Jeremias Gotthelf

Jeremias Gotthelf ( born October 4, 1797 in Murten, Canton of Fribourg, † October 22, 1854 in Lutzelfluh, Canton of Bern ) was the pseudonym of the Swiss writer and pastor Albert Bitzius.

Life

Childhood and youth

Bitzius Albert was born on October 4, 1797 in Murten, the son of the reformed pastor Sigmund Bitzius and his third wife Elisabeth Bitzius -Kohler. In 1805 his father was transferred to the farming village Utzenstorf. Here Albert learned the peasant world of the Emmental know. The father taught himself Albert From 1812, Albert attended the Literarschule in Bern and changed from 1814 as externus ( External, listener ) to the University of theologians. From this time he wrote:

Training

In 1817 he began the ordinary theology in Bern, where he graduated in 1820. In 1819 he was a founding member of the Swiss Association Zofinger. After a curacy at his father in Utzenstorf he continued his studies in Göttingen in 1821 continued for one year. They went on a study trip, he visited the island of Rügen, Berlin, Weimar, Leipzig, Dresden and Munich. In the spring of 1822 he returned to Utzenstorf. 1824 his father died and Bitzius was parish administrator in Herzogenbuchsee. In 1829, he came as a parish assistant to Bern at the Holy Ghost Church. In 1831 he became vicar in the parish Lutzelfluh im Emmental, where he was elected to the priest a year later.

The work in Lutzelfluh

Soon he campaigned for the enforcement of compulsory education. Educationally he stood in the tradition of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and distanced himself from his Bernese compatriot Philipp Emanuel of Fellberg. He fought against the exploitation of poor children as cheap labor. He demanded action against alcoholism.

In 1833, he married in the church Wynigen Zeender Henriette ( 1805-1872 ), daughter of a Berner theology professor. Together they had three children: Henriette (1834-1890), Albert (1835-1882) and Cecile ( 1837-1914 ). The son also became a pastor and continued in many areas continued his father's efforts for social reform in the Canton of Bern.

1835 Bitzius was elected school superintendent for 18 schools in the communities Lutzelfluh, Rüegsauschachen, Hasle and upper castle. After ten years, he was dismissed from his office because of political differences with the government.

Also in 1835 he was instrumental in the founding of the school for poor children Trachselwald Schlossgut Trachsel forest. Until his death he advocated. In Scripture The Armennot (1840 appeared ) he processed the experience.

Increasingly, he was also active politically and criticized the ruling families Berner, in his view, too little attended to the most vulnerable. He had refused with lawyer William Snell, a professor at the University of Bern, who taught a radical liberalism and the information required by Gotthelf reforms as too interventionist Violent clashes.

The writer

Gotthelf 1836 began with the writing. His first novel was The farmer mirror. The name of the main character of this work was also the pen name of Bitzius: Jeremias Gotthelf. In the following years he was tirelessly active as a writer and has published novels, short stories, some contemporary partly historical, and essays.

A significant proportion of the spread of the literary work of Jeremias Gotthelf in the northern German states had Julius Springer, published in the Berliner Verlag 1846 all fonts. To increase the awareness Springer had its author repeatedly advised to use phrases and terms sparingly in local Swiss dialect. The first book in high German version is the Uli Knecht ( 1846). Springer offered Gotthelf books in different models and in all price ranges.

Gottfried Keller -reviewed 1849-1855 a number of these books (→ s: Keller Jeremias Gotthelf ). In it, he praised his compatriot as a great epic poet, but criticized the licentiousness of his anti- liberal propaganda.

Illness and death

1851 broke a neck and heart disease with dropsy. 1853 could bring no relief of his cough and somnolence a cure in Gurnigelbad. Jeremias Gotthelf died on October 22, 1854 of a stroke.

Significance and aftermath

His novels reflect in a partly frightening realism rural life in the 19th century. With a few strong, powerful words he could describe people and landscapes. Gotthelf knew, as no other writer of his time, the Christian and humanistic to process the claims in his work.

