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A creamer series celebrating Schwingen, Swiss wrestling. <\/p>\n
Keystone \/ Gaetan Bally <\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever ordered a coffee in Switzerland, the chances are you got a little creamer on the side. Did you carefully pocket the colourful foil top, the Kaffeerahmdeckeli? Probably not. For many Swiss, however, collecting these is almost an addiction \u2013 at least it used to be.\n<\/p>\n
This content was published on <\/p>\n
April 25, 2026 – 11:00\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe collectors of coffee creamer lids were a real nuisance. In caf\u00e9s there were people who went from table to table begging guests for their lids, or they scavenged deserted but not-yet-cleared tables for them. I eventually started punching a hole in the torn\u2011off lid after emptying the cream\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
One person\u2019s passion is another person\u2019s peeve, as that reader reaction to an article in the Tages-AnzeigerExternal link<\/a> from 2022 shows. While many people still buy or exchange lids, the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s are certainly over. But at its peak, Switzerland was the global hub of a very curious hobby.<\/p>\n \u201cNowhere else was the collection of these small aluminium and plastic foils as excessive as in this country,\u201d said the Tages-Anzeiger, describing how, in the 1980s, individual series were traded for several thousand francs, collectors\u2019 clubs were formed and people would get together to swap lids. \u201cToday, entire collections are available for free on the internet, club websites are dwindling and the hype has died down.\u201d<\/p>\n How does something intrinsically worthless gain value? Why were certain motifs more popular than others? And why were the Swiss in particular so crazy about coffee creamer lids? The Tages-Anzeiger asked \u2013 but didn\u2019t answer \u2013 some interesting questions, but that hasn\u2019t stopped plenty of other amateur cultural anthropologists from analysing the Great Swiss Coffee Creamer Lid Boom (and bust).<\/p>\n \u201cThousands of years ago, people had to gather berries, fruit, wood etc. But today you can buy all of that around the corner at [supermarkets] Migros, Coop and so on. Yet this primal instinct to collect must still be present in some people, and so they end up collecting things like this,\u201d wrote another reader. \u201cOr is it simply a way to pass the time?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Distinctly Swiss trait\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe story of the coffee creamer lids represents a distinctly Swiss trait \u2013 one that perhaps no longer exists,\u201d wrote Waltraut Bellwald in Kaffeerahmdeckelisammeln oder die Faszination des NutzlosenExternal link<\/a> (Collecting coffee creamer lids, or the fascination of the useless), an essay which appeared in the magazine Schweizerisches Archiv f\u00fcr Volkskunde (Swiss Folklore Archives) in 1996.<\/p>\n \u201cNamely that of inventors and tinkerers, those \u2018ordinary people\u2019 who want to achieve something, who pursue an idea tenaciously even in the face of hardship and never give up,\u201d she said. \u201cThe story of the creamer lids is therefore also the story of Walter Auf der Mauer.\u201d<\/p>\n Born in 1912, Walter Auf der Mauer was the son of a mountain farmer who dreamed of having his own dairy business. After the war he took over a dairy in Zurich, which did well \u2013 but he wanted more. \u201cI always imagined that there must be something that could really make money, a gap in the market, a product that didn\u2019t even exist yet,\u201d he said in Bellwald\u2019s article. At the 1967 World Exhibition in Montreal, he was impressed by a UHT (ultra-high heating) machine that gently sterilised and homogenised coffee cream. Lots of tinkering later, Auf der Mauer built his own machine and by 1973 his company, Burra, was producing 30,000 coffee creamers per hour. Rival companies soon sprang up.<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Best of SRG content\n <\/p>\n Why there is too much milk in Switzerland <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 5, 2026 <\/p>\n Switzerland is producing too much milk \u2013 and it is too expensive. The industry is responding by cutting milk prices. What this means, and how farmers are reacting. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Why there is too much milk in Switzerland \u201cThe coffee creamers were very popular with consumers and restaurateurs,\u201d Bellwald noted. \u201cThe portions were ideal for consumers: especially in small households, in offices without fridges and for stocking up. In caf\u00e9s and restaurants, where open cream jugs had repeatedly led to arguments and complaints due to a lack of cleanliness, the hygienic coffee creamer portions provided a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising potential?<\/p>\n But what about the lids? In the early years, they had only one job, Bellwald said: protecting the contents and keeping them fresh. \u201cThey actually still have this task, which is why interests collide: manufacturers and distributors want a product that closes as tightly as possible and provides optimum protection for the contents, while collectors want a lid that\u2019s easy to remove and doesn\u2019t tear.\u201d<\/p>\n Making lids at the Emmi production facility in Emmen in 2022. <\/p>\n Keystone \/ Christian Beutler <\/p>\n For many years, the only decoration on the lids was the manufacturer\u2019s name and an indication of the contents. \u201cOccasionally, a printed arrow showed coffee drinkers how to remove the coveted liquid, while a clearly marked tab was a further visual aid,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n The fact that advertising could appear on the lids was recognised early on, but the possibilities couldn\u2019t be fully exploited as there was a general ban on commercial advertising on creamer lids. \u201cOnly a few catering businesses, a few local anniversaries and a few exhibitions related to the dairy industry were allowed to advertise on them.