RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

Swiss archive catalogues (run 2, 2026-10-03): archives-online.org, Swiss Federal Archives, swisscollections, HelveticArchives, ETH Hochschularchiv

New sites this run. They target the records named in arbiter.md "The record goes dark" (Swiss register files, Swiss Federal Archives files on foreign nationals, Wiegner's papers). Access: everything was done in Chrome. - archives-online.org: a federated search across about 50 Swiss archives, including the Landesarchiv Glarus (LAGL), the Staatsarchiv Thurgau (StATG), St. Gallen (StASG), Graubünden (StAGR) and Zürich (StAZH), the Swiss Federal Archives (BAR), the ETH Hochschularchiv (HSA), the Swiss National Library (NB) and swisscollections. - recherche.bar.admin.ch: the Swiss Federal Archives' own catalogue (no login is needed to search; ordering a file needs registration). - swisscollections.ch and helveticarchives.ch: record pages. Result: positive.

Queries tried

  • archives-online.org (all archives): Ternion, Ternion Glarus, Kassner, Kassner Ernst, Vibranic, Dipol Arbon, Dipol, "Dipol A.G.", "General Infra", Giodvad, "Max Stoffel", Stoffel Arbon, Wiegner Alfred, Oertli-Heer. Several of these ran inside one script batch that timed out; the results recorded below are the ones read back.
  • Swiss Federal Archives: Kassner, Kassner Ernst, Ternion, Vibranic, Giodvad, "General Infra", Hochfrequenz Ultrakurzwellen Patent 1945, Grell

Findings (all [web])

1. Kassner's 1937 company "Phono-Vision": confidential company papers in an occult-society archive

  • Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Trogen, call number CMO-59-01-A-13: "Phono-Vision, Ernst E.W. Kassner: Unterlagen für eine Werbegrafik", 1937. It is one folder; contents: "Fotos und vertrauliche Firmenunterlagen" (photos and confidential company documents); German; a note says "Digitalisat KB Appenzell Ausserrhoden" (a digital copy exists) [web: https://swisscollections.ch/Record/991170523100505501; also listed in Kalliope].
  • Context: it sits in the papers of Albin Grau (1884-1971; the producer and designer of the film Nosferatu, and an occultist), within the "Collectio Magica et Occulta: Archiv der Psychosophischen Gesellschaft in der Schweiz". Grau's "Werke" series also holds commercial artwork he drew for engineering firms (Saurer trucks, Generatorkraft AG Berlin, Imbert-Generatoren, 1941). So the Kassner folder is material Kassner supplied to a graphic artist for an advertisement. It contains company documents marked confidential.
  • Why it matters: it is the first record of what Kassner was doing in 1937, between Ternion's last activity (1936) and General Infra (1943). "Phono-Vision" suggests sound-and-picture (electro-optical) work, which matches his 1929 electro-optical patents and the Ternion light relay GB 435,643. The folder's photos and "confidential company documents" are the closest thing yet found to an internal Kassner business record. Next: ask the Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden for the digital copy (the owner should make the request).

2. Kassner in Bern, November 1938, writing to Hans Kayser

  • Swiss Literary Archives (Swiss National Library), SLA-Kayser-B-2-307a: "Kassner, Ernst an Kayser, Hans; Korrespondenz", 5 Nov 1938. The item is a visiting card of "Ernst E. W. Kassner", place "(z. Zt. Hotel Schweizerhof Bern)", pinned to a typed letter on the letterhead of Herbert Lang & Cie AG, Bern (signed Rinderknecht), to Hans Kayser [web: https://www.helveticarchives.ch/detail.aspx?Id=1111132].
  • Hans Kayser (1891-1964) developed "Harmonik", a theory that grounds nature in harmonic (whole-number, resonance) ratios [memory, high]. Herbert Lang & Cie was a Bern publisher and bookseller [memory, medium]. A contact between Kassner and Kayser in 1938 fits Kassner's "natural frequencies" outlook. It is the first record placing Kassner in Switzerland after Ternion's liquidation (Dec 1937). What the letter says is not catalogued. Next: request a copy from the Swiss Literary Archives.

