Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel, Ouchy, Lausanne

Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel, Ouchy, Lausanne

Geneva was by no means the only site of internationalism in Switzerland, or even on Lake Geneva. 36 miles northeast along the lakefront, the grand neo-baroque Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel, built in 1861, also played host to several key international conferences. Two significant peace treaties were signed here: the armistice ending the war between Italy and Turkey in 1912, and the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, by which the territorial losses of the Ottoman Empire in World War One were conceded in exchange for Allied recognition of the sovereignty of the new Turkish state. Equally significant at the time, though largely forgotten now, were the World Disarmament Conferences of 1932-34, an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to bring about perpetual peace. The economic component to these deliberations, including the central issue of reparations, was discussed at the 1932 Lausanne Conference held at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel. The Conference was presided over by Ramsay MacDonald (sat at the head of the table here), for whom it formed the culmination of his efforts to build a personal legacy as a peacemaker on the international stage. Discussions at Lausanne were successful, but the agreement reached was thwarted later that year by the US Congress.

Interior photographs: Berlinische Galerie. Museum of Modern Art, Photography and Architecture, Erich-Salomon-Archiv
Hotel exterior: Stephen Phillips Trust House / Historic New England Library and Archives