\u201d<\/p>\n The challenging dimensions \u2013 the lids generally have a diameter of 35-38mm \u2013 mean advertisers have never spent much of their budget on coffee creamers.<\/p>\n \u2018Pleasing, unobtrusive and popular images\u2019<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until the late 1970s that the lids made the transition from disposable item to collector\u2019s item, and the changing colourful images attracted the attention and desire of coffee drinkers.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first it was castles, typical Swiss landscapes and natural beauty that were depicted on the round lids \u2013 postcard-style motifs in miniature that triggered a sense of recognition and created emotional connections,\u201d Bellwald said.<\/p>\n \u201cDepictions of customs, traditional costumes, motifs from the Swiss Museum of Transport and cantonal coats of arms were other pleasing, unobtrusive and popular images. Even though Kaffeer\u00e4hmli today are adorned by computer drawings, Swiss architecture, body painting, comics, Swiss tanks, skyscrapers and high-tech motifs, there remains a distinct preference for the decorative and homely, the traditional and familiar from our own country.\u201d<\/p>\n Educational designs would also appear from time to time. \u201cFor example, with questions on Swiss history, with Basel and Alsatian dialect expressions explained on the back of the lid, with a not entirely error-free stamp quiz or with a German-French language course in 90 lessons (with phrases such as \u2018Can the dog have a drink?\u2019 or \u2018That\u2019s an impertinence!\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\n Bellwald reported that \u201cin the peak year of 1994\u201d, a total of around 150 series were issued.<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Culture\n <\/p>\n Those were the Swiss days! Whatever happened to\u2026? <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Aug 1, 2018 <\/p>\n To mark Swiss National Day this year, we asked you to put on your nostalgic hats and think of anything that reminded you of Switzerland. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Those were the Swiss days! Whatever happened to\u2026? Coffee creamer lid tweezers<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, people think I\u2019m mad,\u201d Konrad Megert, who had been collecting lids for about seven years, told Swissinfo in 2001<\/a>. Like many, he started simply because he thought they looked nice.<\/p>\n Megert, whose collection contained around 2,000 series, didn\u2019t know how much it was worth but reckoned it could be as much as CHF40,000 ($50,000). \u201cBut I don\u2019t do it for the money. It\u2019s simply the pleasure of collecting and of meeting people.\u201d<\/p>\n A lucrative business sprang up around Kaffeerahmdeckeli \u2013 KRD to those in the know \u2013 and forgeries are not unknown. Many new series are produced with collectors in mind and are never intended for caf\u00e9s or restaurants. \u201cIf you want to buy every new series, it can be very expensive,\u201d Megert said.<\/p>\n Canny entrepreneurs were quick to offer collectors a range of objects they never knew they needed: coffee creamer lid tweezers \u201cfor optimum sorting\u201d; a chrome-plated steel hand-roller \u201cfor guaranteed smooth lids\u201d; special \u201cDeckeli-Clean\u201d products for keeping the collection in good condition; albums for perfect storage\u2026<\/p>\n International notoriety<\/p>\n \u00a0By October 2014, coffee creamer lids were dwindling in popularity and media exposure, but overnight they were suddenly back in the news \u2013 and how!<\/p>\n \u201cSwiss retailer apologizes for coffee creamers featuring Hitler\u201d (Time magazine), \u201cSwiss supermarket chain sells Hitler cream pots\u201d (The Daily Telegraph), \u201cHitler cream strikes sour note for Swiss\u201d (The Times of Israel) \u2013 headlines around the world reported how some coffee drinkers in Switzerland had been startled to find images of Hitler or Mussolini on their creamers.<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Creamer packaging features Hitler and Mussolini mugs <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Oct 22, 2014 <\/p>\n Some coffee drinkers in Switzerland have been startled to find images of Hitler or Mussolini on their packages of coffee creamer. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Creamer packaging features Hitler and Mussolini mugs The images \u2013 part of a historical series of 30 creamer lids featuring cigar band designs \u2013 had been produced by a subsidiary of major Swiss retailer Migros. Migros apologised for the \u201cinexcusable blunder\u201d.<\/p>\n One collector, who had the lids with the two dictators, was worried that the entire collector community would suffer. \u201cWhen I first saw the series, I did think that I personally wouldn\u2019t have chosen Hitler as a subject, but in the context I don\u2019t find it problematic. After all, it\u2019s a collection of historical figures,\u201d Margrit\u00a0Gr\u00e4ub, who had been collecting the lids for 30 years, told news portal WatsonExternal link<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis hobby is already dying out, and this incident has now further damaged our reputation. Now there\u2019s a bitter aftertaste whenever you think of coffee creamer lids.\u201d<\/p>\n Tough market<\/p>\n![\"Switzerland](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c7789e.webp\")
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