastern Switzerland, Ticino , Graubünden and Vaud .
After the Landi, to the great regret of millions of visitors, the buildings were dismantled and rebuilt in various parts of Switzerland. The parish hall is now in Berg am Irchel , where it still serves as a parish hall today
Schifflibach
The 1,600 meter long Schifflibach ran through the facilities, halls and gardens on the left bank of the lake . 82 metal boats with 6 seats made their rounds for 14 hours a day. The idea for this came from Director Meili from Vienna, where boats were already being used to transport people in exhibitions in the early interwar years. The stream was designed by the Research Institute for Hydraulic Engineering at ETH Zurich and tested there in model size.
The stream consisted of a 1.5 meter wide and 50 centimeter deep concrete channel, the slight slope of which gave the boats a speed of 1.5 meters per second. After around 800 meters, the boats were raised 1.30 meters by a digger-like lever mechanism so that they could continue their journey. At the terminus, a second set of levers pulled the empty boats back to the starting point at Belvoirpark . Lighting was installed in the halls and outdoors for the night.
A trip in Schifflibach cost 50 cents, which was equivalent to 2 kilograms of bread. During the Landi, around 705,000 people drove in the Schifflibach, which led to an income of 1,475 million Swiss francs; a third of that was budgeted.
After the Landi, around 15 boats were still used for military purposes in the Sihl valley. Details are not known.
Cable car
The two exhibition spaces Landiwiese and Zürichhorn were connected by the cable car with the longest span of 900 meters at the time. The driving force behind the construction of the railway were several companies from the metal and construction industries, which joined forces to form a joint stock company for this project. The railway was considered the Landi's landmark.
The two 20-person cabins were reached via two 75-meter-high towers that rested on reinforced concrete piles that were driven up to 25 meters into the earth and remained in the ground after the railway was broken. The ropes were driven by an electric motor on the right tower. The journey time was just under 3 minutes; 15 cabins could be processed per hour. The two elevators offered space for seven people and were attached to the outside of the tower; one of them was the fastest lift in Europe at 4 meters per second. A restaurant for 110 people was housed in the tower on the left bank.
The travel costs for an adult were 1.50 francs, more than the hourly wage of a factory worker. Children paid half. In the course of the Landi, around 705,000 people took the gondola lift.
After the end of the Landi, the railway fell victim to the armaments industry's need for steel: the two towers became armored domes for bunkers in the Réduit , the suspension cable was used to build anti-tank barriers in the Sihl valley . The cabins were used for the Adliswil – Felsenegg aerial cableway, which opened in 1954 . In 1960 they were replaced by more modern gondolas.
The four small Landi ships “Taucherli”, “Schwan”, “Möve” and “Ente”, which were built especially for the exhibition and connected the shores of the lake, offered an alternative to the suspension railway. In addition, numerous sea taxis and boats operated by the private steamship association. The entire maritime traffic in the lower lake basin was under the control of the maritime police.
Höhenstrasse
The motto of the 7 meter wide Höhenstrasse was “Home and People”. It was the ideal main part of the national exhibition and represented its spine in its formal language. The history of Switzerland and the autonomy of cantons and municipalities were emphasized.
It led from the entrance 700 meters to the north and was covered in the open air with the flags of the then around 3,000 municipalities in Switzerland and the cantons. Several architecturally independent pavilions branched off the main axis, each with a theme. At the entrance, next to the words of the song "O my homeland, o my fatherland, how so deeply, fiery I love you" by Gottfried Keller stood the four meter high fresco "Heimatliebe" by the painter Paul Bodmer .
In its second part, where the history of Switzerland was presented systematically, it ran on a higher level over other pavilions. As a result, the visitors could not evade and were forced to deal with the exhibition. The people were accompanied by the rushing of the Schifflibach, which ran parallel to the Höhenstrasse.
In the rooms “Our Land”, “Our People” and “Free, Forever Free”, a lot of school knowledge was conveyed with pictures, statistics and graphics; social institutions and historical figures were presented. With little figurines of bridal couples it was shown that every eighth Swiss woman married a foreigner.
Otto Baumberger's 45-meter-long mural “The Becoming of the Bund” showed Swiss history from 1291 to 1939 and was intended to establish a connection from the Rütli oath to the spiritual national defense.
