Carl Albert Loosli

Carl Arbert Loosli (around 1898)

Carl Albert Loosli (born April 4, 1877 in Schüpfen , Canton of Bern , † May 22, 1959 in Bern-Bümpliz ) was a Swiss writer and journalist .

Life and work

Born out of wedlock, Loosli spent several years in youth institutions, including in Trachselwald Castle . Throughout his life he remained unadjusted and, from the point of view of the society of that time, resistant. In his work there are repeated accusations against the exclusion and disciplining of social outsiders; He denounced pre-trial detention and the institutional system in various works and advocated the creation of youth criminal law.

Loosli worked as a writer as well as a publicist and journalist. His first publications appeared under the pseudonym Carl Trebla . Befriended the Bernese linguist Emanuel Friedli himself, he also wrote a few works in the Emmental dialect . With the dialect works he represented his own understanding of native literature , which consciously avoided sentimentality.

The bilingual grew up already before 1914 perceived the threatening rift between German-speaking Switzerland and French -speaking Switzerland , which had been created by the discoloration of the opposition from France and Germany to Swiss society, and tried - similar to Carl Spitteler - with a pamphlet (Does Switzerland need regeneration?) to tackle it. This earned him bitter hostility in part in German-speaking Switzerland, while he remained in high standing in French-speaking Switzerland.

A collection of newspaper articles ( Bümpliz und die Welt, 1906) gave Loosli the label of the “Philosopher of Bümpliz”. In 1912, the aforementioned pamphlet on the self-image of Switzerland followed, which introduced a long series of accusing literary works and writings warning of reforms. Again and again the latter revolved around the labor education institutions, which had strongly influenced Loosli's youth, and around contemporary youth law. In addition, Loosli also dealt with questions of day-to-day and language policy . Until the last years of his life he was still active as a journalist, most recently in the form of open letters . Many of his works are programmatic accusations against society, which is why Loosli saw himself as "the most unliterary of all Swiss writers".

Carl Albert Loosli at the trial of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an expert between the judge Walter Meyer, who appointed him, and the expert of the Jewish plaintiffs, Arthur Baumgartner (standing).

In 1927 Loosli's anti-Semitic work The Bad Jews! The Swiss Association of Israelites bought 300 copies of the book, a decision that displeased the Jewish lawyer David Farbstein from Zurich. He argued that the title was questionable and also criticized Loosli's wishful thinking of assimilating the Jewish population because he feared that this option would give up Jewish identity. Loosli's book The Bad Jews! qualified the author as an expert in the 1935 Bern trial of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Even at that time he demanded that the vilification of Jews, like that of every minority, should be forbidden by law, he saw the “ Jewish question ” as a real “social evil”. As a solution to the problem, he proposed in 1927 "full equality" for the Jewish population, which would bring about their absorption in the " Arierum " "within a relatively short time". The postulation of complete assimilation to the " host people " was subsequently criticized by the Jews as a demand for the self-dissolution of Judaism. Loosli saw the untenability of his postulate and revised his position in 1930 in the series of articles Die Juden und wir: It was not about complete assimilation, but about "adaptation to the majority", about " adaptation ", and this was "a question of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of belief and conscience ». In view of National Socialist anti-Semitism, he then complained in 1936 that German "assimilation Jewry" was too willing to adapt. The unsteady attitude to the question of assimilation exposed Loosli to the stubborn prejudice of being an anti-Semitic philosopher.

CA Loosli's estate is kept in the Swiss Literary Archives and in the Bern City Archives. In recent years, Loosli's collected works have been published by Rotpunktverlag : a seven-volume edition of works (2006–2009), the collection of poems Mys Ämmital (2009), Loosli for the jacket pocket (2010) with stories, poems and satires, and the detective novel Die Schattmattbauern (2011) . A handful of his works were later illustrated with woodcuts by Emil Zbinden .

