When the First World War began in 1914, Switzerland, which was spared from a military point of view, was facing severe internal tensions. The army was mobilised, borders occupied and the Federal Council declared the country’s neutrality. But Switzerland sympathisemajously with the Central Empire, i.e. Germany and Austria-Hungary, while Latin Switzerland is taking part in the Cartel, the alliance of France, Great Britain and Russia. A rich cultural divide crosses Switzerland and shows a real moralous unease. This situation is then used by the amazing powers to launch a propaganda war on an unprecedented scale on the Swiss territory. They are trying by all means to shift public opinionists in favour of them. Both camps set up press reviews and fixtures, finance newspapers and publishing houses, and in the last years of war, also instrumentalise culture by buying many theatres and cinemas and organising major art and crafts expositionsin villes.However, writers and intellectuals, but also politicians, engage from the beginning of hostilities for the internal cohesion of the country and highlight the Swiss perspective (Carl Spitteler). These attempts to bridge the gap between the different parts of the country represent the beginnings of the spiritual national defence, which will be formellementinstituted during the Second World War and will mark the Swiss societyuntil the 1960s. The exhibition “From the fire of propaganda. Switzerland faces the horrific World War” focuses on these cultural aspects of the years of war in Switzerland and illustrates, in a modern scenography, the most recent research through a variety of mediasons that have grown tremendously at that time: newspapers and journals, posters and postcards, photographs and engravings, leaflets and dispatches, manuscripts and books, film extracts and sound documents. The expositionis presented in two institutions: the Museum of Communicationintroduced the topic through ten epvocative media examples. Mr Lavisite continued at the Swiss National Library, where 16 windows showcase the two chapters entitled ‘Between discord and concord’ and ‘The battle of propaganda’.