The women's organizations organized a “Swiss women pavilion” in which they presented the benefits of women for the national economy and the spiritual defense of the country and drew attention to the political unequal treatment of women. Numerous women's professions were honored. In the large hall of honor, in which one hundred and fifty great personalities from Switzerland were portrayed, three women were particularly highlighted: the writers Anne Louise Germaine de Staël and Johanna Spyri as well as Marie Heim-Vögtlin , the first female doctor in Switzerland.
In a room in the “Wehrwillen” department with a granite floor, there was only Hans Brandenberger's statue of a soldier, which reached up to the ceiling and was putting on his uniform. On the wall are the flags of the three original cantons , an excerpt from the federal letter from 1291 and the articles of equality from today's constitution . In addition, the national anthem rang out Do you call, my country .
In the last room, “Vow”, the national anthem sounded a second time. In the center stood a group of four men beneath a floating figure by the Geneva artist Luc Jaggi called “Genius”; on the wall was the beginning of the national anthem in the four national languages. At the end of the Höhenstrasse, the vow should have meaning and weight and everyone should know what to defend.
Defense
The basic idea of the Department of Defense at LA was to show the bond between the army and the people. There were weapons shows in the open air, exhibitions under the theme of “Heimat und Volk”, and the function and use of modern weapons by infantry, artillery and air troops on the Allmend Wollishofen in August. "A rattling spectacle of oppressive and at the same time calming urgency, since it showed everyone the enormous and powerful effects of the relentless Swiss will to defend", as Paul Alfred Sarasin wrote in a commemorative publication. The sculpture "Wehrmacht" designed by Hans Brandenberger stood in the "Wehrwesen" pavilion on Höhenstrasse and hit the spirit of the times.
"May the arms show, [...], may the demonstrations in the open sow confidence in all doubters, plant the will to defend in the indifferent, strengthen trust in those who trust, and let foreigners grow their conviction that Switzerland is always ready to defend themselves!"
buildings
To make room for the Landi, the old Casino Zürichhorn and several sheds on the right bank of the lake were demolished; there were no buildings in the way on the left bank. In the area of today's Landiwiese, on the other hand, extensive replenishment of the lake was carried out - a good opportunity to dispose of the excavated material from the nearby Enge tunnel. The bank areas were secured with sandstone blocks that are still visible today. Jetties were built on both banks in order to optimize the transport across the lake.
Monumental buildings were dispensed with, and a suitable building was designed individually with each exhibitor in a short time. A large machine hall designed by the architect Robert Winkler was built on the left bank. It was the only Landi building that was to be used after the exhibition as an assembly hall for aircraft. All other buildings were removed again; only bank protection, paths, gardens and sewers remained.
Another striking building on the left bank was the cubic “Palais des Attractions”, which offered space for a good 2,500 people. It was divided into two rooms: to the south was the dancing, where, among other things, Teddy Stauffer and his teddies played. In the north was the so-called "fairground", in which on an arena under a dome, which could be opened when the weather was nice, various attractions were offered such as ballet performances, festivals of the cantons, performances by orchestras, tap dancers or a performance by the art riders José Moeser and Cilly Feindt , for whom the room was redesigned as a circus.
Art (selection)
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Sculptures
Numerous wall paintings and sculptures were created for the Landi 39. Many have disappeared, others have survived, if only partially.
One of the most dominant figures was created by Otto Charles Bänninger , who exhibited the larger than life plaster sculpture “Boy with a horse” on the left bank of the lake. Only photographs of these still exist; the horse's body was destroyed, the boy is owned by the city of Zurich.
The stone sculpture “Schreitender Löwe” by Karl Geiser , who stood at the entrance to Höhenstrasse in Wollishofen during the Landi, stands today in front of the cantonal administration on Walcheplatz in Zurich.
The 5.80 meter high sculpture "Wehrmacht" by Hans Brandenberger in the department "Wehrwillen" on Höhenstrasse shows a man who slips into his smock and is supposed to embody the will to fight. It was made of plaster and disappeared today.
After the Landi, Brandenberger recreated the military man from Castione marble. The copy is one meter smaller and slightly different in shape from the original. The statue is on the corner of Rämistrasse 80 in Zurich. Another bronze copy, a plaster cast of the original, is in Schwyz at the Bundesbriefmuseum . It was donated to the archive by the Swiss abroad in 1941 on the occasion of the 650th anniversary.
In front of the anatomy pavilion stood the sculpture "Mother and Child" by the sculptor Franz Fischer .
