Dres Balmer

Dres Balmer (born March 28, 1949 in Grindelwald ) is a Swiss writer and former delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Life

Dres Balmer, whose real name is Andreas Balmer , studied Romance languages at the universities in Basel and Lausanne and then worked as a teacher in Lausanne. From 1979 to 1982 he was a delegate for the ICRC, with assignments in Zaire , Thailand , Cambodia and El Salvador . He currently lives in Bern and works as a travel reporter, translator (for example by Yves Velan ) and photographer.

Literary work

Balmer's best-known works include the book Kupferstunde , first published in August 1982 by Benziger Verlag , in which he describes his experiences as an ICRC delegate in El Salvador and expresses his dissatisfaction with doing nothing effectively about the suffering caused by the civil war in the country to be able to. From the perspective of the ICRC, however, the publication of the book violated the discretion practiced by the organization , which the ICRC sees as the basis for its neutrality and impartiality and thus as the basis for effective humanitarian aid .

The ICRC therefore tried, by referring to Dres Balmer's breach of the obligation to maintain secrecy, to forbid the sale of the book. This ban was first confirmed in several court instances, so that the book appeared with a delay. In his essay Grünspan , published later , Balmer presented the controversy surrounding the work of copper hours from his point of view.

Works

• Ice village . Novel. Benziger, Zurich 1981, ISBN 3-545-36340-6
• Copper lesson . Novel. Benziger, Zurich 1982, ISBN 3-545-36359-7 ; Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-25871-5
• Verdigris. Man and humanity . Abedul, Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-905006-00-6
• Messages from the Andes . Ammann, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-250-10035-8
• The last adventures of the twentieth century. Six stories . Ammann, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-250-10146-X
• Arrivée and départ. Between passers-by and permanent guests (with Margrith Bohren). Inbrevi, Küssnacht am Rigi 2005, ISBN 3-9522355-3-9
• Hiking destination hut. A cultural guide to 50 SAC huts . Swiss Alpine Club , Bern 2006, ISBN 3-85902-250-4
• Cross pass. By bike from Lake Constance to Lake Geneva . Werd, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-85932-613-2
• Route 66. From Chicago to Los Angeles by bike . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-85869-478-2
• Around the Black Sea. A bike tour through seven countries from Istanbul to Istanbul . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-85869-712-7
• Deer on the rape field or a bike tour around the Baltic Sea . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-85869-824-7

Web links

• Publications by and about Dres Balmer in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Literature by and about Dres Balmer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry about Dres Balmer in the lexicon of the Association of Authors of Switzerland
• Entry in the Bibliomedia Foundation's authors' directory