Dr. Gottfried Boesch

So there were two exhibitions in the castle almost from the beginning, namely a local history on the living culture of the former owners and the hunting museum, which initially, in keeping with the spirit of the times, mainly comprised trophies and hunting equipment.

At the same time, on 26 May 1956, the"Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Schweizerischen Museums für Jagd und Wildschutz und seiner Bestrebungen" (the society to promote the Swiss museum for hunting and wildlife and its efforts) was founded in Gelfingen in the canton of Lucerne. In its articles of association the organisation states:

The purpose of the society is: To develop the Swiss Museum for Hunting and Wildlife in order to increase respect for creation in its entirety, to promote an understanding of hunting in accordance with its code of ethics, to train hunters, to provide opportunities to hold courses for hunting bodies, to promote the breeding and training of working dogs and to manage the conflicts between agriculture, forestry and hunting. In addition, temporary exhibitions were to be organised and accompanied by demonstrations, presentations and publications.

The organisation had set itself ambitious goals and it made progress very quickly. It acquired the "Laroche collection", a very comprehensive and valuable collection of French hunting weapons and equipment from the 17th century and a whole series of hunting trophies from different sources. Then it held an exhibition on the natural repopulation of the red deer in Switzerland since the beginning of the 20th century. The rooms allocated to the museum gradually became occupied with exhibits. Unfortunately the number of paying visitors to Heidegg Castle did not grow in the same way. Visitor levels did not meet expectations, in particular the expectations of the curator. The organisation naturally wanted to expand the hunting museum, but the curator was not prepared to give over additional rooms to hunting, because he was planning to hold local history exhibitions there. This is how an initially positive collaboration became a growing dispute and then a struggle for the limited space available at the castle.

Although there were already forestry institutes in Germany before the Second World War that focused on research into native wildlife, this field only really began to develop from the 1950s onwards. Institutes were soon established at the universities in Göttingen, Giessen, Munich and Vienna, where in-depth research into wildlife was carried out. These were followed by institutes at universities in Basel, Zurich, Neuenburg, Lausanne and Berne.

Why was this development of such great importance? Because the results of the research very quickly began to have an impact on hunting practice and legislation. At the same time, the interest of the broader public in native wildlife started to grow. It was clear to the members of the organisation that alongside trophies and hunting equipment, a Swiss museum of nationwide importance would have to include exhibitions on huntable and protected wildlife living in our region, which covered their behaviour, way of life, eating habits and habitats. However, there was not enough room at Heidegg Castle for this and the directors of the society became increasingly frustrated. They began to look for alternative locations. Among other things, this was reflected in the increasing number of Bernese representatives on the board. Members of "Der Silberne Bruch" played an active role, including the later presidents of the organisation, Hans Baumann from Thun and Erwin Lüscher from Ortsschwaben 

Erwin Lüscher and Hans Baumann

as well as the wildlife biologist and later director of Dählhölzli Zoo in Berne, Dr. Hanner Sägesser. All of these men had a very good network of contacts, which included Berne's cantonal government, the municipality of Berne and the Natural History Museum of Berne.

They were confident that a suitable location could be found for the museum within the canton of Berne. However, this time they wanted to be sure that the museum was curated professionally. The intention was for the Natural History Museum of Berne to fulfil this role. Finally an ideal, highly picturesque and historical location was found for the museum in the form of the Landshut Castle in Utzenstorf, the only moated castle in the canton of Berne. An agreement on the use of the castle was negotiated with the canton of Berne, which owned the property.

The new museum at Landshut Castle was formally opened in 1968. The collection of hunting weapons and equipment was transferred from the old museum. A new exhibition about native wildlife was added. This was later complemented by a presentation on falconry and a collection of hunting horns donated by Werner Flachs. The zoologist Dr Peter Lüps (picture 4) was appointed as the new curator of the museum. He was also the head of the vertebrates department at the Natural History Museum of Berne. This ensured that the staff at the museum had the necessary expertise in wildlife biology and in designing exhibitions.

Dr. Peter Lüps

In the 1990s a comprehensive renovation of the museum took place. At the initiative of the Natural History Museum and with the collaboration of the museum board, which consisted of members of our organisation, the directorate of the Natural History Museum and the municipality of Berne, a concept for renovating and modernising the exhibition at the castle was developed. In 1997 under the leadership of our organisation – in particular vice president Kurt Müller (picture 5) – he will be discussed in more detail later in the article – a major fundraising campaign was held among the Swiss hunting community, the Swiss Federation and the cantons, which was very successful. A donation of CHF 600,000.00 was made to the Natural History Museum for the new exhibition, which opened in 1999 and has remained almost unchanged since then. In addition, every year or sometimes every two years special exhibitions have been arranged on different current topics.

Kurt Müller

More than 10,000 people now visit the museum every year. In the course of these activities the name of our organisation was changed to "Gesellschaft Schweizerisches Museum für Wild und Jagd Schloss Landshut" (Swiss Museum of Wildlife and Hunting Society at Landshut Castle).

Following Peter Lüps' retirement, the permanent exhibition and the special exhibitions will continue to be professionally managed by Andreas Ryser of the Natural History Museum of Berne.