Foundation of the club in 1975
In the early 1970's many young English speaking people came and settled in the Baden/Brugg region of Switzerland to take up work in places such as the Paul Scherrer Institute (which was then made up of the EIR and the SIN), or at ABB (at that time Brown Boveri), often bringing their families. At that time it was unfortunately not always possible for wives to easily obtain visas for work. Apart from the good jobs, another motivation for some to come to Switzerland was the possibility for skiing, and/or mountineering.
Half a century ago the world was a very different place for expats from the UK. They were much more cut off from the homeland without access to English TV or radio (except over short waves). Even phoning home was often complicated and expensive. So when Paul Lüssi (1929-2007) floated the idea of an English club here, nearly 200 people showed an interest. In those days joining clubs was more popular than it is today!
Meetings were held in late 1974 to decide how to proced and an ad hoc commitee drew up a proposal to found a club, and organised four events for potential club members in November and December.
The foundation meeting of the club was held in the Restaurant zum Roten Turm in Baden on 10th January 1975. Nearly one hundred founder members were present. The meeting was chaired by Dennis Stephenson, president of the Federation of Anglo-Swiss Clubs (FASC). The FASC had been in existance since 1932 and was an umbrella organisation for the various clubs around the country. It organised speakers and social events such as weekends in prestigious hotels, such as the event in 2002 which celebrated 70 years of the organisation, and incidentally the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accention to the throne. The FASC ceased its activities in 2020.
At the foundation meeting the rules were proposed, and as can be read in the minutes, there was heated discussion as to the name of the fledgling club. The name “Piccadilly Club”, although sounding rather exotic didn’t reflect the true aims of the club, which was not just for British expats, but intended to encourage people of all nationalities to join who wished to converse in English, so the name was dropped in favour of “English-Speaking Club Baden/Brugg”. In fact at times over a third of the members have been Swiss nationals.
Despite emphasis on the English language, the club also aimed to help people new to this country to settle down, make new friends and become integrated in the local culture.
By January 25th, 112 people from eighteen nations had joined the club, and information about the first three events was circulated on an A4 sheet. From April 1975 however the programme was distributed in the form of the familiar A5 brochure. Originally it was a case of literally “cut and paste” until it could be produced on a computer. Since about 2012 the programme has been produced in colour.
Anniversary Celebrations
The 50th anniversary party was held on 16th July 2025 in Lenzburg.
Club members were invited for an apéro and lunch in Hotel Krone, Lenzburg.
President Andy Schmid welcomed the guests and proposed a toast to the club.
Dear members of the English-Speaking Club Baden / Brugg
I must admit, when I started to think about what I could possibly say today, I did not know how to begin. Therefore, I thought that maybe I could look at some famous speeches and use them as a model.
I looked at several possibilities:
From history: “Two score and ten years ago our founders brought forth in this area a new club, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all members shall speak English.”
… no too pretentious
From literature: “Friends, members, countrymen, lend me your ears”
…neither
From fairy tales: “Once upon a time in a small town called Baden a English-Speaking Club was founded in an ancient inn called the red tower”
… no…., although it is true that on the 10th January 1975 the first AGM of the English-Speaking Club Baden / Brugg was held at the Restaurant “Roter Turm” in Baden. So today I will take a brief look at the past, the present and the future of our club and I will also permit myself to mention some personal memories.
Past:
On 10th October 1974 an information meeting was held at the Kapellerhof Hotel where it was decided to found a club within the Federation of Anglo-Swiss Clubs. That the club should meet twice a month and a small committee was elected and charged with organising some meetings and with preparing the foundation meeting. Therefore the, then President of the Federation of Anglo-Swiss Clubs, Mr. Dennis Stephenson could welcome almost 100 founder members to the first AGM of the “English-Speaking Club Baden Brugg”, a name that was chosen after some discussion. I am happy to say that a few of those founder members are also here today.
A first Committee was elected with the following members:
Mr. Paul Lüssi President
Mr. David Stone Vice President
Mrs. Hana Löwenschuss Vice-President
Mrs. Margaret Weinmann Secretary
Mrs. Gail Panizza Membership Secretary
Mr. Jacques Degoumois Treasurer
Mr. Peter Smith Youth member
Mr. Tony Hancox Public Relations Officer
Mr. Ian Davidson Extra Member
Dr. Alan Kmetz Auditor
Ms. Marie-Adèle Kelham Auditor
Since its foundation the club organised, (more or less) two events per month. It participated in the “Musiläum” 1975 and the Badenfahrt of 1977. The club organised several events, which became traditional like the Burns Supper (the first time in 1979) the Bonfire Night, the Christmas party, or the Summer Party. In 1995 our club could celebrate its 20th anniversary in Schloss Klingnau, where the President Trevor Dury read a letter from Paul Lüssi from New Zealand who wrote about the beginnings of the club.
For those of you who are interested, there is a lot more information about the history of our club to be found on our homepage. I would like to thank our webmaster Stephen Wood for collecting the information and creating a report for the homepage.
Personal:
Having learned English at school, I always liked classical literature. Therefore, in Autumn of 2004 I decided to go to the Kurtheater in Baden to watch “Hamlet” in English. During the break I accidentally met Penny Maag, my neighbour, and she told me she was here with some members of the English-Speaking Club and asked me if I would like to come for a drink. Well, I did, I liked the company and after attending to a few events I decided to join the club. When I went to my first AGM in 2005, I had the honour of being elected to the Committee as Vice-President (though the club had no President during that year) and since 2006 I am the President of this club. I can say that during my time as President (so far) the club has always been active – except for the Corona Pandemic, when we could not organise events on a regular basis – and that the life of a president was made easy by the fact, that there was always an active committee which made it possible to split up the workload. I would therefore like to thank all past and present committee members for their support.
