Bernhard Echte

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Bernhard Echte 2013

Bernhard Echte (* 1958 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein) is a German publisher, literary scholar , journalist and freelance exhibition maker. Until the end of 2006 he was the managing director of the Robert Walser Archive and a member of the board of the Robert Walser Society (all based in Zurich at the time, now in Bern ). He studied German , philosophy and history at the University of Tübingen .

Life

Bernhard Echte, according to his own statements, became aware of Robert Walser at the age of 17 through a mix-up - his aunt actually wanted to buy him a book by Martin Walser . He was immediately fascinated by the author and, as a student in Tübingen, rode his bike in 1979 "on Robert Walser's footsteps through Switzerland".

From 1981 Echte worked for the Robert Walser Archive and for projects of the Robert Walser Foundation. From 1995 to the end of 2006 he was managing director of the Robert Walser Archive. In particular, after about 18 years of work , he (together with Werner Morlang ) had the so-called “micrograms” left by the writer - a total of 526 manuscript pages written in pencil in Kurrent letters only 1 to 2 millimeters in size - with the help of a magnifying glass and thread counter in deciphered and transcribed several times and published in six volumes (“From the Pencil Area”, 1985–2000). He has also published some other previously unknown works by Robert Walser; in autumn 2008, his picture biography of Robert Walser was published by Suhrkamp-Verlag.

He has also edited works by several other authors (such as Marieluise Fleißer , Friedrich Glauser , Hugo Ball , Emmy Hennings , Rudolf Utzinger, Franz Hessel ). Last but not least, he designed exhibitions on Jean Paul , Robert Walser, Emmy Hennings and also visual artists such as Max Oppenheimer and Karl Walser and published catalogs for them. He is the majority shareholder and publisher of the small publisher “NIMBUS. Art and Books ”.

At the end of the 1990s, Echte acquired the dilapidated “Villa zum Abendstern” in Wädenswil ZH, Bürglistrasse 37, the former residence of the technician and inventor Carl Dubler, as whose assistant the young Robert Walser worked for a while in 1903 and in their tower room he lived. Echte renovated the building, which went down in literary history as the setting for Robert Walser's novel Der Gehülfe (1908) and which can be visited by appointment. The associated garden shed was refurbished in 2006 with the help of Pro Patria and featured on a Swiss Post one-franc postage in 2012 .

Literally at the last minute before the destruction, Echte saved the letters from the Swiss author Friedrich Glauser to Josef Halperin. They had already landed in the garbage and were on their way to a waste incineration plant in the emptying vehicle. Echte raised the alarm at the facility's operations manager and dumped the contents of the truck: "As if God had held out his hand, the very plastic bag in which the decisive letters were kept was intact."

Since the end of 2006, Echte has devoted himself entirely to his publishing house and - together with the Zurich art dealer Walter Feilchenfeldt (son of Walter Feilchenfeldt ) - to the art-historical reconstruction of the exhibitions in the Paul Cassirer art salon in Berlin from 1898 to 1933, which received a lot of attention in the press:

"Given the care taken with the edition, it is surprising that there is no major research project behind this magnificent publication, but rather the small team from the small Swiss publisher Nimbus."

- Ira Mazzoni : Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Research work like no other. In addition, the essays by Bernhard Echte provide an epoch-making overview, they are real literary treasures. "

- Annemarie Monteil : Tages-Anzeiger

Echte currently lives in Wädenswil near Zurich and is married to a psychologist.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the publisher “NIMBUS. Art and Books ” .
  2. ↑ Contact. Website of the publisher “NIMBUS. Art and Books ”.
  3. ↑ 2006. Villa Abendstern garden house, Wädenswil ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Pro Patria .
  4. ↑ 2012. Villa Abendstern garden house, Wädenswil ZH ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Pro Patria.
  5. ^ Cassirer (art salon): The exhibitions 1898–1905. NIMBUS. Art and books (art historical reconstruction).
personal data
SURNAME Real one, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German literary scholar, Robert Walser researcher
DATE OF BIRTH 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigshafen am Rhein