The Berner Alpenbahn Gesellschaft - Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon, new book from author Dr Peter Christen

In 1906 the Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft Bern-Loetschberg-Simplon was founded with the purpose of building the second Swiss railway line through the Alps between the cantons Berne and Valais through the Loetschberg mountain. Today it runs under the name BLS and is the largest private railway in Switzerland.

This year, the scripophily public welcomed Dr. Peter Christen’s new book on the Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon Railway. More than reason enough to have a talk with the author! 

FL Welcome Peter in this virtual studio. We are honoured to have you here. Let’s start from the beginning. How did you become interested in scripophily? 

PC Thank you. My “scripophily career” started at Christmas 1980. I can remember very well. I then was a first-year student at the University of Geneva. At the train station on my way to Christmas visit home I bought a financial newspaper … and out fell a share of the “Builder Investment Group”. It was a special Christmas present from the newspaper to its readers. I immediately fell in love with old shares and bonds.Since that day I am into scripophily.

FL Peter, what is the greatest joy you get from collecting?

PC The most fascinating thing for me is the information gathering. First, I have a share or bond in front of me and I know very little about it. Then, when I start to investigate, I find all this interesting information about its history and all its connections it is leading to.

FL Can you tell us something about yourself regarding your “scripophily career”?

PC As a collector, I am definitely not a good role model: I do not specialize in one field. I collect items that are interesting and do have significant importance in economic history. This scope makes a collection really big. However, one of my main fields is collecting railways and more than 10 years ago I published a comprehensive catalogue for Swiss Railways and have published several articles about Swiss railway companies in different media. 

 

FL Oh yes, in 2014 you won the Journalistenpreis Historische Wertpapiere und Finanzgeschichte. If I am correct, you are the president of the Swiss Collectors Association SCRIPOPHILA HELVETICA, and you’re also a partner in the auction and trading house for historical securities HIWEPA AG. Now you have published a new book, “Die Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon BLS”. Why did you choose this subject?

PC I actually have hundreds of ideas of interesting things I could write about. There is just not enough time. But this year it is different. The idea for writing this book came up in February. “Thanks” to all these Covid restrictions I was forced to stay at home and could not go to my usual spring trekking holidays in Spain. So I decided spontaneously that I would write a book.

PC Finding a theme is definitely not a problem for me. A couple of years ago I wrote a short article (see here) about the “Finanzgeschichte der BLS Lötschbergbahn – Berner Alpenbahn” for my colleagues at HIWEPA. Together with the famous “Gotthardbahn” the BLS Lötschbergbahn – Berner Alpenbahn” was the second Swiss railway through the alps and has a very interesting history.

PC I took this article as a starting base and, for a couple of weeks, I investigated further into the story of the company, with – what at least I think – super interesting and new information about this railway and all its shares and bonds.

FL Well, you made me curious. Can you tell us briefly what makes this railway so interesting? What surprised you most?

PC The Berner Alpenbahn Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon, today BLS, was and is the second railway through the Swiss Alps and a very important link between Northern Europe and Italy. Its financial history is very interesting. Actually, at the beginning, nobody in Switzerland, except the people of the canton Berne, wanted to finance this project. Berne had to look elsewhere to raise the necessary funds and these were to come from an unexpected source.

PC I personally was surprised to find out that the Berner Alpenbahn and its shares and bonds even have some connections to an assassinated French president and even to the Compagnie Générale Aéropostale and its famous pilot and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I think nobody knew about this connection until I found it. 

FL Wow, that’s sounds intriguing? Looking at the book cover we can detect a certificate in the background of the front cover. Why did you pick that particular certificate?

PC The background for the front cover is the bond of the Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft issued for building the railway. Between 1906 and 1912, the company raised money with four issues of these decorative bonds.

FL The vignette invites us to have a closer look. Does it represent a real view in Switzerland?

PC Yes, the image in the vignette shows an aerial view of the main section of the railway in the Bernese Oberland. The bond also depicts the two shields of the main cantons along the line, Berne, in the left border, and Valais, on the right. On top of the certificate, you’ll see a winged railway wheel with Mercury and the electric bolts. It represents the BLS as the first electric railway through the Alps.

FL I’m sure our readers will be interested about the book format and content. What about that?

PC The book has 148 pages and many colour images especially with details of the old shares and bonds. The book has three chapters, first, the financial history of the company and, second, the detailed images, description and background of its shares and bonds and, third, the list and images of all issued shares and bonds of the company. You also can buy the book as e-Book. 

FL Where there any special sources that you used for your research? How long did it take you then to write it?

PC I especially researched all reports from the company itself, general history and other reports about the company. Further, I am always astonished how every year the information you can get through the Internet increases. As I already have written a shorter financial history about the company the information gathering did not take too much time. It took me three to four weeks the write the book then.

FL Now, it’s time for what I believe is one of the most difficult questions a collector may answer. If you could add any certificate in the world to your collection, what would it be, and why?

PC I would love to find a share or bond with the signature of James Watt. In the collector market, all important inventions, railways, canals, cars, airplanes, etc, do have shares or certificates but there is nothing on the extremely important invention of the steam engine. So, a share with the signature of James Watt would really be a sensational find. Maybe our collector friends from the UK will make this find ... but I doubt it.

FL Peter, I want to thank you for this interview and wish you a lot of success with the book.

