The secret behind seventeen generations of Sandoz success

Thanks to a fund that is unique in its longevity - and to the passion of one of its own - the family of Neuchâtel ‘Montagnons’ has been able to piece together a fascinating history in which the talents of artists and entrepreneurs have blossomed far beyond the canton's borders.


Neuchâtel has no shortage of great families, and the fact that there are now four thousand Sandoz families in the world is not in itself exceptional. But the publication of their family saga in a sumptuous 464-page book is something of an event.

But why? Gilles Attinger has never before published a book so rich in content and form. What is even more remarkable is the longevity (seventeen generations), the memory and the energy of this family from the Neuchâtel mountains, whose every stage has been marked by one or more remarkable destinies.

You only have to look at the story from the end to see the first example. Filmmaker, scriptwriter and producer Jaques Sandoz, 58, has filmed from the United States to Burundi, chronicling the cultural revolution of the 1960s. He is the real keystone of the project. For the record, his younger brother Laurent was the Arlevin at the last Fête des Vignerons, another, Yves, is head of the international law division at the ICRC, and one of his sisters, Geneviève, is a well-known milliner in Ticino...

‘What convinced me to take the plunge was first and foremost the conviction that there was a single source of the family in Le Locle,’ says Jaques Sandoz. The story goes back - for the time being - to a Lambert Sandoz born before 1297; it confirms that the Sandoz family had long developed within a clearly defined territory: Le Locle, la Brévine, les Ponts-de-Martel and Dombresson. But it would have been impossible to tell the story without the existence of a unique instrument: the Sandoz Fund and its records, meticulously kept and preserved for three centuries!

Long before the advent of social insurance, the Fonds, whose existence can be traced back to 1658, was an instrument of family solidarity. A ‘communet’ (a small plot of land), to which donations and legacies were added over the generations, paid a dividend to help the needy members of the clan. Far from having fallen into disuse, the Fund still finances study grants, such as the one that enabled a Sandoz man from La Lance in Concise (VD) to recently take a pilot's licence in Canada.

Artists and entrepreneurs

As ‘mountain people’, the Sandoz family knows how to pull together in times of need. Another family characteristic is the very selective choice of where they settle: one branch is in exile in France, another in Nebraska and Louisiana. Very few of them, on the other hand, settle in Italy or Germany.

A Jonas Sandoz bought the underground mills at Col-des-Roches in 1666. Abram-Louis (1712-1766) accompanied his son-in-law Pierre Jaquet-Droz on an incredible (and dangerous) journey to sell automata to the Spanish court, before becoming a clockmaker himself. And then, of course, there is Edouard-Constant Sandoz, who founded a dye factory in Basel in 1886 that was to become the multinational chemical company we know today.

Before the latter was merged into Novartis, his boss Marc Moret was asked to support the Sandoz book project, but dismissed the request out of hand. Industrial giants don't always know how to cultivate their roots. In the end, at Nicole Landolt-Sandoz's personal instigation, the family foundation (see box) funded the project in its entirety. The project was launched just in time for the next five-yearly Sandoz meeting, which will be held on Whit Monday and is expected to attract 300 participants, including thirty from the United States.

‘Sandoz. From the Middle Ages to the third millennium, a Neuchâtel family conquers the world’. Thirty contributors, scientific director: Jean-Pierre Jelmini. Layout: Pierre Neumann. Editions Gilles Attinger, 464 p., 120 francs by subscription, 160 in bookshops. From 9 June to 17 November, Valangin Castle is presenting an exhibition on the history of the family.


source:https://www.letemps.ch

Jean-Claude Péclet
Published Thursday 1 June 2000