Leaves from the bread sack
The leaves from the bread sack are a diary from active service that the Swiss writer Max Frisch wrote in autumn 1939 as a gunner during his first period of military service in World War II . It was published in 1939 in the magazine Atlantis and in the following year as a book edition in Zurich's Atlantis Verlag . The work has similarities with Frisch's diary of a soldier from 1935, which, however, is terse and less literary. It is in clear contrast to the service booklet with which Frisch in later years examined his military service and the Swiss army very critically.
Emergence
The leaves from the bread sack were first published in November and December 1939 - at that time under the title From a soldier's diary - in the magazine Atlantis . In 1940 a - revised, supplemented and given the title we are familiar with today - book edition followed.
From the end of December 1940 to the beginning of January 1941, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung published the new series of leaves from the bread sack . This sequel is less well known: it was neither taken into account for the new edition of the sheets in 1964, nor is it included in the collected works .
With the leaves from the bread sack , Frisch resumed his literary work, although two years earlier he had vowed to give up writing for lack of talent. According to his own account, this was done in order to deal with the existential threat posed by the war. It is unclear whether Frisch only made these notes for himself, whether contrary to his intentions he had literary intentions again, or whether - as the text itself suggests - he was writing on behalf of his battery commanding officer.
Book edition
- Leaves from the bread sack. Written in the border service in 1939 . Atlantis, Zurich 1940; 5. A. ibid. 1974, ISBN 3-7611-0068-X