The sculpture "Girl with Arms Raised", which the Zurich sculptor Hermann Haller created for the 1939 national exhibition, still stands on the Ländiwiese . Sibylle Tobler, 1914–1996, was his model for this figure.
Murals
A large mural came from the Lucerne painter Hans Erni . For the outside wall of a model hotel, he created the mural Switzerland, around a hundred meters long and five meters high . The holiday country of the peoples . The picture shows the technical achievements, the landscapes and traditional customs like a kaleidoscope, for example the latest SBB special multiple unit , the Douglas DC-3 from Swissair, as well as lakes, alpine flowers, animals, handicrafts and mountains. It was painted on individual sheets of plywood that were put together on site. Gotthard Jedlicka wrote that Erni had "become famous overnight with his painting, because with a mixture of primitiveness and refinement, of peasant painting and photomontage, he had designed a huge and funny advertising brochure for trips to Switzerland and for Swiss intellectual history". After the exhibition, the picture was stored for a long time in a Romanshorn goods shed belonging to the SBB, which donated it to the State Museum in 1990, where parts of it are now on display. The 850000 francs for the necessary restoration came mainly from the sale of 750 copies of a facsimile lithograph.
Victor Surbek created two further monumental murals , one of them in collaboration with his wife Marguerite Frey-Surbek , with Martin Christ and with Herold Howald. Victor Surbek's sole mural entitled Holzhauer im Winterwald was on view in the entrance hall of the exhibition Our Wood . The 200-meter-wide joint project Swiss Landscapes could be viewed in the Road Traffic Hall.
The mural Christophorus in the Landi youth center by Willy Fries also caused a stir . A huge Christophorus carries the little Jesus across Lake Zurich. The visitors' question as to why the boy had not just taken the suspension railway led to an involuntary comedy. The 45-meter-long mural The Becoming of the Federation on Höhenstrasse by Otto Baumberger showed Swiss history from 1291 to 1939. What happened to the work after the exhibition is unclear, today it is lost. The Uri painter Heinrich Danioth created the mural Work and Life of the Peasants for the main entrance in Riesbach to the “Agriculture” department on the right bank of the lake . The mural iron processing in the machine hall of the iron, metals and machines department was by Otto Morach , the entrance to the clothes making people department was adorned by the large textile art sgraffito by Maurice Barraud . These and other murals were demolished along with the buildings after the exhibition ended.
Financial
Instead of the budgeted 5.5 million francs in entrance fees, over 10 million were collected. The economies were expected to yield 1.45 million, which turned into almost 3.5 million. The artistic events also brought in more than double the estimated 250,000 francs. The Schifflibach proved to be extremely profitable financially , and instead of the planned 100,000 francs, it led to a net profit of almost one million. The Landi resulted in a net profit of 6.4 million francs, with which the subsidies received were repaid.
Varia
- The Landidörfli was also immortalized musically: The yodelling duo Marthely Mumenthaler-Vrenely Pfyl recorded several Landi songs: 1939 Landi-Dörfli (composer Robert Barmettler), Uf der Landi-Schwäbibahn , 1940 'S isch' s Landi-Dörfli gsi! , Farewell to the Landi .
- Of globin in 1939 the band released "globin at the National Exhibition". It is the most sought-after and rarest title that only appeared in an edition of 5000 copies.
- On the occasion of the Landi in 1939, the Post issued three special postage stamps. Each stamp appeared in three versions: with German, French and Italian text.
Landi witnesses today
An important structural testimony to the Landidörflis is the so-called Landisaal with its characteristic semicircular window openings, today an extension of the Zur Au country inn in Wädenswil . This originally open hall served as protection against rain and sun during the Landi. After the end of the exhibition, the hall was temporarily stored in an unknown location until it was brought to the Au in 1959 at the instigation of the Wädenswil brewery owner Fritz Weber-Lehnert. At the beginning it served as weather protection for the guests, today it serves as a hall for meals and events.
Another building that was able to save itself from the Landi to the present day is the half-timbered house, which stood as «Chäshüsli» in Landidörfli. Today it is on the premises of the Swiss Epilepsy Foundation Epi in Riesbach . The then Swiss Institute for Epileptics bought the house from the cheese and milk cooperative in northeastern Switzerland for 5,000 francs. It was dismantled and reassembled at Epi in 1941. At first various handicraft workshops were housed in it, today it houses an attic apartment and a library, as well as offices for the central services.
