Albert Einstein came up with his theories of relativity and the famous formula E=MC2 in Bern, Switzerland, in 1905. At the time he was renting a flat on the second floor of Kramgasse No. 49, which is now preserved as the Einstein House Museum.
Al Gore may have inadvertently tried to take credit for its invention, but the truth is the worldwide web was born at the acclaimed CERN research institute just outside Geneva. CERN, which stands for European Centre for Nuclear Research, is funded by 20 European nations.
The first acid trip went down in Switzerland, although it didn’t happen on purpose. In 1943, chemist Albert Hofmann was conducting tests for a migraine cure in Basel when he accidentally absorbed the lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, compound through his fingertips and began tripping hard core.
Another potentially hallucinogenic substance was also discovered in Switzerland. The district of Val de Travers, near Neuchatel in Northwest Switzerland, claims to be the birthplace of the mythical green alcohol absinthe. After a break in the production of this controversial substance, absinthe is now once again being distilled in the region.
Lord Byron’s poem, “The Prisoner of Chillon” was inspired by a visit to the extraordinary castle, Chateau de Chillon. Today visitors to the town of Chillon can see where Byron carved his name into one of the castle pillars when he was visiting as a tourist nearly 200 years ago. A fire at the Montreux casino in 1971 inspired rock musician Frank Zappa, who watched the building burn and cast a pall of smoke over Lake Geneva. He and the members of Deep Purple were inspired to pen the classic rock hit, “Smoke on Water.”
Switzerland’s central Alpine region around Lucerne is one of Europe’s richest sources of myth and legend. One tale involves the biblical Pontius Pilate, whose spirit is said to rise every Good Friday out of a lake near Mount Pilatus overlooking Lucerne, to wash blood from his hands. Anybody who witnesses this event will allegedly die within a year.
Just because Switzerland is famous for neutrality, it doesn’t mean it hates guns. In fact, the alpine country ranks third or fourth — depending on who is counting — in the world for the number of guns per capita, National Public Radio reports. Every Swiss community has a shooting range, but Switzerland has far fewer firearms deaths than the U.S., according to the same NPR piece. These occur at one seventh the rate of the U.S. Most gun deaths in Switzerland involve suicides and crimes of passion.
Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansch. German is the most prevalent, spoken by 74 percent of the population, followed by French (20 percent); Italian (5 percent); and the Romansch dialect (1 percent).
Swiss banking confidentiality dates back to the Middle Ages, although it didn’t become law until 1934, when numbered-rather-than-named bank accounts were introduced and foreigners began hiding assets in these secret accounts. The veil of secrecy on Swiss banks was lifted somewhat in 2004 after the country agreed to impose taxes on accounts held in Switzerland by European Union citizens.
About a decade ago, Switzerland and Bollywood were in the midst of a steamy love affair with India’s huge movie-making industry producing more of its films in Switzerland than any other country. “For the Indian public, Switzerland is the land of their dreams,” Indian film star Raj Mukherjee once said. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, this love affair is over.
