The smart, radiant woman from Lucerne

Whatever Ellen set her mind to, she persevered with unbelievable personal effort. The impatience that drove her had a reason: she realised how much there was still to do and how little time you have when you reach the second half of your life.

That's why Ellen was so direct. Sometimes she expressed her displeasure openly when she learnt for the umpteenth time that hundreds of millionaires simply didn't want to realise that they could and should do something good for society without any effort, if only they wanted to.

Family was the theme of her life

Ellen Ringier dedicated her time and money to the life project that had come to her through personal experience: the Elternsein Foundation and its monthly magazine «Fritz + Fränzi», which has been around for almost 25 years and has earned the ambitious title «The Swiss Parents' Magazine» through its excellent choice of topics and skilful journalistic presentation. Her two daughters, Lilly and Sophie, were her constant motivation and their lives her challenge.

Even the better circles, who mocked her behind closed doors as a «beggar woman», could not deny it: Whenever it came to matching word and deed, Ellen Ringier was unbeatable. She did what she said and she thought before she spoke. Some of her sentences were unpleasant but true, for example: «Other countries have a family ministry. But in Switzerland, families have no lobby.» So she helped to fill this gap.

There was a reason for Ellen's impatience: she realised how much there was still to do and how little time was left.

Since its inception, the Elternsein Foundation and its magazine have not shied away from sensitive topics: violence, addiction, school problems, mental illness, suicide. Experts are called in, things are called by their names, experiences are shared and solutions are presented. This is why the low-cost programmes are not only well received by parents, but also by teachers. Contrary to the development of most magazines, «Fritz + Fränzi» has been able to continuously expand its readership in recent years.

The fact that, over the course of a quarter of a century, most of the country's renowned organisations - including institutes and authorities - have entered into a close exchange with this private initiative was positive feedback for Ellen Ringier from competent bodies regarding the quality of her work.

A cosmopolitan family, a noble partner

Ellen's parents were Harriet and Viktor Lüthy. Her father was a furrier and fur trader with an international reach. He was also an enthusiastic and knowledgeable art lover and a discreet but important collector of 19th and 20th century Swiss paintings. He was active as President of the Bernhard Eglin Foundation until his death in 1998. Over the years, the foundation was able to acquire over a hundred works of Swiss art from the 18th century onwards, thus laying the foundations for the Lucerne Museum of Art's own collection.

His father's internationally orientated business activities and his mother Harriet's biography determined the climate in the family. Harriet had fled from Austria to London to escape the Nazis. Ellen and her younger sisters Janet and Kay lived with art, visited many exhibitions with their parents and were lucky enough to grow up in a sociable, cosmopolitan atmosphere.

I knew early on that I was free to choose what I wanted to be.

Ellen Ringier

As a girl, Ellen was fascinated by great female figures such as Golda Meir and Marie Curie. She once said: «These biographies, but also my mother's upbringing, encouraged me to not just want to be a housewife later on and to submit to peer pressure, also known as «society». I knew early on that I was free to choose what I wanted to be.»

Her grandfather had already given her a significant sum of money when she was a teenager «so that you would be independent of men». Ellen valued this as an «incredible gift, because I knew from the age of twelve that I could go my own way and that there would always be a safety net.»

Dream job: Doctor

She met her husband Michael at the Lucerne carnival in the legendary youth meeting place, the Mövenpick am Grendel. She had actually only gone there with a friend because the cinellas they had been given as members of a Guggenmusik at the 1973 carnival were too heavy for them; she couldn't play any other instrument. «I just wanted to go to the nearest pub and put them down,» she said later. And that's where the tree-tall Michael Ringier sat, unmasked. They married three years later. The partnership lasted for almost 45 years because both personalities respected and helped each other.

Ellen Lüthy had actually wanted to become a doctor. However, her beloved but strict father deemed the chemistry and physics marks in her school-leaving certificate insufficient. So Ellen decided to study law, which she completed in 1980 with a doctorate under Professor Manfred Rehbinder.

