Suchard’s Architectural Production: The Ideologies of a Swiss Chocolate Empire at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Rémi Madrona
Examining Swiss chocolate through the lens of the Suchard chocolate company reveals a narrative intertwined with colonialism. Founded in 1826 by Philippe Suchard, the company’s success expanded after winning prizes at the 1851 London Great Exhibition and the 1855 Paris Universal Exposition. Through innovative marketing, particularly the distinctive purple branding of Milka chocolate since 1901, Suchard established itself as one of the biggest chocolate manufacturers at the turn of the twentieth century.
By examining Suchard’s architectural footprints across three locations—Geneva’s pavilions, Neuchâtel’s factory and worker housing, and the plantation in Sabana del Mar, Dominican Republic—this project brings the company’s colonial and paternalistic ideologies to light.
Firstly, in the gorge of La Serrière near Neuchâtel, the Industrialist Philippe Suchard capitalized on the powerful river of the same name as the energy source for its machinery. One of the selected case studies is the “L’Orientale” factory built in 1890, based on orientalist inspiration.
Due to the cramped context of the gorge, housing conditions became unsanitary, which led to the construction of the “Cité Suchard.” The various multi-family and single-family typologies accompanied by a communal kitchen and laundry room, as well as playgrounds and private gardens, represent one of the best examples of the workers’ town in Switzerland.
Secondly, in Geneva, the 1896 National Exhibition showcased Swiss products on the global stage, with Suchard presenting a reconstructed worker’s house from Cité Suchard, machinery, and a chocolate-tasting pavilion. The latter, built in a “pseudo-Japanese” [1] style, catered for bourgeois comfort and symbolized colonial luxury.
Lastly, Sabana del Mar presents a darker aspect of Suchard’s legacy. Suchard trader Carl Russ’s late nineteenth-century investment in cocoa plantations represented a significant portion of the company’s cocoa processing. Despite limited archival material, research into local newspapers, legal documents, and narratives reveals the plantation’s scale as “one of the largest, if not the largest Cacao plantation in the Caribbean” [2]. The study focuses on the plantation’s reconstructed layout, the foreman’s house, and worker housing, highlighting the racial and social disparities enforced through architectural choices.
Paternalism is evident in Suchard’s company housing across different geographies. In Neuchâtel, workers’ houses blend bourgeois and rural styles, with the foreman’s house standing out with its elevated veranda symbolizing control. The opportunity of accessing housing is nuanced by the fact that the “workers risk losing [their] social advantages if leaving the company” [3]. Sabana del Mar mirrors this hierarchy with a larger, higher-quality foreman’s house. Racial disparity is evident in the materials used, with the white population enjoying squared timber and glass windows, while local workers were limited to wooden shutters and lesser-quality materials. Suchard’s architectural choices for its buildings reflect its paternalistic approach and hierarchical structures.
Colonialism appears through the orientalist architecture projected into the Swiss context through the “pseudo-Japanese” building as a showcase of Suchard’s chocolate as a luxury product from distant lands, but also the polychromatic façade of the factory and its onion dome. The colonial patterns of the extractive activity in Sabana del Mar are more embedded in the oppressive relationship between the proprietors and the workforce. The study of the archival images shows the clear hierarchy between individuals through the subjects, how they posed for the pictures, the clothing they wear, and ultimately the captions added.
Cited Sources
1. Brochure “Souvenir de l’Exposition Universelle de Vienne, 1873,” Archives de la Ville de Neuchâtel, fonds Suchard-Tobler, 1393 + 1609.
2. Arlettaz, Gérald. Emigration et colonisation suisses en Amérique 1815 -1918, in “Etudes et Sources”, Bern, 1979, Archives Fédérales Suisses, pp. 212-13.
3. Voegtli, Michaël. “Crise de foi dans l’industrie chocolatière Suchard : du paternalisme à l’État social (1870-1940).” A contrario 1, no. 2 (2003): 90.
Main Sources
1. Fonds Suchard-Tobler, Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel (MAhN).
2. Fonds Suchard-Tobler, Archives of the city of Neuchâtel (AVN).
3. Piguet, Claire, and Lena Brina. Un parfum de chocolat: sur les traces de Suchard à Neuchâtel. Neuchâtel: Éditions Livreo-Alphi, 2022.
4. Rossfeld, Roman. Schweizer Schokolade: industrielle Produktion und kulturelle Konstruktion eines nationalen Symbols 1860 – 1920. Baden, CH: Hier + Jetzt, Verl. für Kultur und Geschichte, 2007.
5. Lafontant Vallotton, Chantal, and Vincent Callet-Molin, eds. Le monde selon Suchard. Hauterive: Éditions Gilles Attinger, 2009.
