Laufende Projekte

This 4-year SNF project (9.2026 – 8.2030) led by Dr. Pierre Eichenberger (Université de Lausanne) and Prof. Dr. Matthieu Leimgruber (Université de Zurich) investigates the history of public relations campaigns organized by business associations.

The project focuses on the Swiss Wirtschaftsförderung (WF/SDES), founded in 1942 to coordinate business propaganda and channel funds into direct democracy and election campaigns. We use the WF case to analyze how business organizations intervened in politics over decades, funding and coordinating direct democracy campaigns, funding press agencies, and producing press articles, radio programs, television programs and industrial films. Its extensive archives, covering 1942–2000, offer unparalleled opportunities to study the long-term interplay between corporate money, media formats, and democratic politics.

For more information, see project webpage

2021-2028: UZH URPP «Equality of Opportunity»
Leitung: Matthieu Leimgruber (Zürich)
Team: Dr, Blaise Truong-Loï (2026-2028), Nicolas Bauer (2025-2028), Niclas Stark (2025-2026). Alumni: Dr. Geoffroy Legentillhomme (2021-2026), Lukas Horrer (2021),

In the media: Yves Demuth: Geld-Eliten. Wer viel hat, hats von den Eltern, in: Beobachter 17/2023 (August) (PDF, 2 MB)

Our project explores the long-term dynamics of wealth concentration at the higher end of the social strata in various Swiss settings. Using historical tax registers as well as more recent rankings of wealthy individuals/families, we aim to analyze the changing and interconnected roles of inheritance, family and kinship networks, and entrepreneurship in the dynamics of wealth accumulation and concentration.
Starting with a detailed study of the Zurich 0.1% wealthiest taxpayers during the first half of the 20th century, this project will also address issues linked to tax competition within Switzerland and the country’s role as a platform for wealthy foreign individuals.
The project aims to both gather data on wealth concentration in long-term perspective and develop a quantitative/qualitative assessment of this data. As there has been yet very little research on high incomes/wealth in Switzerland using historical methods, we expect to contribute to a better understanding of the changing structure of the higher social echelons of one of the world’s wealthiest industrialized societies.
This research is closely related to the SNF SINERGIA Project «Local power structures».

2016- , Universitäten Zürich, Lausanne, und Genf. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte
Leitung: Prof. Dr. Matthieu Leimgruber, Prof. Dr. Thomas David (Lausanne)
Team: Dr. Joel Floris, (2020-), Joanna Haupt (2019-), Martin Kohler (Genf, 2016-18), Dr. Christian Stohr (2016-18)

https://hsso.ch/

Im Rahmen dieses Projekts wurde eine neue, revidierte, und erweiterte Webseite für die Historische Statistik der Schweiz vorbereitet.