Place Ruth-Bösiger

Ruth Bösiger known as Coucou is a commercial photographer, saleswoman and anarchist activist. Born to a mother of Russian origin and a father from Neuchâtel, Ruth Menkès (named after her first husband George Menkès, a médecin des pauvres et des syndicats, close to libertarian circles) militated in the 1930s within a Geneva anarchist group, probably the Réveil group.

She was in charge of the choir and was in charge of the distribution of the newspaper Le réveil anarchiste. As André Bösiger, her second husband will tell about his wife and her friends « most of them éwere more cultivatedémost of them were more cultured and evolved than we were, but this did not prevent them from being kept in domestic roles within the collective. Ruth Menk is also a member of the League of Human Rights. In the mid-1930s, Ruth Menk also took on the task of bringing parcels to prisoners. This is how she met her second husband, Andr Biger, a construction worker and anarchist activist who was locked up for insubordination to the army. The couple probably got married in the early 1940s.

The couple's marriage was not a happy one

After World War II, Ruth Bösiger moved to Old Town. Since photography did not allow her to earn a living, she first worked as a laborer in various factories, then as a saleswoman at the Grand Passage. For many years, she continued her militant activities, notably within the Swiss Association of Free Thinkers. Stricken by Alzheimer's disease, she died on July 19, 1990.