Outstanding in his work is the frame novella The Black Spider (1843 ), in which he handled old Share to allegorical tale of Christian humanist notions of good and evil. First, hardly noticed, this story is considered by many literary critics as one of the masterpieces of German Biedermeier. Thomas Mann wrote in The Origin of Doctor Faustus that Gotthelf " often the Homeric " touch and that he admired his Black Spider " like no other piece of world literature." As a writer, described him as Walter Muschg in 1954, is " the outsider [ ... ] unquestionably not only the largest but the only narrator of the first rank in the German literature, the only one who can be compared to Dickens, Balzac or Dostoevsky. " Next admits a Muschg worried: "Nevertheless, it is many excellent connoisseurs unknown. His name elicits a smile infallible, and it seems impossible that he will ever go down in world literature. Not only because only a Swiss can conceive of the fullness of his barbarous language. "

His ideal an era marked by diligence, earthiness, patriotism and religiosity company saw Gotthelf threatened by individualism, liberalism and the progressive industrialization. As symbols of this supposed threat of house and home act in his work even Jews who are represented mostly negative, for example, as speculators and swindlers; and also found the anti-Judaic legends of " deicide " and the " Jewish stubbornness " in his stories.

The novel 2666 by Roberto Bolaño rotates among other things, the fictional writer Benno von Archimboldi, is said to have written the novel Bitzius on Gotthelf's life.

Some of Gotthelf's works were filmed. In Switzerland, Uli was the servant (1954 ) and its sequel Uli the Tenant (1955 ) very successfully. Directed by the Emmentaler director Franz Schnyder and later very successful performer Hannes Schmid Hauser and Liselotte Pulver played the lead roles.

Gotthelf's estate is located in the Burgerbibliothek Bern. In his honor, roads have been in many places, including Zurich, Bern and Basel, named after him, with those a whole district, the Quartier Gotthelf, specifies the name in Basel.

In August 2012, the center Gotthelf Emmental Lutzelfluh was opened in the former parsonage and related buildings.

Gotthelf Memorial Day in the Protestant calendar name of the Evangelical Church in Germany is October 22.

Works

• Described the peasants levels or life history of Jeremias Gotthelf by himself, Roman 1837
• The Wassernoth im Emmental, 1838
• As five girls in brandy perish miserably, narrative, 1838
• Sorrows and joys of a schoolmaster, novel, 1838/39
• Dursli the brandy drunkard or the holy Christmas Eve, novella, 1839
• How Joggeli a woman seeking, short story, 1841
• Elsi, the strange maid, short story, 1843
• The Black Spider, short story, 1842
• As Anne Bäbi house hold Jowäger and how he is doing with the doctoring, novel, 1843/44
• Money and Spirit, novel, 1843/44
• The Geldstag, novel, 1846
• Hans Joggeli the Erbvetter, narrative, 1846
• Uli der Knecht, Uli the Tenant, double novel, 1846-1849
• The notary in the case narrative, 1848
• Michels Brautschau, narrative, 1849
• The cheese factory in the Vehfreude, novel, 1850
• The Erdbeeri - Mareili, novella, 1850
• The Besenbinder of Rychiswyl, narrative, 1851
• Zeitgeist and Berner mind, novel, 1851
• Barthli the Korber, narrative, 1852
• Kurt Koppigen, novel
• Calendar and many stories, essays, letters and sermons

Films

• Uli the Servant, 1954, directed by Franz Schnyder, Starring: Hannes Schmid Hauser, Liselotte Pulver,
• Uli the Tenant, 1955, directed by Franz Schnyder, Starring: Hannes Schmid Hauser, Liselotte Pulver, Emil Hegetschweiler, Heinrich Gretler
• The cheese factory in the Vehfreude, 1958, directed by Franz Schnyder, Starring: Annemarie Düringer, Franz Matter, Heinrich Gretler, Hedda Koppe, Margrit Winter, Erwin Kohlund, Margrit Rainer
• Anne Bäbi Jowäger, 1960, directed by Franz Schnyder, Starring: Henry Gretler, Margrit Winter, Sigfrit Steiner, Margrit Rainer, Ruedi Walter
• Money and Spirit, 1964, directed by Franz Schnyder, Starring: Max Haufler, Margrit Winter, Elisabeth Berger, Ruedi Walter
• The Black Spider, 1983, directed by Mark M. Rissi, Starring: Beatrice Kessler, Walo Lüönd, Peter Ehrlich, Walter Hess