Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In 1923, in a hundred-page report published simultaneously in French and German, supported by numerous statistical tables, Dr Hubert Jaeger, a venereologist in Zurich, presented the results of a major national survey on venereal disease in Switzerland conducted between 1920 and 1921. In his introductory remarks, he proudly proclaimed that this survey “is, of all the similar surveys undertaken in the various countries of the continent and overseas, the one which, in its scope, duration, and the method in which it was conducted, can now be considered the most complete and accurate.” This article addresses the issue of venereal disease history from the angle of the production of figures and the emergence of statistics as a basis for understanding the “venereal peril” in French-speaking Switzerland. Prior to the 1920–1921 survey, statistics on venereal disease in Switzerland were mainly drawn from the registers of local institutions, without being summarized in such a way as to provide a general picture of the issue. Venereal disease estimates were made on a small scale or based on individual initiatives. The 1920–1921 survey was intended to remedy this fragmented situation. We look at how the campaign was perceived by those involved in its implementation, and how the results of the national survey were commented on, used, or ignored at the level of French-speaking Swiss cantons. Were the statistics on venereal disease in Switzerland alarming at the end of the First World War? Were they in line with the figures used in health propaganda? And was the 1920–1921 survey the source of a long-term change in Swiss epidemiological culture around venereal disease?
DOI: 10.3917/adh.148.0047
Authors: Guillaume Linte, Alexandre Wenger
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4411010868