Swiss Mythos
The legend, then the real story. Wilhelm Tell, the cuckoo clock, the inventions, the history: light, a little funny, and every fact checked against Swiss sources.
Swiss Mythos
- Switzerland's Whole Story in 23 Minutes The best quick history of Switzerland we have found, from the Helvetii to the Red Cross, in one video. Watch it, then read five things worth knowing that it skips or tells a little too neatly.
- Wilhelm Tell: The Legend, and What Historians Actually Know The apple, the crossbow, the hat on the pole: every Swiss child knows the story. Here is where it really comes from, why historians doubt Tell ever lived, and who is actually on your five-franc coin.
- The Cuckoo Clock Is Not Swiss, and Orson Welles Found Out Too Late One improvised line in a 1949 film made the cuckoo clock a Swiss joke. The clock comes from Germany's Black Forest, the joke is older than the film, and even Welles's correction got the map wrong.
- Six Swiss Inventions and the Surprising Stories Behind Them A dog covered in burrs, a spilled glass of red wine, a chemist on a bicycle and a physicist who wanted to share his files. How Velcro, milk chocolate, cellophane, the Swiss Army knife, LSD and the web came out of Switzerland, more or less.