Present:
This year, our club already held 11 events (not including this event here):
Winter walk
AGM
Chässtübli Monika
Guided Tour at the Sammlungszentrum Egliswil
Visit to the Gugelmann Museum
Guided Tour at the Gewächshaus Sodi in Zurzach
Walk along the Hallwylersee
Asparagus Meal
Health first
Executioners Museum
Tour of the historic Market Town of Bad Zurzach
Today of course we are here for the Anniversary event. I would like to thank the members of the committee for their help but especially Valery, who did most of the work organising this event and Ron Power who created a slide show of past events of our club.
There are five more Events coming up until the end of October
Visit to the Kernkraftwerk Leibstadt
Walk along Geissenschacheninsel Brugg / Windisch
Guided Tour at the Kern Collection, Aarau
Talk on: “4 Weeks Across Southern India”
Fondue Evening Achenberg
And then our next programme will follow.
The Christmas dinner is already scheduled for 9th December 2025
So quite obviously, after 50 years, our club is still very active.
Future:
Of course, during the last 50 years our club members – including myself – have become somewhat older and certain events like e.g. walks organised by the club tend to be less popular than they used to be. In addition, the world around us has changed. It is not necessary anymore to join a club to be able to speak English or to be able to attend events in English. Also, Club memberships seem to have gone a bit out of style and so our club could not welcome many new members in the last years
Personally, I think that our club might be still have something to offer even today, e.g. for expats, who want to contact the native population or for advanced students of English who want to practise what they have learnt. But still, I am not so bold as to predict today, that our club will continue to exist for another 50 years.
However, the life and soul of a club are you all, its members. As long the members are interested in the club’s activities it will continue to exist. That half of our membership is here today is certainly a good sign. The club events are still well attended and there are always active members coming up with ideas for events and willing to support the committee. I believe that we can therefore confidently look forward to the coming years and to many interesting club events.
And therefore, I raise my glass to celebrate the past, the present and the future of the English-Speaking Club Baden / Brugg.
Lengnau, 16th July 2025
A. Schmid
After lunch, members made their way to Lenzburg castle
where we took part in a very interesting guided tour.
*****
The 25th Anniversary Party
The 25th Anniversary was celebrated on 24th June 2000 in Baden
Members were invited to the Hotel Kappelerhof, Baden, the location where the initial meetings took place to discuss the founding of the club. The hotel was demolished in 2020 to make way for apartment blocks.
*****
The 20th Anniversary Party
The 20th anniversary party was held on 13th May 1995 in Schloss Klingnau.
Clearly the most ambitious anniversary celebration the club has held, and which was reported in the local press. Illustrious guests from local politics and the British General Consul were present. The President Moira Sigut welcomed the guests and the Choir and Scottish Country Dancers from the club. Trevor Dury, president of the FASC, read a fax message from Paul Lüssi who recalled the founding of the club.
*****
The 10th Anniversary
There was no actual party, the event was just mentioned in passing on page 2 of the spring programme for 1985.
The Club and the Badenfahrt
The 2023 Badenfahrt - which was the 100 year aniversary of the event - took place between Friday 18th August and Sunday 27th August.
In 1975, soon after the founding of the club, Baden announced that an "interim" or "klein" Badenfahrt would take place under the motto "Musiläum".
It was though that it would be a golden opportunity for the new club to get some local publicity.
We built a restaurant - "The Shakespeare Pub" in the Kurpark. It was a great success.
The Badener Tagblatt reported the parade (we didn't take part in this)..
The English-Speaking Club also took part in the 1977 Badenfahrt which went under the motto "Im Wasser sind zwöi Liebe", The club built a restaurant in the form of a watermill which was constructed in the Kurpark.
The club did not take part in any subsequent Badenfahrts. The next opportunity would have been in 1982 (see programme).. Although plenty of people would have volunteered to serve drinks, nobody was willing to manage the project, which would have involved many hours if not days work.
At that time most members had not retired!
The Club and the English Carol Choir
In the early days of the club a need was felt to celebrate an English style Christmas with carol singing, especially as at that time many club members had young children!
From '76 to '79 we met in the church in Klingnau, where Silvia sang carols with the children.
In '81 we met for a "Christmas drink and sing-along" in Johnny's Pub in Brugg.
The first service of lessons and carols took place in the Reformed Church, Turgi in December 1982, conducted by the Rev. Anthony Nind of St. Andrew's Church Zürich, who also conducted the service in 1985. The English Carol Choir had been founded with Vicky Atchison as choirmistress. Coffee and mince pies were served after the service.
The carol service was reported on several times in the local press.
Since then the traditional service has been held in the Reformed Church in Nussbaumen with only one break because of the pandemic..
In 2023 we celebrated the 40th anniverary.
The Club and Scotland.
Some prominent founder members were from north of the border, so it was obvious that sooner or later a Scottish evening would be held!
And so it was that the first one took place on 23rd. January 1976 in “The Railway” in Baden.
After the enthusiasm and success of the pub at the Musiläum the previous year, Tony and Irma Hancox took over running the “Isebähnli Restaurant” (opposite Manor/Vilan).
At this time Scottish Country dancing was quite a popular activity, and there was a group of enthusiasts loosely affiliated with the club. An event dedicated to Scottish dancing was on 17th March 1978.
Of course the big Scottish event of the year was the annual Burns’ Night which took place around the time of poet’s birthday January 25th. At the supper Haggis, Neeps and Tatties were served. The Haggis was the genuine article supplied by butcher Lüthi in Hausen.
The traditional evening featured bagpipes, the address to the haggis, whisky, singing and dancing. The first Burns Night was on 20th January 1979.
It continued practically every year until 2015, usually in the Gemeindesaal Gebensdorf.
.
