David Hess (poet)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of David Hess
Caricature by David Hess on the political conditions at the end of the Helvetic Republic , published under a pseudonym in London.

David Hess (born November 29, 1770 in Zurich ; † April 11, 1843 in Unterstrass ) was a Zurich writer, caricaturist and politician.

Life

David Hess grew up on the Beckenhof , an estate in Zurich-Unterstrass . His father Johann Rudolf Hess was a Zurich officer in the Dutch service, his mother Martha de la Tour the daughter of a French mining company. At his father's request, he pursued a military career in the Swiss Guard in Holland from 1787 to 1796 . He witnessed the massacre of the French revolutionary troops against the Swiss Guards , which made him a staunch opponent of the French Revolution . In 1796 David Hess returned to Zurich. He experienced the invasion of the French troops and the end of the Old Confederation as captain of the Zurich troops in Aarberg . However , he did not take part in the battles for Bern and the Battle of Grauholz .

In May of the following year he married Anna Hirzel, who died in 1802 after the birth of the second child. In 1805 he married Salome Vischer.

In September 1798 he had directly witnessed the Second Battle of Zurich , and foreign soldiers were billeted in his estate, an unpleasant side effect of the Helvetic era . He later took part in a campaign against these billeting. With the beginning of the mediation time in 1803, David Hess took part in political life again. He was a member of the Zurich Grand Council from 1803 to 1830 , but was not particularly active there. He had a large circle of friends, which included personalities such as Johann Martin Usteri and Johann Gottfried Ebel . He knew the young Conrad Ferdinand Meyer as well as Philipp Christoph Kayser . As a member of the Zurich Artists' Society , he was anchored in the city's cultural life. In the last years of his life he withdrew more and more into reading. He died on April 11, 1843 in the Beckenhof and found his final resting place in the Hohe Promenade private cemetery .

plant

In 1795, the 20 caricatures Hollandia regenerata appeared in London , in which Hess criticized the excesses of the Batavian Republic . Other targets of his often unpublished caricatures were the Zurich government and Napoleon Bonaparte .

In addition to his diary, Hess wrote a biography of Salomon Landolt , the governor of Greifensee . In the entertaining “Badenfahrt” from 1818, Hess described the city of Baden and its bathing activities and drew the illustrations himself. In 1801 he successfully published humorous moral images under the pseudonym David Hildebrand. He remained a sharp critic of post-revolutionary conditions and democratic aspirations. In 1832, as in Uster threatened the very existence of small manufacturers a mechanical spinning factory lit commented Hess, the Maschinensturm mockingly:

The people are not yet astute,
Since in the brightest light of day
to celebrate the festival in Uster, it was
necessary to illuminate.

various

  • Gottfried Keller called Hess a witty dilettante, Hess described himself as an active idler.
  • A street in Zurich Wollishofen is named after David Hess .
  • From November 2007 to February 2008 there was an exhibition on David Hess in the Zurich Central Library . The library also manages most of his estate.

Works (selection)

  • Hollandia regenerata. London 1795.
  • Small paintings, reminiscences and broken thoughts from a dilettante. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1802.
  • Joke and seriousness in stories. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1816.
  • The Badenfahrt. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1818. New edition: Baden-Verlag, Baden 1969.
  • Salomon Landolt. A character picture painted from life. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1820.
  • Joh. Caspar Schweizer and his wife Anna Magdalena Hess. MS Metz, Zurich 1940.
  • Spirit of our time. Zurich 1831

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hess, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hess, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Zurich writer and painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1843
Place of death Substrass