News
Save the date: VINTES Annual Conference 2026
The next annual conference of the Swiss Association for Industrial Heritage and Technical History will take place on June 27, 2026, in Zug. Further information will follow.
VINTES annual conference 2025: Industrial Heritage and Politics
8 november 2025 at Haus der Museen, Olten
At the 2025 annual conference, we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of VINTES. For this reason, the anniversary conference and AGM will only take place in November.
To mark our anniversary, we wish to discuss industrial culture and politics. The 2025–2028 Culture Dispatch explicitly mentions industrial culture as part of the national cultural heritage for the first time – a first milestone for our activities. Nevertheless, much remains to be done in order to preserve unique material evidence of technological history for the future and for Switzerland’s industrial past to take root in the public consciousness.
Programme for the 2025 Annual General Meeting
AGM Documents
Annual report and minutes of the 2024 AGM
Industrial heritage landscape in the canton of Uri
In his article, Kilian T. Elasser sheds light on an unknown chapter in Uri’s industrial history and highlights its connection to the construction of the Gotthard Railway.
Industrial heritage and the 2025–2028 Culture Dispatch
The german term «Industriekultur» has been included in the federal government’s Culture Dispatch for the first time. Together with the VMS, NIKE, SGTI and political actors, VINTES has repeatedly highlighted the importance of industrial culture in Switzerland, also during the consultation process for the Culture Dispatch. Our perseverance has thus paid off.
VINTES Annual Conference 2024: Preservation of Digital Data
27 april 2024, ENTER Technikwelt, Derendingen
The handling of digital data and its long-term preservation is also a concern for museums and collections of industrial culture and technological history. There is no institution without a collection of photographs or film and sound recordings – be it analogue or digital. But the maintenance of such a collection comes with its own set of pitfalls: Which materials should be digitised and with what priority? How can museums ensure that digital data remains accessible, readable and securely stored in the long term? This is a particularly challenging endeavour for the people in charge of small institutions with often very limited resources who have touse their scarce funds as efficiently and effectively as possible.
AGM Documents
Annual report and minutes of the 2023 AGM
Statement on the 2025–2028 Culture Dispatch
The Swiss Society for the History of Technology and Industrial Culture (SGTI) has signed our statement. The Association of Swiss Museums (VMS), the National Information Centre for Cultural Heritage (NIKE), the FDP. The Liberals and others also point out that industrial heritage should be mentioned in the cultural message as an important cultural achievement. We thank them for their support.
VINTES Annual Conference 2023: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Participation
29 april 2023, Jakob Müller Museum, Weaving machines collection, Frick
Museums and collections of industrial culture and technological history have been preserving and maintaining intangible cultural heritage for decades thanks to a wide range of participants: former mechanics from industrial companies and experts in old craft techniques are involved. They contribute with their know-how by repairing historical machines, keeping old locomotives in working order or setting up looms. How do these institutions ensure that they can pass on this knowledge and these skills to future generations? How do they find enthusiastic people who would wand to get involved?
AGM documents
Annual report and minutes of the AGM 2022
Slides accompanying the presentations
Summary of the roundtable discussions
List of arguments for the Cultural Dispatch 2025-2028
As an umbrella organization, VINTES is committed to raising awareness of Switzerland’s industrial and technological heritage in the cultural policy debate. We have summarized our key positions in a list of arguments.
Swiss Industrial Heritage SIH
The Swiss Industrial Heritage website brings together institutions of industrial culture and technological history located throughout Switzerland and promotes their offerings to a broad audience on the national and international stage. In addition to a few large museums and collections, there are numerous small ones, often run by volunteers. The latter mostly focus on interaction between the public and volunteers, who use their extensive knowledge and commitment to demonstrate how Switzerland became one of the leading industrial nations. The institutions convey the inventiveness, innovation, and entrepreneurship of the past. They are an inspiration for how Switzerland can continue to develop today and tomorrow.
