Plans and maps

The Swiss Federal Archives do not maintain a separate collection of plans. The plans are contained in the fonds of the federal authorities that produced them. Plans and map material must therefore be searched for in the documents of the respective authority or in the respective subject area. The areas relating to the army and transport offer the best chances of successful searching.

Military plans

The majority of plans and maps are held in the fonds of the Military Department. In particular, these are military exercise maps and terrain maps dating from the 1860s to the 1940s in the National Defence fonds (1600–1960). Most of these maps stem from the two World Wars. The fonds also contain location maps, especially of the German army. Plans of fortifications and other military facilities can be found in the fonds of the Office for Fortifications (1815-1962), Division for Combat Engineering and Fortification Construction (1891-1955), Division for Combat Engineering and Fortifications (1888-1991) and the Federal Office for Combat Engineering and Fortifications (1932-1994).

Plans of civilian and military real estate

Plans relating to civilian and military federal real estate can be found in the real estate contracts and plans fonds (only searchable in the reading rooms at the Swiss Federal Archives).

Railway maps

The fonds of the Railway Authority (1843-1965) for the years 1848-1940 and the fonds of the Federal Department of Transport (1820-1992) and Federal Office of Transport (1823-2005) for the time post-1940 contain a large number of plans: railway routes, concession plans, longitudinal profiles, railways, level crossings, etc.

Border maps

The border maps from attachments to interstate treaties can be found in the fonds of the Directorate of Political Affairs (1901-2000), the preceding fonds (211 Foreign relations) and in the Interstate Treaty fonds (1900-2012).

Tips for further research

• Federal Office of Topography swisstopo: historical national maps of Switzerland.
• Federal archives of the cantons: (ger): archived land registry plans, cadastral plans and structure plans of the cantons and their municipalities.