Swiss Economic Archives

The Swiss Economic Archives (SWA) is the national competence centre for sources on the Swiss economy and economic history.

Opening hours

Monday to Friday 8:00-18:00
Saturday 8:00-16:00
Orders from the stacks 9:00-16:00

1-2 August 2025 - National Day - closed

Opening hours on public holidays

Werbematerialien von Hero Konserven Lenzburg

Search portal "SWA Search"

Quick links

Location and contact

Peter Merian-Weg 6, 4052 Basel
How to find us
Postal address

info-ubw-swa@clutterunibas.ch
+41 61 207 32 19
Contacts

Events

RSS iCal

18 Sep 2025 16:15 – 18 Dec 2025 16:15

Übung: Arbeiten im Archiv: Von der Frauenarbeit zum Risikokapital, von der Farbenindustrie zum Warenhaus

Im Herbstsemester bietet das SWA zusammen mit dem Departement Geschichte eine Übung zum Umgang mit Archivquellen zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte der Stadt Basel an. Jetzt anmelden!

News

17 Jul 2025 / News

Blogbeitrag - 175 Jahre Schweizer Franken

06 Mar 2025

Archiv, visualisiert - eine Blogreihe

13 Jan 2025

Recently digitized

Economic archives

Over 550 company archives, association archives, archives of individuals contain internal business documents created by protagonists of the private economy: minutes, letters, financial documents, plans or photos.
Finding aids: swisscollections, SWA Search, swisscovery; e-manuscripta for digitized documents

Economic documentation

The document collections on firms and organisations, on persons, and on topics contain highly condensed material, printed and electronic, like grey literature, annual reports, newspaper clippings.
Finding aids: SWA Search, swisscovery, swisscollections

Newspaper cuttings

Newspaper clippings are an important component of the economic documentation. They allow for a focussed access on trends and discoures concerning corporate bodies, persons or economic topics.
Finding aid: Search portal newspaper cuttings

The "Freiwirtschaftliche Bibliothek"

The “Freiwirtschaftliche Bibliothek” (FB) is a special collection, which includes over 1350 works on the topic of "free economy", “free money”, and “free land”. Aside from writings by representatives of the free economic movement, there are further works on economic policy and economic theory.
Finding aid: swisscovery Basel

Finding resources

From Alusuisse to Zwilchenbart, from agricultural policy to monetary transactions: the SWA has collections of documents and archives on companies and associations, individuals, topics.

Services

A bright special reading room, generous opening hours, information services, the opportunity to take photos… all of this is at your disposal.

Preserving archives

Entrust us your archive… or talk to us about the options for safeguarding your historical legacy.

Your support

Private commitment to archives of the private economy is important. Third-party funding from private individuals and foundations allow the SWA to carry out exciting projects.

Foundation

The Foundation for the Promotion of the Swiss Economic Archives (Stiftung zur Förderung des SWA) acts as a hub for third-party funding and organises events.

About us

The SWA has existed since 1910. Learn more about history or take a look at our publications.