Historical Dictionary of Switzerland

The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (German: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, HLS; French: Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, DHS; Italian: Dizionario storico della Svizzera, DSS) is a scholarly, freely accessible online encyclopedia covering the history of Switzerland from prehistory to the present. ^[1:1] It is published simultaneously in three of Switzerland's national languages — German, French, and Italian — with a separate partial edition in Romansh, making it the only encyclopedia in the world produced concurrently in four languages. ^[1:1] The print edition, completed in 2014, comprised thirteen volumes and around 36,000 articles. Since the conclusion of the print run, the encyclopedia has been maintained and expanded exclusively as an online resource.

The project is governed by the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften, SAGW/ASSH) and the Swiss Historical Society (Schweizerische Geschichtforschende Gesellschaft, SGG-SHH), and is financed through national research grants. ^[2:1] All article text produced for the HDS is published under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. ^[1:2]

Background

The tradition of Swiss historical lexicography stretches back to the fifteenth century. Diebold Schilling the Elder's illustrated chronicles were followed by Aegidius Tschudi's Chronicon Helveticum (1569), which compiled around a thousand documents. In the eighteenth century, Zurich banker and politician Johann Jacob Leu produced the twenty-volume Allgemeines Helvetisches, Eydgenössisches, Oder Schweitzerisches Lexicon (1747–1765). Later dictionaries included Markus Lutz's Dictionnaire géographique et statistique de la Suisse.

The most recent predecessor to the HDS was the Dictionnaire historique et biographique de la Suisse (DHBS), edited by Victor Attinger of Neuchâtel and published in seven volumes between 1921 and 1934. The DHBS was a financial failure — attributed largely to inadequate editorial supervision of authors recruited through cantonal archivists — and ultimately caused the bankruptcy of its publishing company. This outcome dampened enthusiasm for a successor project for decades, deterring publishers and historians from attempting a new national dictionary.

History

Renewed efforts to create a successor dictionary began in the early 1980s. In 1983, the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences commissioned two professors — Carl Pfaff of the University of Fribourg and Alain Dubois of the University of Lausanne — along with the archivist of the Canton of Lucerne, to initiate the project. The Swiss Historical Society soon lent its support.

In 1987, the Federal Assembly approved funding for the HDS as part of the broader program of events marking the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation in 1991, which also included the publication of the six-volume Schweizer Lexikon. The following year, the Foundation Historical Dictionary of Switzerland was established with a dual mandate: to produce a multi-volume scholarly dictionary accessible to a wide audience, and to publish it simultaneously as an electronic database.

The online edition launched before the print volumes, a deliberate reversal of the originally planned sequence. An internal prototype went live in August 1997, and on September 4, 1998, the first 8,000 articles — equivalent to three volumes — were presented to the media in Berne in all three languages. The Foundation Board had decided in autumn 1997 that making content available quickly online took priority over maintaining alphabetical order in print.

Work on the print edition resumed after the website launch. A new publishing contract was signed with the Schwabe publishing house on June 14, 1999, following the departure of two of the original three publishers. A 500,000-franc Federal Council subsidy covered the printing costs of the first ten volumes. The first print volume was officially presented on October 31, 2002, at a ceremony at the Swiss National Library presided over by Foundation President Jean Guinand and Federal Councillor Ruth Dreifuss. Subsequent volumes appeared at a rate of approximately one per year, each released in autumn, until the thirteenth and final volume was completed in 2014.

On January 1, 2017, the Foundation Historical Dictionary of Switzerland formally concluded its work and transferred responsibility for the encyclopedia to the ASSH.

Scope and content

The HDS covers the history of what is now Switzerland from the Palaeolithic period to the present. Non-Swiss events are included only where they had a direct and significant impact on Swiss history. Articles vary in length by topic and are organized into four categories:

The encyclopedic coverage is uneven across historical periods by design, reflecting the availability of source material. Articles on the Palaeolithic through the Early Middle Ages account for around 10% of the total, while the period from World War I to the end of the twentieth century accounts for around 20%.

The editorial philosophy is oriented toward histoire totale — an integrative approach to history that brings together political, economic, social, cultural, and transnational dimensions rather than treating them in isolation.

Languages and editions

The main dictionary is published simultaneously in three of Switzerland's national languages. The German edition is titled Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS) and was published by Schwabe; the French edition, Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse (DHS), by Gilles Attinger in Hauterive; and the Italian edition, Dizionario storico della Svizzera (DSS), by Armando Dadò in Locarno. Articles are typically authored in one language and then translated into the other two by a team of specialized translators working closely with the scientific editorial staff.

A separate, reduced edition in Romansh — the Lexicon istoric retic (LIR) — was published in parallel with the main dictionary. The LIR constitutes the first specialist historical dictionary in Rhaeto-Romance Switzerland. It covers selected content from the main dictionary alongside original entries focused on Graubünden's regional history and culture, and is available both in print (two volumes) and online (e-LIR). The e-LIR website has been online since 2004.

Organization

During the production phase, the HDS was organized into four language departments, an iconography department, an IT department, and an administrative department. The editorial body comprised approximately 40 foundation employees based at offices in Berne, Bellinzona, and Chur, supported by a large freelance network: around 2,500 authors, 100 academic advisors attached to Swiss and foreign universities and archives, and 75 translators. ^[2:1] Marco Jorio served as editor-in-chief from 1988 to 2014.

The Foundation Board, which governed the organization, held a maximum of thirteen members appointed by the Swiss Historical Society, the ASSH, and other stakeholders. Its presidents were Georges-André Chevallaz (1988–1992), Ernst Rüesch (1993–1996), Jean Guinand (1997–2004), Peter Schmid (2005–2010), and Martine Brunschwig Graf (2011–2016).

Online platform

The HDS has been freely accessible online since its 1998 launch, without registration or paywalls. The original website was updated every four weeks and was, by design, text-focused and without illustrations.

In 2017, the HDS chose XWiki — an open-source wiki platform — as the basis for a rebuilt editorial and publishing system, replacing a proprietary platform that had been in use for approximately 15 years. The new production platform went live in 2018 and the redesigned public website in 2019. ^[3:1] The platform supports multilingual content management, role-based editorial access, article versioning, and integration with Jira for workflow tracking. The migration was framed explicitly as a strategic commitment to open-source infrastructure, reducing dependence on proprietary vendors and aligning with the publicly funded nature of the project. ^[3:1]

Articles in the online edition continue to be updated and expanded in line with new research, beyond the fixed content of the 2014 print edition.