"The visitor to the National Exhibition met with the E.T.H. signet in nearly all halls," it says in the ETH Annual Report 1938/39. "To summarise it can be said that E.T.H. and its teaching staff willingly, and to an exceptional degree and in multifarious ways, contributed to the great work of the exhibition." Indeed, ETH was strikingly active and omnipresent at the National Exhibition 39 (LA 39), the fourth such to be organised in Switzerland, which took place from May to October 1939 along the shores of Lake Zurich, and which entered the collective conscience as a professionally produced and medialised experience.

On the one hand, ETH was represented "as a whole" in the university pavilion where, under the motto of "We teach, we research, we construct" it presented itself to the public using graphs, models and machines relating to the "fundamental activities of a university".

Omnipresent ETH

On the other hand, individual institutes and laboratories were represented in almost all sections of the thematically organised pavilion landscape. Prominent among these were patriotically charged exhibits, such as the geological-tectonic relief model of the whole of Switzerland from the workshop of ETH Professor Eduard Imhof, intended to intensify the visitor's national spirit further encouraged by the unifying symbolism of the elevated path connecting the different pavilions. furthermore the federal research stronghold ETH made a strong impression, above all, with a series of technical sensations. For example, with the "Tensator", one of the first particle accelerators in Europe, constructed on the plans of Paul Scherrer, with the avant-garde "TV broadcasting apparatus" from the Institute for High Frequency Technology or the model from the engineer Professor Kurt Wiesinger of an "ultra-speed train", guaranteed not to run off the rails in the "Hall of Rail Transport".

The omnipresence of ETH at the LA 39, for which the federal government had granted 260,000 CHF, was a great leap from the very limited presence of institutes at the previous National Exhibition.

Women in national costume and Coray chairs

It is tempting to portray the incorporation of individual institutes and lecturers into the nationally dominated concept as a conscientious performance of services to the "Vaterland". With the so-called "cultural message", the Swiss Federal Government had published a position paper for the first time in Switzerland's history at the end of 1938 that explicitly set out the "organisation and duties of Swiss cultural preservation and cultural publicity". Under the penmanship of the catholic-conservative councillor, Philipp Etter, the published propaganda concept saw a modern exhibition as one of the most important "tools to influence public perception".

.

ETH assisted with the fun technology: The "Schifflibach" at the Exhibition 39 en route through one of the spectacular industry pavilions. (Picture from: K. Angst/A. Cattani (eds); In: "Die Landi: vor 50 Jahren in Zürich. Erinnerungen, Dokumente, Betrachtungen". Stäfa 1989.) large

That the LA 39 developed into a pilot study for the realisation of the idea of "Geistige Landesverteidigung" (an "intellectual/moral national defence policy) goes without saying. From this point of view it is easy to deduce the successful coming together of traditional and modern elements, which ranged from women in national costume to Coray chairs, and from firmly established flag-waving processions to avant-garde fashion pavilions.

"Human standard architecture"

That such conflictive symbolic values came together in a more or less homogeneous synthesis was not least due to the mechanization and the focusing on aesthetical values of the exhibition. The light weight construction used for the pavilions, evoking an "anti-heroic" and "modern Swiss" architecture, lent the patriotic celebration a light-hearted atmosphere and was the reason for repeated reports of an impression of "uniformity".

ETH was pleased to associate itself with the so-called "architecture of human standards", seen as a contrast to the nationalistic "monumentalism" of the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. The two principal people responsible for the LA 39, both certified architects, were honoured for their contribution to the symbol-laden event. Director Armin Meili received an honorary doctorate from ETH Zurich; head architect Hans Hofmann was called to a Chair of the Department of Architecture.

In the service of national unity

ETH was also actively involved in the engineering of the fun rides, sightseeing and transport techniques, which had begun to leave their mark on all national and international exhibitions towards the end of the 19th century. The "Schifflibach“ (cf. picture), an artificial sightseeing canal that wound its way through the site of the exhibition, for example, was designed and developed by the ETH Laboratory of Hydraulics and subsequently tested on a model.

"The scientific spirit of collaboration, objective discussions, the never-ending search for truth and right,"– the patriotic message of ETH, whose correspondent Professor Paul Niggli deemed as being worthily represented at the LA 39–was effectively conveyed, not least, by an ETH supported infrastructure. With its scenographic effort the elite federal institution had once more succeeded in fulfilling its engagement towards the creation of a homogenising national infrastructure.