The Swiss Association for Industrial Heritage and Technology History (VINTES) has created the Swiss Industrial Heritage SIH-VINTES web portal with the support of public authorities and foundations. The web portal (ww.sih-vintes.ch) provides an overview of the offerings of publicly accessible institutions dedicated to industrial heritage and technology history in Switzerland. SIH informs families and those interested in technology history about their educational and entertainment offerings. Switzerland Tourism, the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH), and the Swiss Museum Pass are communication partners. Foundations and the lottery funds of the cantons of AG, BE, BL, BS, LU, SH, SO, TG, UR, ZH, and ZG provide significant support for the project.
More informations and registration as a member: https://mailchi.mp/9c7c02306ec6/webportal-swiss-industrial-heritage
VINTES annual conference 2022: Networks, what for?
30 april 2022, SBB Historic Windisch
Networking is the order of the day. The conference will explore how museums and collections should position themselves in order to serve as a network for communication, cultural policy and further education. At the conference, VINTES will launch the Swiss Industrial Heritage communication portal www.sih-vintes.ch. Its partners are Switzerland Tourism, the Swiss Museum Pass and the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The web portal serves to communicate the offerings of museums and collections of industrial culture and technological history in Switzerland.
Click on the image to view the complete program.
In memory of Hans-Peter Bärtschi
Hans-Peter Bärtschi, the great pioneer of Swiss industrial culture and technological history, died on February 2, 2022, at the age of 72, from the long-term effects of a bicycle accident. The VINTES board of directors extends its heartfelt condolences to his wife.
Bärtschi made an invaluable contribution to Switzerland’s industrial heritage. He helped to ensure, and often initiated, the research, preservation, and public accessibility of countless monuments to industrial culture. To ensure broad support for their preservation, he promoted the establishment of associations dedicated to maintaining the facilities and disseminating knowledge about industrial heritage. The website www.industriekultur.ch, which he initiated, contains a comprehensive inventory of architectural heritage. In addition, Bärtschi photographed industrial companies and their employees from 1965 to 2005.
Without Bärtschi’s visionary initiative and the associated public awareness campaign, the highly significant cultural heritage of our industry would have remained unnoticed and voiceless.
Thank you, Hans-Peter Bärtschi, for what you have done to preserve these cultural assets. Your initiatives have been and continue to be an incentive and an obligation to devote ourselves further to preservation, research, and communication.
Film contributions on the theme of the 2020 VINTES conference: Industrial culture retold.
VINTES organized the 2000 annual conference in cooperation with the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau and the Museum Aargau. Because this could not take place, the Museum Aargau thankfully produced three short films:
1. Arousing emotions
2. Effective communication with the public
3. Challenges and perspectives
Angela Dettling (Head of Communication, Museum Aargau) and Regula Wyss (mmwyss) interviewed Luisa Bertolaccini (Historical Museum Olten), Kilian T. Elsasser (Gotthard Tunnel Village Göschenen tour), Fabio Rudolf (IndustrieKULTOUR am Aabach) and Mila Trombitas (Co-Director NIKE).
1. Arousing emotions
2. Effective communication with the public
3. Challenges and perspectives
VINTES Annual Conference: History of Technology and Tourism
19 june 2021, Neuenburg
Switzerland has a rich heritage of mobile and immobile witnesses to over 200 years of industrial development. Many of these objects and places can be visited as tourist attractions. What makes cultural assets related to the history of technology attractive for tourism? What do visitors need in order to come? What questions does tourism management ask itself? How can museums and private institutions make the industrial heritage they maintain attractive for tourism? Our 2021 annual conference is dedicated to these and similar questions.
Click on the image to view the complete program.
A flight over Switzerland's industrial landscapes (1918-1933)
Swiss aviation pioneer Walter Mittelholzer photographed Switzerland from the air between 1918 and 1933. Take a look at some of the spectacular photos in the video.
Under the topic of volunteer work.
Under the theme of volunteer work, opportunities, and limitations, the 4th annual conference and general meeting of VINTES took place on April 27, 2019, at the Musikcontainer Uster. The slides from the conference can be found below:
