Nachruf auf Professor Walther Hofer

Mit Betroffenheit hat die Forschungsgruppe der DDS vom kürzlichen Tod von Prof. Dr. em. Walther Hofer erfahren. Durch seine Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus und des Zweiten Weltkriegs fand der Ordinarius für Neuere Allgemeine Geschichte an der Universität Bern weit über die Landesgrenzen hinaus Beachtung und Anerkennung.
Dodis 1.6 online!

The research group has come one step further in its continual updating of the Dodis database. Dodis 1.6 features a simplified 'search mask' as well as clearer and more precise entries to the database. In an effort to refine the look of Dodis, an icon for persons, organizations and geographical terms has been added: where already possible, a photo illustrates the names of figures of Swiss diplomacy
Dodis goes Social Media

«Swiss Academia goes Social Media» is a project of Swissnex San Francisco. It aims to encourage the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter in Swiss universities and research centres. Within the context of this two-year project, a variety of online seminars, workshops and study trips to the Silicon Valley were organised
Hommage au Professeur Jean-Claude Favez

Le groupe de recherche des DDS rend un hommage reconnaissant au Professeur Jean-Claude Favez qui vient de décéder après une longue maladie. Professeur à l’Université de Genève de 1969 à 2000, Jean-Claude Favez est l’auteur de nombreuses publications, notamment sur l’histoire de la politique extérieure suisse, sur le CICR et d’autres aspects essentiels de l’histoire contemporaine.
International Conference and Website

Switzerland will host the 2013 International Conference of Editors of Diplomatic Documents, which will take place in Geneva from 1st to 4th October 2013. The network was founded 25 years ago and every two years since then has organised an international meeting. These conferences have previously taken place in locations such as London, Washington, Canberra and Jerusalem.
And now a Dodis iPhone app!
The Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland’s brand new official app allows you to access the database wherever and whenever you like. Available in four languages, the Dodis app enables a direct access both to the database and to the e-book series «Quaderni di Dodis», whilst also keeping you up to date with the DDS’s news and activities. It is the first iPhone app in Switzerland to have been produced by a research project in contemporary history. What’s more, you can download it for free. The DDS hope you’ll enjoy it!
Swiss Foreign Policy, 1967–1969: New Volume Out Now!

For the most part, Felix Schnyder was happy with his work in Washington. «In an otherwise excellent relationship between Switzerland and the U.S., the only problem to cause unfriendly and critical remarks is the business of Swiss banks under the banner of our bank secrecy», the Swiss ambassador reported to Berne in December 1967.
Bank Secrecy as a Political Issue
Dodis provides «quick responses»

The QR-Code («Quick Response») is globally on the rise. In Switzerland, the square, two-dimensional matrix consisting of black and white dots has become an increasingly frequent sight in logistics, the media and advertisments. Joining this trend, the Dodis-documents are now tagged with QR-Codes.
The cameras of mobile phones or computers can read and identify these codes on the documents and thereby provide direct acces to the corresponding online record on Dodis. The record holds all relevant information on the respective document: Source and analysis are thus directly linked!
Schweizer Aussenpolitik 1964 bis 1966 - der neue Band ist da!

In den repräsentativen Räumlichkeiten seiner Residenz in Moskau unterhielt sich der schweizerische Botschafter, August R. Lindt, im Dezember 1966 mit seinem nordkoreanischen Amtskollegen. «Ich empfing heute Botschafter Kim Ben Dik», schrieb Lindt nach Bern: «Er betrachtete sinnend das Glas Kirsch, das ich ihm kredenzt hatte, und sagte: ‹Dieses Getränk ist eben so rein und kristallklar wie die schweizerische Politik›» (Dok. 184, dodis.ch/31369).
«Heuchlerische Haltung der Schweiz»
Dodis Plug-in for Firefox

We are constantly working on adjustments and innovations which facilitate the use of our resources. If you are using the browser Firefox, you can now install the Dodis-Plug-in. Go to our database and choose "Dodis Document Search" in the Firefox search field at the top right corner of the window. Now you can easily search Dodis through your browser window.
Dodis 1.5 is online!

An important milestone in the renewal of Dodis has been reached: from today the new version with its improved design and a more powerful database is online. We invite you to discover some of the following innovations:
Die Schweiz und das Jahr Afrikas 1960
Mit der Fussball-WM in Südafrika richten sich in diesen Tagen alle Augen der Welt auf Afrika. So auch vor 50 Jahren, als 1960 als das Jahr Afrikas in die Geschichte einging. 17 afrikanische Länder erlangten damals die Unabhängigkeit.
Direct access to the sources in dodis.ch
The database Dodis now offers direct access to its content. Each entity in Dodis (documents, persons, organizations or geographic names) has a permalink (What is this?) allowing direct access to the information needed – with just one click, avoiding the ‘search-mask’. Thus, users have an efficient and quick instrument at their disposal, which also simplifies quoting sources from dodis.ch in their researches.
60 Jahre Schweiz-China
Vor 60 Jahren, am 17. Januar 1950, anerkannte die Schweiz als einer der ersten westlichen Staaten die Volksrepublik China.
50 Jahre EFTA
Vor 50 Jahren, am 4. Januar 1960, wurde durch die Unterzeichnung der Stockholmer Konvention die Europäische Freihandelsassoziation (EFTA) gegründet.
Jean-François Bergier dies
On Thursday, October 29 2009, Jean-Fraçois Bergier has died at the age of 77. The historian, who specialized in economic and social history, was particularly known in connection with the independent commission of experts Switzerland – Second World War (ICE) which he chaired from 1996 until 2001. The professor in history at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich had been a member of the commission for the publication of the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (DDS) from 1979 until 1999.
Band 22 is here!
Band 22 ist die neueste Publikation mit Dokumenten zu den internationalen Beziehungen der Schweiz zwischen 1961-1963 und wird an der Pressekonferenz am 27. August 2009 im Medienzentrum des Bundeshauses vorgestellt.
The first series of DDS (1848-1945) is online!
The volumes 1-15 of DDS are accessible on the website of the official publications (run by the Swiss Federal Archives). They cover documents from 1848 to 1945. This corresponds to approximately 7000 documents on approximately 18'000 sides.
Press conference: Presentation volume 21 of the DDS edition and of the database Dodis
Monday, March 26th, 2007, 11.00-12.00, Federal Palace Media Center, Bundesgasse 8, Berne.
DDS at the first Swiss Congress of Historical Sciences
March, 15th-17th, 17.30-18.00, Room 115
«Präsentation der neuen Datenbank Dodis der DDS»
March, 17th, 9.00-11.30 Uhr, Room 106
«Die schweizerische Aussenpolitik: Beständigkeit, Brüche und Herausforderungen 1945-1964»
Jeweils im Hauptgebäude Universität Bern, Hochschulstrasse 4, 3012 Bern
Schweizer Aussenpolitik in Bildern

Wir haben die beliebte Rubrik mit Standbildern aus der Schweizerischen Filmwochenschau (Schweizer Filmarchiv) auf der Website ergänzt und ausgebaut: Neu zeigen insgesamt über 350 Bilder aus den Jahren 1945 bis 1973 verschiedenste Facetten der Schweizer Aussenpolitik.