Die Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon BLS Finanzgeschichte und Historische Wertpapiere, by Peter Christen, is published by Books on Demand :

• ISBN: 978-3-753-40662-6
• Price: CHF 29.80

The book can be ordered with hiwepa.ch, email info@hiwepa.ch, or at most bookshops and online bookstores. An e-Book version is available as well.

FL

This post was originally written for Scripophily magazine, published by IBSS.

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• The Walkman share 
• Watermarks in scripophily - part 2 Paper manufacturers 

10 Years Wertpapierwelt

The town of Olten is only an hour's drive away from Zürich, Bern and Basel. Last summer it's Wertpapierwelt museum celebrated its tenth anniversary and surprised us with a threefold exhibition:

• The first section, Shares & Co - How financial instruments work, displays the multifaceted nature of financial instruments and their workings.
• The Story of capitalism – How shares changed the world is devoted to the origin and spread of the joint stock company throughout the last 400 years.
• The special exhibition, The networked business world – Globalization and shares, provides an impression of just how globally interconnected the economy is with the most varied areas of our lives.

Dagmar Schönig is the curator at the Wertpapierwelt museum since the very beginning. Here is an interview with her.

Images by courtesy of Wertpapierwelt

Detail from the certificate, see below, of the 
Sociedad Mineralogica de la Ciudad de Arequipa company
Engraved by Joseph Vazquez
Vazquez, an engraver from the 18th and 19th century,
was also known for his map engravings as you can see here . 

Me:

Dagmar, you are the curator of the Wertpapierwelt museum. This sounds like a dream job to some of us. 

Dagmar: 

I can imagine that the job as a curator in a museum of historical bonds and shares sounds like a dream job for any collector. However, you would run pretty quickly into a conflict of interests. That’s why the “code of ethics” of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) – which our museum is a member of – does not allow that employees of a museum are private collectors or professional dealers of objects that form the museum collection they have to work with.

Me:

Can you tell us something more about your work as a museum curator ?

Dagmar:

As the museum Wertpapierwelt is not “heavily staffed”, my job description covers a lot of different tasks:

1. I am in charge of  all aspects regarding the collection, i.e. inventory and all conservatory aspects (in case of old paper in exhibitions, mainly the light is a problem), I research historical backgrounds, make acquisitions according to the collection policy (within a given budget), and everything in between…

2. I plan exhibitions, develop the according concept, write all the texts, decide on the scenography with external exhibition builders, supervise the buildup and the production of the accompanying publications, control the costs, etc.

3. I have to run the day to day business of the museum, including providing guided tours for visitors, running marketing activities, making surveys and statistics, reporting to public authorities and  the board of the museum, etc. You see, it doesn’t get boring! 

Sociedad Mineralogica de la Ciudad de Arequipa
Share certificate, Peru 1792
part of the The Story of Capitalism exhibition section
double-click image to enlarge

Me:

Does your earlier education somehow help you in being a scripophily curator ? 

Dagmar: 

In my “previous life” I have worked for several international banks. This professional background in the banking industry certainly helps me when it comes to explain the complexity of the finance business to the broad public. You have to understand that Wertpapierwelt does not just show historical securities and says “Look! What a nice old share”, but puts them into a wider context. We have a lot of school classes and visitors who have only a very vague idea about the differences between a share and bond for example. 

Originally I studied languages and economics – but that is a very long time ago. When I got the chance to take over the project of transforming an extensive collection of historical bonds and shares into a museum, I was thrilled! History, especially economic (and technical) history, had always interested me. And the beauty of most of the papers certainly helped my inspiration. Of course, I had to learn a lot in terms of “museum work” ! But we wanted from the beginning that Wertpapierwelt was run in a professional manner, therefore I started my further education and acquired my knowledge through professional training in classes provided by the Swiss Association of Museums and others. Now, I am additionally studying for a master degree in “Applied History” at the University of Zurich.

Me:

In your opinion, what key values are essential to a curator ?

Dagmar: 

As a curator of a museum you obviously have to have a profound knowledge of your objects”! You need to be curious about every aspect of their background and be a persistent researcher. Wikipedia is not enough!

In case of acquisitions, you must also have a good judgment of what fits your collection strategy and – often more difficult – what does not. It can be hard to let a certain piece go if you personally like it, but it just doesn’t fit.

You also have to really care for your objects and do everything for their good preservation, even if it means that you cannot show them as often or in a certain way, as you actually would like to do. Especially paper is very sensitive.

For setting up exhibitions you need a certain amount of creativity, the ability to tell an interesting story (which also means that you have fun researching it first and then putting your results into easily readable writing!), and – of course – you need project management skills (which means: stay cool!). 

Chen Feng Spinning and Weaving Company
pre-communist era
part of the "special" exhibition
double-click image to enlarge

The Telecommunications History Group in the spotlight

While googling some newly arrived stocks, I incidentally tumbled into this website of the Telecommunications History Group (THG).  I was surprised by the historical content it displayed on  American telephone companies with illustrations of old stock certificates. What was this organization all about? My curiosity was aroused.  I decided to do an interview article on this, and .. well eventually I found my interviewee : Jody L. Georgeson, Executive Director of THG.

After her retirement from the telecom company U S West, Jody attended the University of Denver to receive a Masters of Library Science degree, with an emphasis on archival studies and public librarianship. A perfect lead-up for her next position at THG. One of the things I learned from her, is that THG is supported by an enthusiastic staff of volunteers.

The Zenith city Telephone Company
1899, shares of $100

You are invited to read the full interview. At the end you will find some interesting links !
Please continue.