Hardly anyone has shaped the development of modern Switzerland as much as Alfred Escher, the business leader and politician from Zurich (1819-1882). He created synergies between politics, the railway network, the financial sector and the education system, and helped the emergent federal state to achieve a significant upturn. An outstanding editorial project concerning Escher is set to be completed mid-way through the year: All of his 5,000 or so letters are being digitised, transcribed and made available online. Lots of manuscripts and libraries are being digitised today but not always to this high quality standard. The digital edition of the Escher letters provides easy access to the documents via various paths. This is not just of great value to research but also of benefit to the general public with an interest in the subject. The navigation is clearly laid out, and contexts and historical comments can be displayed. The Alfred Escher Foundation is behind the project, and the historian Prof. Dr. Joseph Jung, who was chief historian at Credit Suisse for many years and Escher’s biographer, is the publisher and research director.
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