Fred Erismann in Wikimedia Commons

Thanks to the support of Wikimedia CH and the efforts of Léa Lacroix and Nicolas Vigneron, the SAPA Foundation has successfully imported one thousand images by Swiss photographer Fred Erismann (1891-1979) into Wikimedia Commons.

This collection focuses on theatrical productions at the Stadttheater Bern between 1933 and 1968. The images are part of the Fred Erismann archive (reference: A-1553), which is preserved by the SAPA Foundation. The collection contains approximately 40,000 negatives, organized into more than 750 production files. For this project, a selection of one thousand representative images from the individual productions was made, enabling their digitalization and conversion into positive images. This preservation initiative is described in detail in the article dedicated to the Stadttheater Bern collection.

In addition to the import into Wikimedia Commons, the corresponding Wikidata entries for these theatrical productions have been updated to include links to the images. These Wikidata entries were originally created during a previous import. This project is part of a broader initiative led by the SAPA Foundation to make data related to the performing arts in Switzerland more accessible.