The recent historiography of Switzerland as a land of refuge paints a troubling picture for the period of World War II. It risks overshadowing the fact that the Alpine republic had already become a natural exile for persecuted individuals, particularly of German origin, during upheavals, crises, and wars in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Political dissent often went hand in hand with artistic engagement. Since the liberal awakening after 1830, and especially during the two World Wars, Switzerland became a refuge for opposition intellectuals, enriching it with remarkable cultural wealth. However, generous hospitality was often not the case. Although physically unharmed, exiled writers frequently felt spiritually amputated. The large audience was missing, and the opportunity for artistic expression was generally severely limited by the authorities. Nevertheless, Switzerland was for those it sheltered both a safe haven and a guarantor of a spiritual freedom that would have been obliterated elsewhere. The goal of the texts gathered in this volume is to exemplarily illustrate the scope and limits of literary exile in Switzerland between 1830 and 1945, and to shed light on the vastly divergent living conditions and working circumstances, as well as the works dictated by precarious circumstances, through individual fates. Prominent emigrants such as Georg Büchner, Thomas Mann, and Else Lasker-Schüler are discussed, as well as those who received little notice in cultural history, such as Andreas Latzko or Julius Hay.