Experience the Enter Technikwelt
Work With Us
28. August 2025
Temporary exhibition about journalism.
From April 1 to June 29, 2025, the temporary exhibition "In Search of the Truth. Us and Journalism" took place at Enter Technikwelt. The exhibition, which explores the history and craft of journalism in a playful and interactive way, attracted around 1,500 visitors over three months.
The exhibition was launched in 2020 and subsequently realized by a five-member team. Since 2023, it has been touring Switzerland, including stops at the Historical Museum Lausanne, the City Museum Aarau, and the Cultural Museum St. Gallen. The exhibition celebrated a double premiere at Enter Technikwelt: it was the first external temporary exhibition in the new museum premises in Derendingen, and it was also shown in the canton of Solothurn for the first time.
The exhibition opened with a vernissage on April 1. The date was not chosen by chance but was deliberately linked to the tradition of April Fool's Day. In the form of a preceding press release about the alleged discovery of a sunken Enigma cipher machine at the bottom of the Aare, the audience was to be sensitized to the topic of fake news and the upcoming vernissage. Although the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Solothurn, the cantonal police, and the local diving club were involved as serious partners in the hoax, both local and national newspapers refrained from reporting on it. They did not want to further undermine the credibility of the media, they explained. This stance is emblematic of the current state of the press landscape. During the opening speeches, the exhibition creators Theo Stich, Thomas Gull, and Daniel Maurer emphasized the importance of journalism in the age of disinformation and fake news. In particular, the basic media provision of information is crucial for free opinion formation and thus for a functioning democracy.
After the vernissage, the temporary exhibition was on display for three months on the second floor over an area of 200m2. Equipped with a badge, visitors could collect points at several workstations. For example, they could test their media skills through a quiz or deliberately spread false reports in an interactive game. The historical dimension of journalistic work was also repeatedly incorporated, including information boards on epochal media events such as the Fichenaffäre in the 1990s. The centerpiece of the exhibition was a reconstructed newsroom from the 1980s. Upon entering the room, visitors had a maximum of 30 minutes to examine and publish a so-called "scoop," i.e., an exclusive story. On historical devices such as a Macintosh computer, tape recorder, rotary phone, or video recorder, passwords had to be sought and clues recognized. The offer was eagerly used by the audience, and the escape room format was very well received. This interactivity of the exhibition made it particularly attractive to a young audience. It is therefore not surprising that around 20 school classes visited the exhibition.
As a technology museum with a focus on media history, Enter Technikwelt contributed its own part to the exhibition. Among other things, the history of the folk song "d Zit isch do" by the Solothurn authors Josef Reinhart and Casimir Meister was told in a showcase. The first bars of the song were recorded on a music box after a performance by Radio Studio Bern in 1926 in the Solothurn concert hall and subsequently served as an intermission signal to bridge broadcasts of Swiss radio. Especially during World War II, Radio Beromünster's identification signal was considered a quality seal for reliable news. These and other stories from Solothurn companies such as Autophon AG or the microphones of Solothurn engineer Jakob Bohli were told via audio guide in the temporary exhibition.
As part of the temporary exhibition, a panel discussion titled "Has Public Service Outlived Its Usefulness?" took place on June 12. On the same day, the National Council also debated the SRG initiative "200 Francs is Enough!", which will be voted on by the electorate in 2026. Invited to the discussion were Hans-Ulrich Bigler (co-president of the SRG initiative, former National Council member FDP/ZH, and former director of the Swiss Trade Association), Ueli Haldimann (former director of Swiss Television), and Florence Brenzikofer (co-president of the Alliance for Media Diversity and National Council member Green/BL). The latter actively participated in the parliamentary discussions on the SRG initiative on the same day and was subsequently chauffeured exclusively from the Federal Palace in Bern to Derendingen. The panel discussion was passionately debated. While Hans-Ulrich Bigler criticized the monopoly position and high costs of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG), Florence Brenzikofer pointed out the identity-forming role of a well-functioning public media service. Ueli Haldimann, for his part, emphasized the importance of high-quality journalism and warned against cuts due to budget reductions. While there was disagreement on questions of SRG's finances and service mandate, the discussion also revealed commonalities. All three guests emphasized the importance of a four-language public service by SRG and advocated for the protection of journalistic content in the face of AI programs.
The three-month exhibition showed that journalism and media history are relevant. While the large masses of museum visitors were not drawn in by the temporary exhibition, it did attract an interested audience from the fields of education, politics, and media. The participation of many school classes, the discussion event with national political figures, and the numerous reports by media professionals about the exhibition fostered a deeper engagement with the topic. Enter Technikwelt provided a valuable platform for this.
Contribution by: Dr. Felix Wirth Head of Exhibition and Mediation at Enter Technikwelt
Thank you for your interest in Enter Technikwelt Solothurn. Your information will be treated confidentially - you can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.