Cécile Ines Loos

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Cécile Ines Loos (born February 4, 1883 in Basel ; † January 21, 1959 there ) was a Swiss writer and author of autobiographical works.

Portrait of Cécile Ines Loos (Photo archive Jeck, Reinach BL)
Cécile Ines Loos, drawing by Hanni Bay
Cécile Ines Loos, drawing by Hanni Bay

Life

Cécile Ines Loos was the last of five children of the Basel organist Christian Bernhard Felician Loos and his wife Sara Charlotte Loos-Stuckert. Her maternal grandparents were the goldsmith Friedrich Wilhelm Stuckert and his wife Rosina Stuckert- Burckhardt . Her mother died of consumption at the young age of 28 in 1885, and her father also died a short time later.

After the parents' early death, Loos was taken in as a foster child by Emma Charlotte Langlois-Mollissing, a newly married friend of her mother's, and her husband . In an unpublished short autobiography she mentions that her older siblings were all sent abroad while she herself lived in Burgdorf with her new foster family for the next few years . The next stroke of fate was the death of the foster mother, who died in childbirth in 1892, after which the foster father remarried. Loos wanted his new wife out of the house and in 1893 she was sent to an orphanage run by the Viktoria Foundation in Wabern near Bern . After a stay in French-speaking Switzerland , she completed a one-year training as a qualified kindergarten teacher (1902).

She then worked as a nanny for various families: from 1902 to 1906 with a noble family in Ohringen near Winterthur , from 1906 to 1911 in the house of an English lord. In his service there were stays in Scotland, Ireland, Italy and Palestine. As a result of an unhappy love affair, she gave birth to an illegitimate son named Leonardo Loos in Milan in August 1911 , who initially grew up with foster parents in Cornate d'Adda . She then plunged into a serious crisis , which was also treated with psychotherapy , and from which she did not fully recover in her life. As a result, she began writing literary texts. Between 1913 and 1917 she found employment as a serving girl in Bern. All in all, little is known about the time from 1902 until her return to Basel in 1921.

In January 1921 Loos officially registered in Basel and brought her son Leonardo with her, who was now ten years old and who from then on grew up in an orphanage and spent Sundays with her.

Her debut novel Matka Boska , published in 1929 by the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt in Stuttgart , was an overwhelming success. The first edition was sold out within a few days and had to be reprinted. As a result, she became known throughout the German-speaking area within a very short time. In December 1929 Loos officially became a member of the Swiss Writers' Association .

In 1931 the second novel followed under the title The Riddles of Turandot , which was also published by the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt. This time is considered the high point of her career, even if the second novel did not achieve the same success as Matka Boska . In 1932 she went on a tour to Palestine , Egypt and Greece . Her estate includes a travel diary and an unpublished volume of poetry about the trip to Egypt. When Loos returned to Switzerland, she began to study the anthroposophical teaching of Rudolf Steiner . There is also a notebook for this in her estate.

In addition to her work as a writer, Loos also dealt intensively with astrology, especially with horoscopes, for several years.

Despite the fame that Matka Boska had given her, Loos lived on the edge of the subsistence level all her life . She earned her living mainly as a waitress , saleswoman and secretary . She received support from welfare organizations and a private association of women from Basel.

Cécile Ines Loos' estate came to the Basel University Library through her son Leonardo Loos in 1960. This was made possible through the mediation of Professor Walter Muschg , a former friend of the writer. In addition to published works, the estate also contains numerous unpublished works.

The Cécile Ines Loos facility is located at St. Alban-Rheinweg 220 .

Works

  • Matka Boska. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 1929. New edition: Newly published and provided with a biographical afterword by Charles Linsmayer . Frauenfeld: Huber 2015, ISBN 978-3-7193-1594-8 .
  • The riddles of the Turandot. Stuttgart: German publishing company 1931.
  • The quiet passions. A song of friendship. Zurich: Rascher & Cie. A.-G. 1934.
  • Death and the doll. Zurich: Swiss Book Friends 1939. New edition: New edition and with an afterword by Charles Linsmayer. Küsnacht near Zurich: Edition Kurz 1984.
  • Behind the moon. Zurich: Atlantis 1942. New edition: Zurich: Ex Libris 1983 (= Spring of the Present. The Swiss Novel 1890–1950. Edited by Charles Linsmayer).
  • Konradin. The humming song of the work of father, son and grandson. Zurich: Atlantis 1943.
  • Jehanne. Zurich: Atlantis 1946.
  • The girlfriend. Narrative. 1950.
  • Sleeping princesses. Narrative. St. Gallen: Tschudy 1950.
  • People at the lake. Zurich: Gutenberg Book Guild 1951.
  • Enchanted world. A reader. Compiled and edited by Charles Linsmayer. Küsnacht near Zurich: Edition Kurz 1985. New edition with bibliography 1991.
  • Stories. Edited by Walter Weber. Zurich: Sabe 1987.

Awards

  • 1930 Prize from the Swiss Schiller Foundation for Matka Boska
  • 1947 Prize from the Swiss Schiller Foundation
  • 1952 Prize from the Swiss Schiller Foundation

Honors

In 1994 the Cécile Ines Loos facility was inaugurated in the Breite district in Basel in her honor.

literature

Web links

Commons : Cécile Ines Loos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Charles Linsmayer: Cécile Ines Loos .
  2. ^ Cécile Ines Loos, autobiography (approx. 1942). In: NL 207: E, Basel University Library, manuscript department
  3. ^ A b Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Karola Ludwig, Angela Wöffen: Lexicon of German-speaking women writers 1800–1945. dtv Munich, 1986. ISBN 3-423-03282-0 . P. 204.
  4. ^ NL 207: Bf, University Library Basel, manuscript department
  5. ^ A b NL 207: Bh, Basel University Library, manuscript department
  6. ↑ Satisfaction is a transitory condition 1934
  7. ^ NL 207: B, University Library Basel, manuscript department
  8. ↑ Iris Deubler: Cécile Ines Loos-Anlage . In: Committee for a comfortable width (ed.): Breitlemer: Newspaper for the width and Lehenmatt quartier . No. 2 . Basel June 1994.
  9. ^ Tilo Richter: Artful reminiscence of a small city park . In: program guide. Culture in the Basel area . No. 300, Basel November 2014, page 25 ( digitized version ) (accessed on January 2, 2017).
personal data
SURNAME Loos, Cécile Ines
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer, poet and author of autobiographical works
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1959
Place of death Basel