Davos history goes beyond WEF from skiing to Sherlock to sanatorium-Read

Davos’ history as a modern and popular holiday destination dates back to 150 years when the first winter guests arrived here in 1865

Davos:  There are warnings that the snow-laden town in the Swiss Alps can see snow storms and rains with temperatures expected to continue in sub-zero degrees in and a lot worse at the higher altitudes in Davos.

But that does not seem to have dampened the spirits of those having come to the annual talkathon of the rich and powerful from across the world — something that has become synonymous with this place for over five decades now.

The five-day World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting will begin on Monday evening and will continue till Friday.

As the rich and powerful of the world debate here the ‘collaboration in an intelligent age’ over the next five days, this small Swiss ski resort town will also offer them its own history to ponder over.

Davos has a much older and fascinating history of its own, being a place of eminence for medical tourism as also winter sports.

Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the famous detective character Sherlock Holmes, moved to this town along with his ailing wife that reportedly helped her live longer.

Once famous for being a summer health resort, Davos has gradually emerged as a major winter sports hub on the Alps, but its biggest claim to fame for the past four decades has been the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting every January, beginning in 1971.

The Geneva-based WEF is hosting its 55th annual meeting here beginning Monday, where more than 2,800 leaders from across the world will participate in a high-profile talkfest for five days. To cover this global elite jamboree, there are more than 500 journalists and thousands of support staff as well.

While such a high-profile event leads to all hotels and rental apartments being occupied, the die-hard winter sports fans still throng this place as the WEF week also means relatively smaller crowds in ski areas and on mountain cableways.

The only drawback for tourists is that they cannot stay within the town, which has less than 10 medium-sized hotels and about 40 small ones, including in nearby areas like Klosters and Dorf.

Besides, the so-called WAGs and HABs (wives and girlfriends/husbands and boyfriends), as referred to by locals and others privately but as partners on record, of those attending the WEF meet are also around in large numbers on ski circuits and at various tourist destinations of the town that comprises two big parallel roads and numerous connecting alleys.

Davos’ history as a modern and popular holiday destination dates back to 150 years when the first winter guests arrived here in 1865. Till then, it was just a summer mountain health resort with a strong reputation for the treatment of tuberculosis patients.

One day in February 1865, Doctor Friedrich Unger and Hugo Richter from Germany arrived here and began a course of treatment on a bed made from a hay sledge covered with boards. The treatment proved successful and both men were able to return to work. Soon after, Unger returned to Davos and worked as a doctor here for over 20 years. Richter married a Davos girl and took over the management of a guest house. Later, he also moved his publishing business to this small town and began printing two local newspapers.

Another feather in its cap is Davos being home to painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who spent his last 20 years in this town, which is full of many of his finest paintings. Besides a museum devoted to Kirchner’s work, his paintings can be seen everywhere in Davos.

Towards the end of his life, Kirchner suffered a major nervous breakdown and spent his last days in a sanatorium in Davos. This is the same sanatorium that inspired Noble laureate Thomas Mann’s classic novel ‘The Magic Mountain’.

Davos’ annual affair with WEF began in 1971 when the Forum was known as the European Management Forum. That year, WEF founder Klaus Schwab invited over 400 European business leaders for a meeting at the Davos Congress Centre under the patronage of the European Commission.

Subsequently, WEF was formed and leaders from across the world began congregating here at the end of January every year.

Over the years, the WEF annual meeting at Davos grew larger and has been host to many historic accords and meetings, including one draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho between the then Israel foreign minister Shimon Peres and Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Yasser Arafat in 1994.

In 1988, Greece and Turkey also signed their Davos Declaration here, which saw the two countries avoiding a war, while North and South Korea held their first ministerial-level meetings in Davos in 1989 — a year that also saw German chancellor Helmut Kohl here discussing German reunification and then the knocking down of the Berlin Wall.

So far, only once has WEF held its annual meeting outside Davos, when in 2002 it decided to shift the venue to New York to show solidarity with that city and the American public after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Also, the WEF couldn’t hold a physical annual meeting in Davos in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, while the 2022 meeting got postponed to May due to the pandemic.

India’s presence has also been increasing at the Davos meeting, during which hundreds of Indians can be seen strolling on its narrow roads, one of which has been hosting an ‘India Adda’ for many years, though the official name has changed in recent years quite a few times, including to Make In India lounge and simply India Lounge and India Pavilion, but regulars still prefer to call it by the old name of India Adda.