Carl Biedermann (writer)

Carl Biedermann (born April 24, 1824 in Winterthur , † November 26, 1894 in San Remo ), alternate spelling Karl Biedermann or Charles Biedermann, was a Swiss businessman and dialect writer.

Life

Biedermann was the son of pastor J. J. Biedermann and Karolina Beker. His grandfather was the painter Johann Jakob Biedermann . He spent his youth in Pfungen , where his father worked as a pastor. He would have liked to study history and become a historian, but this path was blocked to him and he became a commercial apprentice. His years of travel brought him to Strasbourg , where he worked in his maternal grandfather's bookstore. Looking for adventure, he served in the Foreign Legion for five years , most recently as a non-commissioned officer. He then returned to Switzerland and in 1848 married the grocer's daughter Judith Elliker from Pfungen. They had a total of twelve children, eight girls and four boys. In 1876 he acquired the citizenship of the community of Wil .

After getting married, he earned his living as a merchant first in Rafz and from October 1850 in Wil, mainly trading in straw hats. He bought from local producers and with his company "Charles Biedermann, manufacture de paille" then sold them worldwide, including to America and Australia. His straw hats were also shown at the State Exhibition in 1883. His wife also ran a colonial and cloth goods shop in Wil, because it was customary for him not to pay for straw hats with money, but with in kind such as spices and cloth.

He died in 1894 while visiting his daughter in San Remo, where he is also buried.

poet

At first Biedermann did not write his works for the public, but only for himself and his closest circle of friends. In doing so, he oriented himself on the classic models for this genre, Johann Peter Hebel and Jeremias Gotthelf . Only in old age did he dare to publish his works. In retrospect, this fear can be described as unfounded, because success set in immediately. The "Erzellige us Stadt und Land" were not only printed by the Winterthurer Landbote and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , but also made it into the Bernese Confederation . They first appeared in book form in 1888/89; later feature articles were published in book form in 1932.

Works

• Carl Biedermann: History of the Dielsdorf district . Scheuchzer, Bülach 1882
• Karl Biedermann: Us city and country. Erzellige . Volume 1. Ziegler, Winterthur 1888, 2nd edition ibid. 1933, 3rd edition Gemsberg, Winterthur 1951
• Karl Biedermann: Us city and country. Erzellige . Volume 2, Ziegler, Winterthur 1889, 2nd edition ibid. 1933, 3rd edition Gemsberg, Winterthur 1951 or 1952
• Karl Biedermann: Four historical novels . Ziegler, Winterthur 1889
• Carl Biedermann: Us city and country. Erzellige . Volume 3, Ziegler, Winterthur 1932, 2nd edition Gemsberg, Winterthur 1952

literature

• Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Biedermann, Carl. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Hans Witzig: Carl Biedermann's life . In: Carl Biedermann: Us Stadt und Land , Volume 3. Winterthur 1932, pp. V – X.
• Heinrich Hedinger: Läbesgschichte us em Underland . In: Zürcher Taschenbuch , 1976. Zurich 1975, pp. 82-107 (on Carl Biedermann: pp. 93 f.).
• Wil, the story of a farming village on the Rafzerfeld . Published by the political community Wil / ZH, 1993, chapter "Karl Biedermann (1824-1894)", pp. 183-186.

Web links

• Publications by and about Carl Biedermann in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library