The War and Us

Growing up in Switzerland, one often feels that war is something viewed from a safe distance. Through news images, school textbooks or political debates. War is something that happens elsewhere. In other countries, in other family histories, in other history books. The exhibition ‘Us and the War’ challenges this perception. Not because it suddenly declares Switzerland a theatre of war, but because it shows just how much wars have shaped society, politics, the economy and our self-image here too. What does it mean to visit an exhibition about war in Switzerland – a country that historically likes to define itself through the narrative of neutrality?

Right at the start of the exhibition hangs a yellow sign: ‘Take care of yourself.’ It is not a typical greeting at an exhibition. Rather, it is a small preparation for the fact that ‘We and the War’ does not treat war as a distant historical event, but as something that reaches right into Switzerland through images, voices, objects and political questions. The title itself is a challenge: who is this ‘we’ when it comes to war?

The exhibition at the National Museum spans from the late Middle Ages to the present day, covering everything from founding myths, mercenary activities, general strikes, the arms trade, peace policy and flight to drones and AI. Even the early sections show how closely Swiss self-images are linked to narratives and myths: the Rütli Oath, William Tell, Winkelried. What often appears as the origin story of national freedom is closely linked to notions of independence, defence and neutrality.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors are repeatedly confronted with questions. This is particularly evident in the Neutrality Compass, which invites visitors to take a stance and choose between answers: What does neutrality actually mean? A fundamental rule of state, a political stance, a moral principle?

This ties in with the section on privatised military force. Today, states, companies and resource corporations commission private security firms and troops for operations, guard duties or territorial security. War thus appears not only as a decision made by states, but also as a business sector. The exhibition asks who profits from war. It is precisely here that it becomes clear how difficult it is to speak of neutrality when money, raw materials, security interests and political responsibility are intertwined.

This is followed by an even more specific question: should a neutral country such as Switzerland continue to export military equipment? Such questions make it clear that neutrality is not merely a historical concept, but an attitude that is being eroded by current issues.