Inscription of Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s and Ella Maillart’s literary and photographic estates in the UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ International Register

Federal Office of Culture, Bern, 11 April 2025

The Executive Board of UNESCO in Paris has approved the inclusion of the estates of Swiss writers Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) and Ella Maillart (1903-1997) in the « Memory of the World » Register. This distinction pays tribute to two pioneers of the travel journal. Preserved at the Bibliothèque de Genève, the Photo Elysée museum in Lausanne and the Swiss Literary Archives of the Swiss National Library in Bern, these archives bear witness to their artistic and critical views of the major conflicts of the 20th century, which are so strikingly relevant today.

The application ‘Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart: two women's views of the world’ was submitted in autumn 2023 by the Swiss National Library, the Bibliothèque de Genève and Photo Elysée. The ‘Memory of the World’ programme was created in 1992, following the deliberate destruction of the national library in Sarajevo. It’s aim is to preserve the world's heritage for future generations and to make it accessible to as many people as possible. The inclusion of the Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart collections is all the more remarkable given that only eight Swiss entries have been made in the 33 years of the programme's existence. It should be noted that the inscription in the Memory of the World International Register represents the highest level of protection available for cultural property.

Two women’s perspectives on the world

In the 1930s, Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart played a major role in turning the travel journal - a field previously dominated by men - into a veritable literary and visual genre written by women. Their expeditions to remote regions of the world, conducted with complete financial and technical autonomy, and their reports on the lives of women in developing countries, are remarkable examples of what was possible at the time. Their joint trip to Afghanistan in 1939, at the heart of their artistic heritage, left an indelible mark on people's minds and was widely covered by the media. The literary and photographic work of these two non-conformist travellers has since established itself as a benchmark in the Swiss artistic landscape, and enjoys cult status far beyond the country's borders.

Today, three institutions preserve the traces of their extraordinary careers and their unique view of a changing world: the Annemarie Schwarzenbach collection at the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern, which includes her literary works, correspondence, over 3,500 photographs and 2,000 negatives; the Ella Maillart archive at the Bibliothèque de Genève, which contains all her literary works and articles published in the press, as well as almost 6,000 letters exchanged with her parents and personalities, representing a total of 10 linear metres of archives; as well as the Ella Maillart photographic collection held by the Photo Elysée museum, which contains 48 ‘cartothèque’ boxes containing 10,000 cards with original prints, 1,000 original prints, 23,700 negatives, 35 albums, 4 films, slides and other archive documents.