Historian uncovers 4,500 forgotten objects in Grenchen museum

Historian Bettina Kurz has catalogued 4,500 previously unidentified objects stored in the cellar of the Museum Grenchen, uncovering items ranging from a spy camera to a child’s diary, SRF reports.

Kurz began sorting through the collection two and a half years ago. She photographed and researched the objects, documented them digitally and moved them to a new storage depot. The collection includes a xylophone, carnival badges, a police helmet, coffee-cream lid collections, children’s drawings, an old insulin pump and a Christmas nativity scene.

A miniature camera and a gift from Africa

Among the finds was a Tessina, a spy camera that went on sale in 1960 and was then the world’s smallest 35-millimetre camera. About the size of a cigarette packet, it was made in Grenchen by Siegrist & Cie., a company that mainly supplied parts to the watch industry. Its inventor, engineer Rudolf Steineck, lived in Ticino, which inspired the camera’s name.

Kurz said the camera was a celebrated example of Grenchen’s precision engineering. She also said intelligence services from almost every country used the Tessina for espionage during the Cold War.

Another object was a wooden chief’s stool given to medical technology company Mathys in Bettlach as a thank-you for a delivery to Africa. Kurz said the company sold or donated joint implants and surgical kits there, and received gifts in return. Over time, it built up a collection of African objects.

A child’s account of life in Grenchen

Kurz’s favourite find was a diary written by Heidi Strub between 1938 and 1940, when she was nine to 11 years old. It describes local events such as a children’s festival, a children’s ball and work examinations. Strub also wrote about visiting the national exhibition in Zurich and how the outbreak of the Second World War affected her life in Grenchen.

Johannes Sauter of the Swiss Museums Association said many museums had not fully documented or digitised their collections, partly because the work requires significant time and money. Without proper records, he warned, both access to objects and knowledge of their stories can be lost.

A foundation funded Kurz’s work, which has now ended. The Museum Grenchen’s cellar collection has been documented and moved into secure storage.