Works

Collected Works

• Work edition in 7 volumes, ed. by Fredi Lerch and Erwin Marti . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2006–2009, ISBN 978-3-85869-337-2 (for the complete edition)
  • Volume 1: Institution life. Contract children and youth law, 2006, ISBN 978-3-85869-330-3
  • Volume 2: Administrative Justice. Criminal Law and Prison System, 2007, ISBN 978-3-85869-331-0
  • Volume 3: The Schattmatt farmers. Detective novel, 2006, ISBN 978-3-85869-332-7
  • Volume 4: Gotthelfhandel. Literature and literary politics, 2007, ISBN 978-3-85869-333-4
  • Volume 5: Bümpliz and the world. Democracy Between the Fronts, 2009, ISBN 978-3-85869-334-1
  • Volume 6: baiting Jews. Judaism and Anti-Semitism, 2008, ISBN 978-3-85869-335-8
  • Volume 7: Hodler's World. Art and Art Policy, 2008, ISBN 978-3-85869-336-5

Single issues

• On sexual hygiene (under the pseudonym Carl Trebla). Reformverlag, Bern 1903
• Travel sketches and memories (Carl Trebla). Commission publisher Neukomm & Zimmermann, Bern 1903
• Bümpliz and the world . Benteli, Bern-Bümpliz 1906
• The fool's mirror, held by CAL Unions-Druckerei, Bern 1908
• Mys Dörfli . Francke, Bern 1909
• Üse Drätti . Francke, Bern 1910
• Mys Ämmitaw . Poems. Francke, Bern 1911
• The Swiss art-baiting. Illuminated and commented . Haller, Bern 1912
• Does Switzerland need regeneration? Benteli, Bern-Bümpliz 1912
• Satires and burlesques . Benteli, Bern-Bümpliz 1913
• School and life . Separate print from the Berner Intellektivenblatt, Bern 1913
• Our lithograph . Edited by the Association of Swiss Lithography Owners (on the) Swiss National Exhibition in Bern 1914. Fretz, Zurich 1914
• What little Peterli saw at the national exhibition and how he told his siblings at home . Children's guide. With the approval of the exhibition management. Büchler, Bern 1914
• Swiss future obligations . Self-published, Bümpliz 1915
• We Swiss and our relationships with other countries . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1917
• Foreign influences in Switzerland . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1917
• The "Bund" as blackeners . Polygraphisches Institut, Zurich 1917
• Ferdinand Hodler. Contribution to the realization of his personality and his work . Rascher, Zurich 1918
• What I saw in England . Benteli, Bern-Bümpliz 1918
• Admirals of the English fleet . Benteli, Bern-Bümpliz 1919
• Wi's up! Suter, Bern 1921
• Ferdinand Hodler. Life, work and estate . Edited and edited in four volumes by CA Loosli. Suter, Bern 1921-24
• The drunk demiurges. Cosmic satire . Suter, Bern 1922
• Institution life. Reflections and thoughts of a former prison inmate . Pestalozzi Fellenberg House, Bern 1924
• I am not silent! Reply to friends and opponents to their comments on my «institutional life» . Pestalozzi Fellenberg House, Bern 1925
• Yaldabaot. Cosmic epic poetry . Pestalozzi Fellenberg House, Bern 1925
• Sanson's Assistant and other drawer novellas . Pestalozzi Fellenberg House, Bern 1926
• The bad Jews! Pestalozzi Fellenberg House, Bern 1927
• The radio search! Self-published, Bümpliz 1927
• Educate, not strangle! Questions of conscience and proposals for reforming youth education . Pestalozzi Fellenberg House, Bern 1928
• Emil Cardinaux. An artist's monograph . Brunner, Zurich 1928
• From my urn yard. Berthoud, Bern-Bümpliz 1930
• The Jews and us. Zurich 1930
• The Schattmatt farmers. Roman, self-published, Bern-Bümpliz 1932; Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-85869-442-3
• Building and structuring principles for educational and care institutions . Benteli, Bern-Bümpliz 1934
• Switching over or synchronizing? Self-published, Bern-Bümpliz 1934
• Wisdom in two lines . Feuz, Bern 1934
• The «Secret Societies» and Swiss Democracy. Separate deduction from the official report of the non-partisan judicial expert in the Bern trial regarding the “Zionist Protocols” . Self-published, Bern-Bümpliz 1935
• Democracy and character . Scheuch, Zurich 1937
• Experienced and listened to . Löpfe-Benz, Rorschach 1937
• Swiss German. Glosses on the Swiss language movement . Birkhäuser, Basel 1938
• From Ferdinand Hodler's workshop . Birkhäuser, Basel 1938
• «Administrative Justice» and Swiss Concentration Camps . Self-published, Bern-Bümpliz 1939
• The Gäng-hü locksmith . Gutenberg Book Guild, Zurich 1942
• From time and sorrow. Poems . Oprecht, Zurich 1943
• The apprenticeship of visual artists and writers . Series of publications by the Cantonal Apprenticeship Office in Bern, J. Kleiner, Bern 1943
• Frank Behrens, Biel 1943
• Eternal figures. Novellas . Gutenberg Book Guild, Zurich 1946
• The Mutzlikeller. Narratives . Graphia, Zurich 1947
• Ida. In memory of my wife Ida Loosli-Schneider, who died on Oct. 14, 1950 . Self-published, Bümpliz 1951
• Psychotherapy and education. A look back at the dispute over the Uitikon Labor Education Institute . Self-published, Bümpliz 1952
• Former Head Hans Anliker on his 80th birthday on July 18, 1953 . Self-published, Bümpliz 1953
• Juvenile law breakers . Reprint from Health and Welfare . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1953
• Memories of Carl Spitteler . Tschudy, St.Gallen 1956
• Carl Albert Loosli, 1877–1959. Nonconformist and citizen of the world . A free selection from his writings by Rudolf Stalder. With references to life and work. Tages-Nachrichten, Münsingen 1972
• A village died! Gutenberg Book Guild, Zurich 1975
• You good people call yourselves democrats. Writings on politics, history, art and culture, ed. v. Erwin Marti. Huber, Frauenfeld and Stuttgart 1980
• Mys Ämmital . Poems. With CD (performed by Paul Niederhauser and CA Loosli). Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-85869-388-4
• Loosli for the jacket pocket, ed. by Pedro Lenz . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich, 2010, ISBN 978-3-85869-426-3

