Carl Böckli

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Carl Böckli (born September 23, 1889 in St. Gallen ; † December 4, 1970 in Heiden ; resident in Waltalingen ) was a Swiss graphic artist , drawing teacher , caricaturist , writer and editor , best known for his work for the Nebelspalter .

life and work

After attending primary and secondary school, Böckli studied at the art department of the Winterthur technical college with Louis Calame, Leon Petua and Wilhelm Ziegler. As a commercial artist Böckli worked the other 13 years in Milan , Lisbon and Karlsruhe . When he returned to Switzerland, he made the acquaintance of the politician and publisher Ernst Löpfe . In 1922 he had acquired the publishing rights for the Nebelspalter and hired Böckli to work for this “Illustrated, humorous-political weekly paper”. Böckli edited it from 1927 to 1966 and made it a respected critical satirical magazine. During this time he produced countless drawings, articles and poems as Bö . Böckli's drawings and verses have been published in around ten volumes by Nebelspalter Verlag.

Böckli took a firm stand against National Socialism , Fascism and Communism , which is clearly expressed in the title of the book Against Red and Brown Fists . The trademark was a small, plump, somewhat inexperienced-looking Swiss with a herdsman's cap, who commented on the course of times with wit and wit.

When Böckli retired as the Nebelspalter's picture editor in 1962 , he was no longer able to write or draw because of arthritis problems in his right hand. So he invented two new characters, the idyllic Elsa von Grindelstein and the modernist Dadasius Lapidar . From then on, he types the comic poetry and nonsense poems of these two "authors" into the typewriter using the two-finger system.

Carl Böckli had lived in Heiden since 1936 and died in the same year as Ernst Löpfe of the consequences of a traffic accident.

In 1966 the University of Zurich awarded “the courageous confessor and patriot in dark times” an honorary doctorate and his home town of Waltalingen made him an honorary citizen . On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Carl Böckli's death, the «Bö-Stiftung» was established in 2010.

literature

  • Walter Schläpfer: Carl Böckli In: Appenzellische Jahrbücher , Vol. 98, 1970, pp. 70–73
  • Eduard Stäuble (Ed.): The Bö book. With numerous drawings and texts by Carl Böckli. Nebelspalter, Rorschach 1975.
  • Ernst Kindhauser (Ed.): Carl Böckli - Bö. His time, his work. Nebelspalter, Rorschach 1989, ISBN 3-85819-141-8 .
  • Hanspeter Mettler: «Bö» should live on . In: NZZ , December 6, 2012 online , accessed on December 15, 2012.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Böckli, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gust; Elsa von Grindelstein; Dadasius Lapidar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss author, caricaturist and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 1970
Place of death Heathens