The long-lasting legacy of the Lebensreform movement

The nude skiing failed to catch on, but the influence of the Lebensreform movement is all around us – from saunas and almond milk to yoga and detoxing – explains historian Eva Locher in an interview. When most people think of the Lebensreform (life reform) movement, they might think of people frolicking naked in canton Ticino, southern Switzerland, 100 years ago. Yet the ideal of “living according to nature”, which is how the Lebensreform movement reacted to the mechanisation of life in Switzerland and Germany at the end of the 19th century, has had a lasting effect on several aspects of modern life: just about every restaurant offers vegetarian dishes, many people talk as a matter of course about detoxing their bodies, and alternative medical therapies are accepted by health insurers. Limited for a long time to initiates, the ideas of the Lebensreform movement enjoyed a post-war boom that continues to this day. SWI swissinfo.ch asks historian Eva Locher about the continuing...