Switzerland

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country located in Central Europe.

Birth of Arnim Zola
Switzerland is the birthplace of Arnim Zola, who went on to become one of the most prominent scientist working for the Third Reich, HYDRA and later S.H.I.E.L.D.

As he was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany during World War II, many people, including Steve Rogers wrongly attributed Zola's citizenship as German.

Engineering Conference
An international Engineering Conference was held in Geneva on May 5, 1934. Howard Stark and Abraham Erskine met during the Conference, and wouldn't meet again until Stark took part in a mission to rescue Erskine in Germany as a member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve.

Escape of Abraham Erskine
The 14th of September, 1935, Doctor Abraham Erskine, his wife Greta, and their sons Klaus and Marlene, boarded a train heading to Geneva in hopes of avoiding a group of anti-semitic laws known as that Adolf Hitler would approve the following day in Nuremberg.

They couldn't arrive, as Johann Schmidt intercepted the train in the German/Swiss border, as he wanted to coerce Erskine into turning his research to them. Erskine ended up as prisoner in Castle Kaufmann, while his family was sent to a in Dachau.

Night Fondue
Steve Rogers, hearing about the events in Azzano and the imprisonment of the soldiers that battled HYDRA, decided to rescue the prisoners alone. Agent Peggy Carter of the Strategic Scientific Reserve supported his decision and offered to fly him from Italy to Austria in a plane piloted by Howard Stark.

While on the plane, Stark offered Carter to stop at Lucerne for a late night, an offer Rogers wrongly guessed was some kind of intimate proposal.

Science Conference
On New Year's Eve 1999, Tony Stark was invited to Bern in order to give a lecture on integrated circuits as the head speaker. Stark was able to give his lecture despite being heavily drunk, later defined as being both edifying and unintelligible, depending on the asked person.

Having finished the lectures, Stark assisted to ensuing party where he flirted with Maya Hansen while his bodyguard Happy Hogan tried to keep people from approaching Stark. Ho Yinsen greeted Stark before leaving, and introduced him to doctor Wu, a chinese cardiologist and their guest in Bern, mocking both of them due to his drunkenness.

Stark and Hansen were approached by Aldrich Killian, founder of a privately-funded think tank called Advanced Idea Mechanics or A.I.M. and great admirer of their work. Killian sneaked into their elevator and and revealed that he was very interested in Hansen's work, offering to recruit her into A.I.M.

To get away of Killian, Stark lied to him and told him to wait on the roof of the building, and he would join up after taking a quick drink. Killian believed him and waited for him at the roof until the celebrations for the New Year started, realizing Stark was not going to come. He considered suicide, but thinking that none knew he was even there made him realize that anonymity was the rule he would follow to achieve his goals.

Stark reviewed Hansen's Extremis project, that intended to access the area of the brain responsible of repairs and healing in order to chemically recode it. Happy Hogan touched one of the plants serving as test subjects for Extremis, and breaking one of its branches activated the Extremis-induced regeneration. Stark and Hansen entered the bedroom and while Hansen explained possible applications for Extremis, such as disease prevention or even limb regrowth, Stark continued flirting with her.

The plant exploded, as it was one of the possible side effects for the use of Extremis, and Hogan rushed to protect his boss, putting in an embarrasing position. At that moment, the guests gathered in the builiding started shouting to celebrate the New Year that arrived.

The following morning, Stark left Hansen withouth saying goodbye, just leaving her a note while she was working.

Lloyd Rathman's Accounts
Lloyd Rathman, Senior Partner and director of wealth management for Kester, Dyer and Rathman LLP, settled a private corporate bank account in the International Bank of Geneva.

Skye used Rathman's private corporate I.D. in the bank to investigate international criminal Vanchat's financials, in order to track the Centipede Project as they kidnapped Phil Coulson.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Trauma Zentrum
Skye was taken to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Trauma Zentrum in Zurich inside a Hyperbaric Chamber, arriving two hours after she was shot twice in the stomach at close range by Ian Quinn. Jemma Simmons updated Dr. Jazuat on Skye's status and what was done to stabilize her. Jazuat and her team began to operate on Skye immediately to save her life.

Meanwhile, Phil Coulson tried to contact Nick Fury to learn more about the procedures used to resurrect him, in order to apply them on Skye and save her life, but Fury was nowhere to be found.

The rest of his his team blamed themselves on Skye's status, as Leo Fitz thought she shouldn't have let her try to apprehend Quinn by herself, and Grant Ward saying that his responsibility as Skye's Supervising Officer was to protect her. However, Melinda May dismissed their thoughts, saying that the only one to blame was Quinn, the man who shot her.

Dr Jazuat let Coulson and the rest of his team know that despite the best efforts of the surgeons who operated on her, the shots caused a great damage to Skye's internal organs, and she was being kept on life support. Jazuat told Coulson he should decided how long was she going to be kept in that situation, and advised him to call her family and made them travel to Switzerland as soon as possible. As Coulson and the team were Skye's only family, Jazuat told them she was very sorry for the whole situation.

May couldn't hold back and returned to the Bus to beat Ian Quinn for almost killing Skye, but Coulson decided to travel to Bethesda in order to use on Skye the same procedures used to resurrect him, taking Skye into the bus inside a Medical Pod.

Trivia

 * Switzerland is the one hundred and thirty-fifth largest country by area.
 * Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh.