Launch of Internet Archive Switzerland
On May 5th, 2026, Internet Archive Switzerland celebrated its launch at the exhibition hall of the Abbey Archives of St. Gallen, one of the oldest continuously active archives in the world.
Internet Archive Switzerland is an independent non-profit foundation, established under Swiss law and based in St. Gallen. It is part of the global Internet Archive mission-aligned organisations and share the founding vision of Brewster Kahle, who launched the Internet Archive in San Francisco thirty years ago.
The Internet Archive is one of the largest and most important digital archives ever created. Its Wayback Machine holds over one billion snapshots of web pages, the oldest dating to 1996. Its collections include 50 million books and texts, 13 million audio recordings, 10 million videos, 5 million images, and 1 million software programmes.
Lenz & Staehelin acted as Swiss counsel on the set-up of Internet Archive Switzerland. The Lenz & Staehelin team was led by Benoît Merkt and included Benjamin Moret, Valentin Muller and Adrianita Osmani.