Clara Büttiker

Clara Büttiker (born September 27, 1886 in Olten ; † February 11, 1967 there ) was a Swiss journalist , women's rights activist and writer . Throughout her life she has campaigned for equality between men and women .

Clara Büttiker

life and work

Clara Büttiker grew up with her older sister Frieda (* 1883) in Olten. Her parents were the Olten town and town clerk Eduard Büttiker (1852–1917), her mother Bertha, née Zoller (1859–1898). After compulsory schooling followed a Welschland -Stay, on a visit to the Business School and later the one who Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Neuchatel . The literature professor there supports her talent as a writer. Büttiker wrote poems and the novel "Höhenmenschen", which was published in 1910 by Verlag Sauerländer in Aarau . In 1912 she joined the Swiss Writers' Association .

Büttiker was interested in women's social issues from an early age. In 1911 she founded the Swiss Women's Calendar and also acted as editor, acquirer and publisher. The magazine offered a platform for Büttiker's own works and documented for other women who wanted to publish their work in the social, craft and artistic fields. The magazine also supported women in further “emancipatory activities”. After the merger with the Yearbook of Swiss Women , political topics were also reported.

In addition to her own work, Büttiker wrote a large number of biographies about women who were active in the fields of painting, music and folk art, and published stories and the like. a. by Cécile Lauber , Elisabeth Thommen and Lisa Wenger . Over time, Büttiker received more and more recognition for her work, also because her calendar was used by large women's associations for their concerns and Büttiker's literary work was valued. In 1961, on her 75th birthday, she handed over the editing of the “Swiss Women's Calendar” to the well-known radio employee Trudi Weder-Greine (1911–2002).

For the newspaper Der Schweizer Demokratie , founded in 1919 , Büttiker edited a number in May, September and December 1920. She also wrote reports on meetings of the Young Liberals for the newspaper , wrote poems and stories. Büttikers also wrote for other daily newspapers and illustrated weekly newspapers. Some of her poems were set to music by Willy Rössel (1877–1947).

When Büttiker took a spa stay in Davos from mid-1921 because of flu , she made friends there with Emma Laub, who was from Basel, who was taking a cure. When they were both healthy again, they took over a bookstore and associated stationery shop in Davos.

Büttiker suffered from an eye disease since childhood and the weakening eyesight caused her and her friend Emma to move to Olten in 1945, where they lived at Fluhweg 15. Since Büttiker almost went blind, the support of her friend was all the more important, and when she died in 1963 a difficult time began for Büttiker.

Clara Büttiker died in Olten four years before women's voting rights were introduced . Throughout her life she has campaigned for equality between men and women. In the city archivolts her estate and all expenditure of the woman calendar kept.

literature

• Emmy Hagmann origin: Clara Büttiker . In: Oltner Neujahrsblätter, Vol. 23, 1965, pp. 34–35.
• Hans Brunner: Clara Büttiker (1886–1976) (= Solothurn classics series ). Knapp, Olten 2011, ISBN 978-3-905848-49-6 .
• Hans Brunner: Clara Büttiker. A writer working for equality for women . In: Oltner Neujahrsblätter, Vol. 73, 2015, pp. 80–82.
• Regula Ludi: Clara Büttiker. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .