"Putting people – not capital – first"

In 1963, sixteen years after the Foundation was established by Gottlieb and Adele Duttweiler, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute opened its doors. A former think-tank, the GDI provides a platform for exchange between industry experts and academia on social developments. When the foundation stone was laid on 17 February 1962, a satisfied – albeit drawn with age – Gottlieb Duttweiler swung the trowel. Sixteen years had passed since he and his wife, Adele, established the “Im Grüene” foundation. They were to establish an institute in Rüschlikon’s i>Park im Grüene bringing together industry leaders and academia to study the possibility of a meaningful restructuring of the economy with the support of cooperatives. When the institute was opened in 1963, its founder had passed; in his honour, the institute was named the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute – or GDI, for short.

Hans A. Pestalozzi, Duttweiler’s personal secretary and later Deputy Director of Migros took the helm of the GDI in 1966, turning it into a very highly internationally-acclaimed think-tank. Over the years, though, Pestalozzi became increasingly radical, and when – in 1979 - he published a book rife with social criticism entitled “After Us, The Future”, he was summarily dismissed. Today, international experts regularly meet at the GDI to deliberate over social change and future trends.