3. Swiss Federal Police files on an "Ernst Kassner, born 20.11.1900" (identity not yet confirmed)

  • E4264#2000/63#1515*, "Kassner, Ernst (20.11.1900)", 1939, Aktenzeichen G 1515. The series is Eidgenössische Polizeiabteilung, Personenregistratur, Series G "Nachforschungen (Ausländer und Schweizer)" (police enquiries about foreigners and Swiss). Status "Frei zugänglich" (open) [web: https://www.recherche.bar.admin.ch/recherche/#/de/archiv/einheit/32962099].
  • E4264#1988/2#24190*, "KASSNER, ERNST, 20.11.1900", 1946-1947, Aktenzeichen P061370. The series is Series P "Ausweisschriften für Ausländer, Passangelegenheiten, Nansenpässe, Flüchtlingsunterstützung" (identity papers and passports for foreigners, Nansen passports, refugee support). Open [web: https://www.recherche.bar.admin.ch/recherche/#/de/archiv/einheit/5377745].
  • Whether this man is E. E. W. Kassner is unknown: no birth date for E. E. W. Kassner is in the project documents. The dates fit: a German national in Switzerland under police enquiry in 1939, and needing identity papers in 1946-47 (when German passports had lapsed). E. E. W. Kassner was in Bern in Nov 1938, in Zürich in 1943 and in Montana-Vermala by 1951. If he was born in 1900, he would have been 21 at the Königsberg adding-machine patent (1921). These are the "Swiss Federal Archives files on foreign nationals" that arbiter.md lists under explanation 5. Next: the owner can register at recherche.bar.admin.ch and order both dossiers (they are open; ordering is a user action).

4. General Infra Co AG, Chur, is filed under the Allied "Schwarze Liste" (blacklist)

  • E2001E#1968/78#9311*, "General Infra Co AG, Chur", 1946-1948, Aktenzeichen B.51.322.01.U'ch, Abteilung für politische Angelegenheiten (Federal Political Department). Open [web: https://www.recherche.bar.admin.ch/recherche/#/de/archiv/einheit/31242263]. File-plan path: B Auswärtige Politik / B.5 Neutralität und Krieg / B.51 Neutralität und neutrale Personen / B.51.3 Rechtliche Stellung und Behandlung neutraler Personen und Vermögens in kriegsführenden Staaten / B.51.32 Vermögen / B.51.322 Schwarze Liste.
  • Reading: the B.51.322 files are the Swiss government's dossiers on Swiss firms placed on the Allied economic-warfare blacklists, the British Statutory List and the US "Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals" [memory, medium on the exact list]. The file title alone does not show that General Infra was listed. It does show the Swiss foreign ministry kept a 1946-48 blacklist file on the company whose board included "Ingenieur Ernst E. W. Kassner, deutscher Staatsangehöriger". This is the first government record touching the Kassner group in a wartime-security context. It bears directly on arbiter.md explanation 5 (wartime secrecy) and on the record's silence after 1943. Next: order the file; search the Federal Register and the Proclaimed List supplements (1943-46) for "General Infra" and "Suisse Infra".

5. Dr. Alfred Wiegner, the Dipol chemist, identified

  • ETH Hochschularchiv: EZ-REK1/1/19765 (matriculation, Alfred Wiegner, born 30.05.1905, ETH studies 1924-1929); EZ-2.4/00630 "Doktorandendossier Wiegner, Alfred, geb. 30.05.1905, von Zürich", 1930; Biogr Wiegener, Alfred: "Biographisches Dossier Alfred Wiegner (-1973) von Zürich; Dr., dipl. Ing. Chem. ETH; Präsident der Schweizerischen Baumwollkommission St. Gallen" [web: archives-online.org → https://vls.hsa.ethz.ch]. This matches SHAB 1932, "Dr. Alfred Wiegner, Chemiker, von Zürich, in St. Gallen". He was 27 when he joined Dipol, with a fresh ETH doctorate (1930); he later led the Swiss cotton commission. Next: his 1930 ETH dissertation (ETH Research Collection) for its subject; the biographical dossier.

6. Searches with no result or noise

  • Ternion, Ternion Glarus, Vibranic, Dipol Arbon, Giodvad returned nothing in any catalogued Swiss archive. That includes the Landesarchiv Glarus and the Staatsarchiv Thurgau, whose commercial-register files are evidently not catalogued at item level online. The register files named in arbiter.md must still be requested directly. This absence is a gap in online cataloguing, not evidence that the files do not exist.
  • Max Stoffel / Stoffel Arbon: only StAZH U 105.10.2026 "Stoffel, Max Anton (geb. 1911), von Arbon TG", 1936-1937 (whether he is Ternion's Max Stoffel is unknown); family papers of the Stoffel silk-ribbon firm, Arbon (StATG).
  • BAR Grell: no H. H. Giodvad Grell (other Grells only). BAR Kassner also lists Frieda (1898), Martha (1907), Rudolf and Max Kassner, which look unrelated.

How this bears on the claims and open questions

Item Effect
Absence of evidence: explanation 5 (wartime secrecy) New: General Infra (Kassner's 1943 company) has a Swiss foreign-ministry blacklist file (1946-48), and an Ernst Kassner (b. 1900) has federal police files from 1939 and 1946-47. These are the records the arbiter named and could not reach. They are open and orderable.
Absence of evidence: the 1938-43 gap Kassner was in Bern in Nov 1938 (Kayser letter). In 1937 he ran or promoted "Phono-Vision" and supplied confidential company documents to a graphic artist.
Explanation 2 (trade secrecy) The Phono-Vision folder is explicitly "vertrauliche Firmenunterlagen". That is consistent with a confidential business practice, though it is one folder and does not cover the Ternion research itself.
Claim 8 / Dipol Wiegner was a young ETH chemistry PhD (1930). His dissertation would show his field.