Vom Ereignis zur Ikone

Images can develop a life of their own and become icons – just like Theo Frey's photograph of the Rütli Report from July 25, 1940. Although the report itself is still considered a central event in Swiss contemporary history, the story of the image has been surprisingly under-researched. This is where the book comes in: it examines how Frey's photograph has moved through various hands, archives, newspapers, textbooks, museums, and databases over the decades. It also shows how the significance of the image has multiplied over the past eighty years – and how it became a central reference point in Swiss cultural history and one of the most well-known photographs in Switzerland.