Alois Büchel

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Alois Büchel (born April 16, 1941 in Vaduz , Principality of Liechtenstein ) is a Liechtenstein director , theater founder and theater director who shaped the cultural life of Liechtenstein. In 2003 he was awarded the Liechtenstein Josef Gabriel von Rheinberger Prize . In his cabarets and beyond, Nazi enemy Alois Büchel also works politically. In his youth he was a top athlete and took part in the decathlon discipline at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964 .

Career

Childhood around the Second World War

Alois Büchel was born in the Principality of Liechtenstein during the Second World War in 1941 and grew up with ten siblings. His father was a teacher by profession. The family took in Jewish refugees to sublet. Among them was the highly educated Berlin Jew Kurt Schönlank, who not only awakened the sense of literature and theater in Alois Büchel, but also promoted it: Kurt Schönlank wrote short plays for the host family, which Alois Büchel performed with his siblings and friends. Alois Büchel commented on Kurt Schönlank in the WOZ newspaper in 2014: “He was the most important person for my socialization, for my hatred of Nazis and fascists.” During the Second World War, it was also in the Principality of Liechtenstein because of Nazi activities for Jews been threatening. Kurt Schönlank continued to live in Liechtenstein after the Second World War and died in 1963.

Path to director and theater manager

Like his father and grandfather, Alois Büchel initially learned the profession of teacher. During this time, his sporting talent crystallized: Alois Büchel took part in the decathlon discipline at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 and in Tokyo in 1964 , where he finished 14th.

After the Olympic Games, Alois Büchel founded the cabaret “Kaktus” together with a group from Liechtenstein, for which he worked as the main author and director. In his texts, Alois Büchel primarily processed time-critical content. During this time - from 1963 to 1968 - he studied German, history and philosophy in Zurich and Bonn . He then taught German and history at the grammar school in Vaduz until 1976 .

His main concern, however, was the cabaret “Kaktus”, of which he was the main writer and director. The group showed their four programs in 100 performances. At that time, the art form of scenic satire - cabaret - had established itself in Liechtenstein. In Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, Alois Büchel planned two theater projects, for which he raised the money and had studies made by the Zurich architect Ernst Gieses. With his plan, Alois Büchel met resistance in Vaduz, which is why he and his colleagues found an opportunity in the neighboring village of Schaan .

There was a club house in Schaan, which, in cooperation with Alois Büchel and his team, was converted into the first Liechtenstein cabaret . The Theater am Kirchplatz TaK developed from the club house . This belonged to the municipality of Schaan, which was responsible for the maintenance of the building, which was also contractually agreed between the Theater am Kirchplatz TaK cooperative and Alois Büchel. Alois Büchel was hired by the cooperative in 1969 as a theater manager and director. The signing of the contract was the beginning of a flourishing career, not only for Alois Büchel, but also for the Theater am Kirchplatz TaK.

Alois Büchel as theater director, 1969 - 1992

The theater at Kirchplatz TaK in Schaan

Alois Büchel was the first theater director for the Theater am Kirchplatz TaK and as such he raised it - together with his team - to a high level. From the theater he developed a house of various artistic disciplines by using the building not only as a theater but also as a gallery. Over time, Alois Büchel opened another house under the name “TaKino”. Alois Büchel brought international artists to the country for drama , cabaret, concerts, exhibitions, and children's and youth theater. These included the actress Therese Giehse and the jazz pianist Oscar Peterson . Together with his team, Alois Büchel made the Theater am Kirchplatz TaK known beyond the national border. The continuously sold-out house became an important cultural center in the Liechtenstein- Vorarlberg - Eastern Switzerland region .

In-house productions and guest performances were performed in the TaK. Five of the final productions were broadcast on foreign TV channels. Popular in-house productions included the performances “ Schweig, Bub !” (1983/84), “ Waiting for Godot ” (1988) and “ The end of the beginning ” (1989). Alois Büchel was a celebrated theater director, and thanks to his work, the Theater am Kirchplatz TaK attracted over 100,000 visitors a year.

In his cabarets, Nazi enemy Alois Büchel also addressed and processed the terrible injustice that had befallen the Jews in World War II. In one of his cabarets, Alois Büchel attacked the Liechtenstein company founder and former Julius Streicher admirer Martin Hilti with a cabaret act. When Alois Büchel announced Max Frisch and the church-critical theologian Hans Küng in the 1991 series “Reden über Liechtenstein” , Alois Büchel finally crossed the border of a taboo: In 1992 Alois Büchel was dismissed.