literature

• Mario Haldemann: Carl Albert Loosli . In: Helvetic profiles. 47 writers from German-speaking Switzerland since 1800. Edited by the Zurich Seminar for Literary Criticism with Werner Weber . Artemis, Zurich 1981, pp. 125-131, ISBN 3-7608-0540-X .
• Erwin Marti: Loosli, Carl Albert. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 11th July 2019 .
• Erwin Marti: Carl Albert Loosli 1877–1959:
  • Volume 1: Between Juvenile Prison and Parisian Bohème (1877-1907) . Chronos, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-905312-00-X .
  • Volume 2: Eulenspiegel in Helvetian Lands (1904–1914) . Chronos, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-905313-21-9 .
  • Volume 3/1: Banished in my own country (1914–1959) . Chronos, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-0340-0943-0 .
  • Volume 3/2: Partisan for Human Rights . Chronos, Zurich 2018, ISBN 978-3-0340-1432-8 .
• Gregor Spuhler (Ed.): Institution enemy and Jew friend. Carl Albert Loosli's commitment to human dignity . Chronos, Zurich 2013 (= publications of the Archives for Contemporary History at ETH Zurich; 8), ISBN 978-3034011297 .
• Banished in their own country: Carl Albert Loosli . In: Orte - Die Literaturzeitschrift der Schweiz, No. 125, Wolfhalden 2002, ISSN  1016-7803
• Carl Albert Loosli . In: Quarto, Journal of the Swiss Literary Archives, 28/2009, ISSN  1023-6341
• Michael Hagemeister : The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in court. The Bern Trial 1933–1937 and the «Anti-Semitic International» . Cronos, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-0340-1385-7 , short biography p. 547.

Web links

• Publications by and about Carl Albert Loosli in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Carl Albert Loosli's estate in the HelveticArchives archive database of the Swiss National Library
• Carl Albert Loosli Society
• Swiss publicist: In the dunghole of grace , article on ZEIT online from April 29, 2009
• »The philosopher von Bümpliz: Carl Albert Loosli. A conversation with Hugo Loetscher and Jakob Tanner « , Sternstunde Philosophie on SF 1 from May 10, 2009
• Laudation for Fredi Lerch and Erwin Marti (PDF; 46 kB) by Stefan Bodo Würffel

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aaron Kamis-Müller: Anti-Semitism in Switzerland 1900–1930. Zurich 1990, p. 284.
2. ↑ CA Loosli: The bad Jews! In: Judenhetze, Werke Volume 6, p. 107.
3. ^ Judenhetze, p. 226 ff.
4. ↑ Judenhetze, p. 244 ff., Here p. 252.
5. ↑ Judenlagze, p. 389.
6. ↑ See the publisher's author page ( Memento of the original dated May 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Edition of the work in Rotpunktverlag ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.