Albert Bächtold

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Albert Bächtold (born January 3, 1891 in Wilchingen ; † October 27, 1981 in Grüningen ; citizen of Schleitheim ) was a Swiss writer who wrote his works in Klettgau dialect .

Life

Bächtold was the son of a teacher who died early at the age of 37. His widow barely got by for herself and her five children with a small grocery store and market visits. After attending primary school in Wilchingen and secondary school in Hallau , Bächtold trained as a primary school teacher at the teachers' seminar in Schaffhausen . From 1911 to 1913 he was a teacher in Merishausen . From 1913 to 1918 he lived in Russia , first as a tutor on an aristocratic estate near Kiev , where he did not like it, then in Moscow , where he completed a commercial apprenticeship in a company that manufactured optical instruments for the Russian army. In 1917 he became an eyewitness to the October Revolution . When he returned to Switzerland starved and impoverished in October 1918, he first tried to study law with the financial support of an uncle, but soon gave up. In December he embarked for America and gave lectures in the United States on the Russian Revolution to raise money for the Russian- Swiss.

In 1921 Bächtold settled in Zurich. He worked as a general agent for De Vry Super Corp. in Europe for the distribution of portable cinema projectors , which he had met on his trip to America; at the same time, the big earner was active as a sports reporter. He lived a life with racing cars and aviation, was friends with the balloonist Erich Tilgenkamp and the aviation pioneer Walter Mittelholzer and married a mannequin - both this marriage and a later one both failed. In the Great Depression of 1929, however, he suffered great financial losses ( Black Friday ), his company in Chicago went bankrupt, and his business experienced after the advent of sound film a general decline. As a result, Bächtold turned more to journalism .

In the thirties he began to work as a writer. In 1935 he completed his first High German novel, which met with little positive feedback and whose manuscript he later destroyed. In 1937 Bächtold drew up a plan to depict his own eventful life in individual novels , and since then he has been writing in dialect. In the autobiographical books in narrative prose he appears as Peter Räbme (“Peter Rebmann”).

From 1939 to 1941 Bächtold was in active service ; From 1941 to 1942 he was treated several times in the eye clinic for an eye disease that almost made him blind. After that he devoted himself exclusively to writing, first in the "Künstlerhaus" on Zurich Hirschengraben, then in the medieval "Haus zur Deutschen Schule" on Zurich Neumarkt 3. He now lived the life of a hermit, as it were, and suffered - despite his outwardly portrayed happiness Depression . In 1974 he moved to Meilen , and in 1981 he moved to the “Sonnhalde” nursing home in Grüningen, where he died a short time later. His urn was buried in Wilchingen, where he was born.

Bächtold's novels are not homeland literature , but their subject is the wide world, and they revolve around the questions of humanity. In 1960 he received honorary citizenship of the community of Wilchingen. The typical wine village had three poets almost simultaneously: Albert Bächtold, Bertha Hallauer (1863–1939) and Ruth Blum (1913–1975). In 1951 and 1959 he received advancement awards and in 1971 the overall works award of the Swiss Schiller Foundation as well as the Johann Peter Hebel award and the Bodensee literary award . His estate is administered by the Albert Bächtold Foundation in Wilchingen.

In 2014, Bächtold's life was filmed by filmmaker Christina Ruloff (producer: Beat Toniolo ) under the title “In Kiev, me Mundaart - Albert Bächtold's fantastic journey”.

Works

  • Das Gasthaus zum Engel, High German 1935 (Life of grandfather Johann Böhm, manuscript not preserved)
  • De table finch. E Bilderbuech us em Chläggi, Zurich 1939 (birth and portrait of the father)
  • De Hannili-Peter, Zurich 1940 (childhood in Wilchingen, portrait of the mother)
  • De goldig Schmid, Roman, Zurich 1942 (return home), Grand Prize of the Gutenberg Book Guild
  • Wält uhni Liecht, Zurich 1944 (in the Zurich eye clinic)
  • De Studänt Räbme, Zurich 1947 (experiences at the teachers' seminar)
  • Pjotr ​​Ivanowitsch, Schaffhausen 1950, two volumes (Experiences in Russia)
  • De Silberstaab, Schaffhausen 1953 (his period of economic success)
  • De anders Wäg, Schaffhausen 1957 (during the economic crisis in Zurich, changed to a dialect writer)
  • At Wäg noo. Sayings in Schaffhausen dialect, Schaffhausen 1960 (dialect sayings )
  • D Haametstimm, Schaffhausen 1962 (memories of people and customs in Wilchingen)
  • S isch groote, Schaffhausen 1972 (hospital stay, search for the meaning of life)
  • Silver table. Öppis zum Lache, anecdote, Schaffhausen 1974 (anecdotes and jokes from Schaffhauserland)
  • Noosüechle, Anecdote, Schaffhausen 1978 (short, cheerful stories)
  • D Sprooch is the mirror of the people. Us siine Büecher, Schaffhausen 1988 (an obituary for his work, with biographical dates and catalog raisonné )

Since Bächtold worked on his novels almost to the end of his life, the details of the later editions often differ from the respective first edition.

literature

Congratulations and obituaries
  • L. Vogelsanger, Jakob Walch: For Albert Bächtold's 70th birthday. In: Schaffhauser Nachrichten, January 3, 1961, 3rd sheet, No. 1.
  • Kurt Gysi: Albert Bächtold. At the completion of his eightieth year on January 3rd, 1971. In: Bund Schyzertütsch: Our dialects. Extended special print from Heimatschutz 3, 1971.
  • Kurt Bächtold: On the death of Albert Bächtold. In: Schaffhauser Nachrichten, October 31, 1981, p. 19.
  • R [udolf] Trüb : On the death of Albert Bächtold. In: Tages-Anzeiger, October 29, 1981, p. 29.
filming

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bächtold, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilchingen
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1981
Place of death Grüningen