A design classic for many decades was the hardened aluminum Landi chair designed by Hans Coray for the exhibition . From the Landi emerged the Landistil , which is characterized by a functional, light and reduced design.
Another classic turned out to be the Bauhaus-style bench with ergonomically curved seat and backrest, which was designed by the architects Alfred Altherr (1911–1972) and Charles Hoch for the state exhibition. The "Landi Bank" is still produced today by the company BURRI public elements AG in Glattbrugg ZH and is available in various versions in numerous squares, train stations and gardens. A table is also available for the different versions of the Landi bench.
Memorial stone at the lake
"Landisaal" on the Au peninsula
The former “Chäshüsli” from the Landidörfli
Country chairs; older version on the left, younger version on the right
Landibank
literature
- Gottlieb Duttweiler (ed.): One people's being and creating. The Swiss National Exhibition 1939 Zurich in 300 pictures. Zurich 1939.
- Robert Naef: Landi , Verlag Ringier , Zurich 1979, ISBN 978-3858591043
- R. Keller (editing): Swiss National Exhibition 1939 Zurich. Official guide with exhibition directory and orientation plan.
- Julius Wagner (Ed.): Festliche Landi , Verkehrsverlag, Zurich 1939.
- Julius Wagner (ed.): The golden book of LA 1939 . Verkehrsverlag, Zurich 1939.
- Switzerland in the Mirror of the National Exhibition 1939 , (two volumes), Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1940.
- Two extra editions of the Tages-Anzeiger for the state exhibition of May 6, 1939.
- Poster competition for the national exhibition in 1939. In: The work: Architecture and Art = L'oeuvre: architecture et art, Vol. 25, 1938, pp. 29–32 ( digitized version ).
- Hans Schmid: On the building of the National Exhibition in Zurich 1939. In: The work: Architecture and Art = L'oeuvre: architecture et art, Vol. 26, 1939, pp. 1–12 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- "Landi 39" dossier at NZZ Online
- Alt-Züri: Information and pictures for the 1939 national exhibition
- Landi 39 on Stadt-Zürich.ch
- Swiss National Exhibition, Zurich (1939) in the archive database of the Swiss Federal Archives
- Short film from NZZ about Landi on YouTube
- Detailed description of the Höhenstrasse
- All of the “Landi 39” murals on mural.ch
Individual evidence
- ^ Art. 4, Regulations for Exhibitors of December 18, 1936
- ↑ Mario Marguth: The army at the national exhibition in 1939 in Zurich . Schweizer Soldat: Monthly magazine for the army and cadre with FHD newspaper, Volume 39 1963-1964, Issue 17
- ^ Extra edition of the Tages-Anzeiger, May 6, 1939
- ↑ Zürichsee-Zeitung of July 16, 2009 ( Memento of the original of April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Landihaus Berg am Irchel
- ^ Project work on cultural landscape change, ETH Zurich, page 14
- ↑ NZZ of July 18, 2014: 75th anniversary: highlights of Landi 39
- ↑ Zürichsee-Zeitung of May 9, 2009; Contribution by Hans-Heiri Stapfer ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Mural.ch
- ↑ Description of the Höhenstrasse
- ↑ ETH Library
- ↑ Family tradition. I am a son of Sibylle Tobler. A ceramic study for this sculpture is still owned by our family. Sibylle Tobler comes from an old Zurich family, but grew up in Heidelberg. On the family grave of the Toblers in Heidelberg there is a large relief sculpture by Hermann Haller "The sowing angel".
- ^ Bernhard Wiebel: Switzerland - vacation country of the peoples - but not of the people. To the mural by Hans Erni at LA 1939
- ↑ Retor Seals: "Switzerland exhibits": The 1939 national exhibition as reflected in art and advertising
- ↑ Photos with excerpts from www.mural.ch: [1]
- ↑ Photos with excerpts from www.mural.ch: [2]
- ↑ Figure to be seen at: [3]
- ↑ Figure to be seen at: [4]
- ^ Robert Naef: Landi . Ringier , Zurich 1979, pp. 44, 71.
- ↑ bio-discography
- ↑ NZZ
- ^ Special stamps for the state exhibition in 1939
- ↑ Zürichsee-Zeitung, July 16, 2009 ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ NZZ: Landi silent witnesses
- ↑ burri.world
