[4][5] It was headquartered in Zürich, and the publishing house gave Arnold Kübler, the former editor-in-chief of the Zürcher Illustrierte, the lead over the new magazine.

[8] The magazine was meant to bring some hope and distraction to the people worried due to World War II.

[12] He wrote an influential article in the Du, in which he advocated for the establishment of a village for orphans of World War II.

[16] In 1960 Loetscher also founded the supplement Das Wort (English:The Word)[16] which had a focus on philosophy and social sciences.

[3] Bachmann attempted to lead the magazine to former glories with editions on Gabriel Garcia Marquez or the Swiss authors Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Max Frisch and the circulation returned to over 25'000.

[3] The magazine wasn't profitable and after Du's ownership changed several times;[3] it was bought by Oliver Prange [de] in 2007.

[19][20][21] Under Prange, who was editor in chief since 2015,[15] the magazine published issues in cooperation with other cultural institutions for which it also received financial support.

[19] This went well until, a week ahead of the Federal Elections in 2015, Du published an issue about the art collection of the politician of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) Christoph Blocher.

[6] Corti wrote an influential article in which he advocated for the establishment of a village for orphans of World War II.