Dissertation from the «Blick» editorial team

Her dissertation had an unwieldy name: «Zivilrechtliche Probleme der identifizierenden Berichterstattung am Beispiel der Presse» (Zurich 1981). It was based on files on disputes relating to personal rights that the editorial team of the «Blick» had to settle. At the request of the in-house lawyer, the doctoral student wrote a large part of the work in one of the few lockable executive offices of the «Blick». At the same time, Michael completed his first course at the Ringier School of Journalism in St. Gallen after rather lacklustre business studies and caught fire for this profession.

After completing their training, Michael and Ellen first moved to Hamburg. Few people there knew the name Ringier and the importance of this company in Switzerland. The young couple were judged on their achievements. «Those years were some of the happiest of my life,» Ellen later said. At first she didn't have a work permit, so she simply provided unpaid help in her legal profession. Later, in Cologne, she worked in a large legal department.

Her most important goal in life was to contribute to the balance between wealth and social conscience.

Michael Ringier made a career for himself as a journalist and editor of the business magazine «Impuls», which was aimed at SMEs. In 1985, Hans Ringier handed over management responsibility for the rapidly growing publishing house to his sons Christoph and Michael. Christoph became Chairman of the Board of Directors, Michael Chairman of the Executive Board (or CEO, as it is known today).

Ellen Ringier had nothing to do with her husband's publishing house, except that she learnt a lot there through observation and clever implementation in order to achieve her life goals. The most important of these life goals for her was to contribute to the balance between wealth and social conscience.

Establishment of the Elternsein Foundation

It was this legacy from her grandfather and her parents that encouraged Ellen Ringier to realise the project of a lifetime in 2001: the establishment of the Elternsein Foundation and the Swiss parenting magazine «Fritz + Fränzi». She quickly realised that what the state neglects must be provided by private initiative in Switzerland: Counselling and help with parenting issues, dealing with the risk of poverty or the age-appropriate use of smartphones.

The foundation went public with a modern, well-founded parenting magazine. The very name «Fritz + Fränzi» signalled optimism, open-mindedness and openness towards difficult and controversial topics.

Ellen and her first editor-in-chief Sabine Danuser produced six issues a year. They became a forum for discussion on topics such as the «enemy image of the teacher», the conflicting roles of career and parent, media behaviour and addiction. Most of the magazines were distributed free of charge via the schools - with the support of the cantonal education directorates.

The soul of the non-profit organisation

Ellen Ringier was the soul of the company. She knew enough experts from the large publishing house whose name she bore to know that she was taking a high financial risk. She was predicted high losses, which at times materialised.

Ellen Ringier recalled on the 20th birthday of her life's work: «One year of deficit followed the next. The nights all too often turned into day. Sabine Danuser and I took holidays only to continue working day and night at another location. Circulation stagnated, the income from adverts was not enough. Deficits made life difficult for me despite donors and sponsors. The start-up was in danger of failing. But giving up was out of the question.»

She told a journalist from «Annabelle» in an interview: «I couldn't go golfing if we had so few adverts.» What Ellen concealed was that she devoted a significant part of her life to her project and made hundreds of phone calls to motivate allies and solicit adverts. While many people mistakenly believed that the powerful Ringier publishing house was behind the company, over the years she has invested a significant part of her personal fortune in her life project.

In the meantime, the pioneering company has long since become a small professional publishing house, well networked with organisations and foundations with a similarly progressive attitude and respected in the Swiss educational landscape. Ten issues have been published each year since 2010. In addition, the editorial team of «Fritz + Fränzi» has been producing a special issue on career choices every year since 2015 and four special issues for parents of kindergarten children since 2018.

Effect beyond death

Ellen - a gift from her English mother - was not only fundamentally cheerful, but also what is known as «open-minded» or «outspoken»: a young woman who spoke plainly and stood up for attitudes that did not yet all correspond to the prevailing values of the better circles in the last quarter of the 20th century.

At the same time, as she once admitted in an interview, she was not a «show dog», but a «working dog». She dedicated her enormous labour power, coupled with her enthusiasm, to values that were important to her: a well-understood feminism, the fight against racism, culture and not forgetting scouting. But above all to the concerns and problems of families.

Today, Ellen Ringier's life's work is strong enough to have an impact beyond her death.