“Learning languages in their own region”

In 1956 the Migros Club School offered language courses in foreign countries to enable students to also learn about the country’s culture. Today the «European Language and Education Centre» offers courses in 30 locations around the world.

Migros language courses have been offered in many European countries since 1956. The concept is that students live with a host family in order to become familiar with the country’s culture. After four years, the «European Language and Education Centre» grew out of this idea, beginning with a capital of half a million francs. The money came from the Cooperative Association, the Federal German Savings Bank and from the personal assets of Gottlieb Duttweiler and Herbert Elköh, the owner of a chain of German supermarkets. The two fellow entrepreneurs set out to get «large companies from all countries to cover the costs to send their employees to the language and education centre». Such a service, they argued, would not only help with continuing education, but would also be more sustainable than more expensive alternatives. Even more important to them was their purpose: after the horrors of the Second World War and in the midst of the Cold War, they wanted – as a Swiss and a German – to jointly promote understanding between different peoples.