The Swiss Social Archives (, ) in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

is a historical archive, an academic library, a collection of documentation and a research facility specialising in

social issues A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's control. Soc ...

and

social movements A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of ...

. The

Swiss Confederation Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerlan ...

recognizes the archives as the country's leading research facility for social issues and social movements. The Social Archives run their own research endowment fund, the Ellen Rifkin Hill Foundation. The SSA play an important role in communicating scholarship to the broader community. They have convened several exhibitions, published essay collections on Swiss social history and conduct lecture series, presentations and information sessions. The archives work with Swiss secondary and tertiary educational institutions, archives and libraries and with similar institutions abroad. The SSA are a founding member of the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI).

Organization

Run by an independent association funded by the Swiss Confederation, the

Canton of Zurich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

, the City of Zurich and other sources, the archives employ about 20 historians, archivists, and librarians. The SSA's director is Christian Koller.

History

The Swiss Social Archives were founded in 1906 by Paul Pflüger, a social reformer, politician and pastor from the working-class Zurich district of Aussersihl. Originally known as the Centre for Switzerland's Social Literature and inspired by the

Musée social The ''Musée social'' () was a private French institution founded in 1894. In the early twentieth century it became an important center of research into topics such as city planning, social housing and labor organization. For many years it played ...

in Paris, their aim was to document social questions. Early visitors included emigrants from Germany and Russia, notably

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

and

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

. During the interwar period, antifascist refugees from Italy and Germany frequently visited the reading room, and in the 1940s the archives assumed their present name. The reading room became a popular meeting place for Eastern European refugees from the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. In 1974 the Swiss Confederation recognised the archives as a research facility, and ten years later the archives moved to their present home at the Sonnenhof.

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, . 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. * Christian Koller
''Digitales Sozialarchiv: Was bisher geschah''
In: ''Sozialarchiv Info'' 1 (2018). pp. 12–15. * Christian Koller
''Weder Zensur noch Propaganda: Der Umgang des Schweizerischen Sozialarchivs mit rechtsextremem Material''
In: ''LIBREAS. Library Ideas'' 35 (2019). * Christian Koller
''Gesellschaftlicher Wandel als Sammelauftrag: Das Schweizerische Sozialarchiv''
In: ''Arbido'' 2 (2020). * Christian Koller
''Vor 115 Jahren: Die Gründung des Sozialarchivs im »Kosakensommer«''
In: ''Sozialarchiv Info'' 3 (2021). * 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, . * 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. . * 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. . * Vassil Vassilev: ''Das Schweizerische Sozialarchiv in neuem Gewand.'' In ''BuB – Forum Bibliothek und Information'' 11/2016. .

References

{{Authority control Archives in Switzerland Libraries in Zurich