Adrian Naef
Adrian Albert Naef (born January 10, 1948 in Wallisellen ) is a Swiss writer and musician. One of his best-known works is called Nachtsteiger's Logic - Journal of an Odyssey (Suhrkamp 2003), which testifies to his struggle against severe depression . It is the first work of his literary comeback after 28 years of literary writing break, again with the same German publisher as his debut work Situation Report (Suhrkamp 1975).
Life
Adrian Naef grew up in Wallisellen in the canton of Zurich, which was still rural at the time, and has two older brothers. His parents ran a farm. He is the father of a daughter, grandfather of two and lives together with students and musicians in his house in Zurich and in the Ticino mountains.
After elementary school in the country he visited in Zurich Business School . He then studied economics in St.Gallen and Zurich, finally switched to Phil. I and trained as a specialist teacher for musical subjects, a. a. as religion teacher at the catechetical seminar of the University of Zurich . His religious instruction was non-denominational and open to students of all religions. An agnostic religion teacher was unusual in the 1980s and caused quite a stir. His view that no one can avoid the question of meaning and is therefore religious per se, but that neither God nor faith is needed to lead a religious life, forms the content of three books on religious education that were published in quick succession. His best known is "God is sick, his son listens to punk" ( Zytglogge Verlag 1981).
During his studies, he lived in various residential communities at home and abroad, including one of the first squats on Central in Zurich, where the 1968 uprisings broke out. Extensive musical activities such as painting and photography led to exhibitions and filled his active student time outside the lecture halls. He was an active participant in student revolts. His activities - partly in the creative underground - had a Dadaist character. The nonsense should subvert right and left dogmas and break down to the all too human.
In 1975 his first volume of poems, Situation Report, was published by Suhrkamp. The legendary publisher Siegfried Unseld introduced him to Frankfurt's intellectual circles as a coming talent and encouraged him to pursue a career as a writer . But Naef already broke off his literary work and turned to the songwriting and rock scene.
His song record "Riite Rössli" appeared in 1978 and was broadcast on radio and television. From 1981 to 1985, after the autonomous youth club AJZ was closed, Naef founded and operated its own youth club , the school foyer , which offered street youth a forum and a home. This also served as the basis for rebellious actions with like-minded people, such as the operation of the pirate transmitter hand radio and the nightly sticking of the wall newspaper Bulletin . Both projects achieved cult status in the troubled city. The youth club was later taken over and continued by the city.
As a freelance journalist, he wrote a. a. for the magazine of the Tages-Anzeiger . Together with other musicians, Naef founded the Niederdorf Rock Ensemble in 1981, a rock cabaret of Dadaist style that commented directly on current events.
Religious education books followed at short intervals, with the title “God is sick, his son listens to punk” first published by the company itself. Due to its great success, it was reprinted by Zytglogge Verlag, "Religion without God and the Devil" was added by the same publisher. Naef also played in several Swiss film productions, including Deshima (directed by Beat Kuert, Japan 1987) and in Rotlicht! (Director: Urs Odermatt, 1986).
Further training as a breathing and body therapist at Burkhardt Kiegeland in Salzburg followed. From 1988 to 1997 Naef worked as a special educational hospital teacher at the Children's Hospital in Zurich . There he also ran holiday camps and weekends with chronically ill children and their siblings outside the clinic . This work was interrupted in the autumn of 1997 by the sudden fall into a severe depression. After his illness, which lasted three years, he began training as a picture editor at the media training center MAZ Lucerne and first became an archivist, then a picture editor at the Keystone press agency in Zurich. His depressive episode provided the material for the author's literary resurrection after an almost thirty-year break in writing. Night Walker's logic emerged. This was followed by several prose, poetry and non-fiction books.
Works
Original editions
- Bread instead of games: Using the example of Tump. weissbooks.w, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-86337-146-3 .
- Rituals: where they come from, why we need them. Elster, Zurich, 2014, ISBN 978-3-906065-09-0 .
- A shameless look at the lady in black: 79 theses on depression and health. Elster, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-907668-90-0 .
- The townspeople. weissbooks.w , Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-86337-006-0 .
- The calculator. Edition Isele , Eggingen 2006, ISBN 3-86142-382-0 .
- Night Walker's Logic - Journal of an Odyssey. With an afterword by Adolf Muschg. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-518-41430-5 .
Religious educational books
- Religions Time Bomb - A Lexical Research. Elster, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-906065-30-4 .
- Religion without religions: what we forget - what we want to take with us. Elster, Zurich 2015, ISBN 3-906065-14-6 .
- Religion without god and devil. A lexicon. Zytglogge, Bern 1986, ISBN 3-7296-0231-4 .
- God is sick, his son listens to punk. Adrian Naef, 1983, ISBN 3-7296-0161-X .
- The best of all time: Quote from a speech by an Indian chief in Zurich. Sil-Verlag, Zurich 1983, DNB 995515611 .
Poems
- Moonshiner: Poems & Songs. weissbooks.w, Frankfurt am Main 2017 ISBN 978-3-86337-123-4 .
- Moonshiner: Poems & Songs. private extended version weissbooks.w, Frankfurt am Main 2017.
- Ravens. weissbooks.w, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-86337-066-4 .
- Poppy. weissbooks.w, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-86337-039-8 .
- On the disk with the fish. weissbooks.w, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-86337-016-9 .
- Management report. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-518-03729-3 .
As editor
- Klaus Isele, Adrian Naef (ed.): Dasein als Da sein. Adolf Muschg on his 75th birthday. Isele, Eggingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-86142-463-5 .
music
- Song record Riite Rössli ( dialect songs ), Zytglogge Bern 1978.
Web links
- Adrian Naef's website
- Entry about Adrian Naef in the lexicon of the Association of Authors of Switzerland
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Naef, Adrian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Naef, Adrian Albert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss writer and musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 10, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wallisellen |