The time after 1992: in the struggle for justice

A dispute between Alois Büchel and the cooperative management of the Theater am Kirchplatz TaK in Schaan ultimately led to the dismissal. The Theater am Kirchplatz TaK belongs to the municipality of Schaan, which - as stipulated in the contract with Alois Büchel - would have been responsible for maintaining the property. However, the community refused to fulfill its duty, which is why the stage equipment was in a neglected condition. After Alois Büchel's release, it was recorded in an investigation report that the municipality of Schaan had seriously neglected its maintenance obligations. As the safety of the TaK employees was seriously endangered, the theater had to be temporarily closed.

The successful theater director did not leave his dismissal behind. He fought for his rights, for the Theater am Kirchplatz TaK and above all for the theater archive that had disappeared. According to Alois Büchel, around 4500 events under his directorship were documented in the archive. It also contained his literary drafts as well as the correspondence, the correspondence that he had conducted among many others with the English sculptor Henry Moore and the German theater director Rudolf Noelte . The lost theater archive was housed in a warehouse in Schaanwald in 1993 . Political scientist Ralph Kellenberger, who has since passed away, still counted 198 archive boxes. Years later, in 2009, the TaK cooperative handed over the archive to the then regional archivist Paul Vogt . He has now received ten archive boxes. There was nothing left in the archive of the documents from Alois Büchel's time. The public prosecutor's office carried out extensive investigations. Legally, however, nothing could be done about the destruction of the archive as it was owned by the TaK cooperative. Who made the archive disappear and for what reason remains a mystery. Nobody took responsibility for this.

In the years 2011 to 2013, the Public Health Office tried to incapacitate Alois Büchel. The Liechtenstein Parliament discussed the case in a closed session. Later a judge decreed incapacitation. The judgment is rejected by the higher court and the proceedings are subsequently discontinued.

A year later, a panel discussion with four of the country's party leaders took place at the Liechtenstein Institute in Bendern . Institute director Wilfried Marxer accepted Alois Büchel's request that he would speak about his case after the event. When entering the Liechtenstein Institute, two plainclothes police searched Alois Büchel for weapons in vain. When he loudly spoke up after the event and distributed leaflets, the plainclothes police took him away. Alois Büchel collapsed unconscious and had to be hospitalized in an emergency at the Chur Cantonal Hospital. Three days later, on April 7, 2014, the CEO of Bank Frick was shot. The 73 year old Alois Büchel was immediately suspected - wrongly - of the act. On the evening of April 11, 2014, Alois Büchel was visited at home and was forcibly taken to the Valduna psychiatric institution . He was released shortly afterwards and the Princely High Court found that the forced detention had been illegal.

On March 13, 2018, 26 years after his dismissal, the Liechtensteiner Volksblatt wrote that the State of Liechtenstein had paid double-digit million amounts in taxpayers' money in the legal dispute with Alois Büchel. There were around sixty trials against Alois Büchel, all of which the former director won.

In 2018, Alois Büchel gave a press conference on his book “Incredible” in Vaduz. In it he informs and documents all the events and injustices that have happened to him since 1992. The real reason why Alois Büchel and why he should be silenced is in the dark.

Award

In 2003 Alois Büchel was awarded the Liechtenstein Joseph Gabriel von Rheinberger Prize . The award is named after the Liechtenstein musician Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger , who worked in the 19th century. This prize is awarded every two years to works and people who are related to culture and history or the landscape of the Principality of Liechtenstein.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Parliament Vice- President Otmar Hasler: State Parliament Protocols of the Liechtenstein State Parliament. In: Parliament of the Principality of Liechtenstein. October 20, 1999, accessed on June 12, 2019 : “In order to enable a new beginning, the achievement of the founders, Dr. Alois Büchel, to be appreciated accordingly. Beyond his duty, he has built up a great, often uncomfortable, but always high-quality cultural establishment ... "
  2. ↑ a b c Josef Gabriel von Rheinberger Prize to Dr. Alois Büche . In: Vaduz municipality (ed.): Vaduz Direkt . No. December 20 , 2003, p. 20 ( vaduz.li [PDF; accessed on June 13, 2019]): “Dr. As the initiator, co-founder and longstanding director of the Theater am Kirchplatz, Schaan, Alois Büchel has made great contributions to cultural life in Liechtenstein. "
  3. ^ Editing: Büchel, Alois. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed June 12, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Alois Büchel: Incredible: a report . Self-published, Vaduz 2018 ( entry in the catalog of the Liechtenstein National Library ).
  5. ↑ A production in the basement theater. In: Economy Regional. March 13, 2018, accessed June 12, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Büchel, Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Liechtenstein theater director, theater director and Olympic participant
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Vaduz , Liechtenstein