Mensa Switzerland The High IQ Society

The goal of the Mensa History Team is to research the history of Mensa Switzerland and make it available online. 

Mensa sometimes seems to be a club without memory. The past, even the relatively recent past, is unknown to most of our members. Due to this lack of information, we don't learn anything from problems we have already solved in the past and repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

If we want to change this, we should start examining our own history. Who were our founders? What was their vision? How did Mensa change over time? Which conflicts happened in the past? Which tests did we use? How many members did we have 20, 30, 40 years ago? How was Mensa Switzerland organized back then? And: Has there ever been a board election before 2011?  If you want to find out the answers, please join our team.

Here are three points for a start:

• Mensa Switzerland was founded in Geneva on September 24, 1965. (So this year's GA in Luzern marks our 46th birthday.)
• Our founder was Dr. Hans Eberstark, an Austrian linguist who also happened to be the world-record holder in memorizing the digits of pi: he knew 12'000 digits in his mind.
• The first issue of our magazine appeared in January 1967. At that time, Mensa Switzerland had 30 members.