Emil Balmer

Emil Balmer , in the Italian-speaking context also Emilio Balmer (born February 15, 1890 in Laupen ; † February 6, 1966 in Bern ), was a Swiss archivist and dialect author who wrote a large number of stories and comedies, and who himself appeared in the theater and directed and during his lifetime was considered the "most celebrated and most successful author of the Bernese dialect theater". Together with Otto von Greyerz , Simon Gfeller and Karl Grunder , he was one of the founders of the Bernese Heimatschutz Theater in 1915 . In addition, he made an important contribution to Walser research with his book Die Walser im Piemont .

Life

Balmer was the son of Abraham Friedrich and Elise Balmer. He lost his father at the age of five and his mother raised him and his siblings as a single parent. He attended primary and secondary school in Laupen, after which the family moved to the city of Bern.

He attended business school in Neuchâtel and then joined the postal administration in Bern . He also passed the French and Italian certificate and spent half a year in Florence . In the early 1930s he became an archivist at the Swiss Federal Archives .

Balmer was well known in Bern, his trademarks were the red carnation in the buttonhole, the tattschhuet (a round, flat hat) and, in rainy weather, the cape. Besides his homeland, the Bern region , he felt closely connected to the Lötschental , the canton of Ticino (which became a second home for him) and Italy ; He dedicated his book Sunneland to the Swiss southern canton, where he lived in Ascona . As a draftsman with the red chalk pencil and painter of watercolors , he illustrated his publications himself. Balmer remained single all his life and shared his home with his sister Emma. His home town of Laupen he donated a fountain, the Abetringeler-Brunne - the Abetringele is a local New Year tradition in which the costumed children and adolescents with Tringele (verschiedenster clamps Art. See Trycheln pull) through the town. He found his final resting place in the family grave in Laupen.

Dialect literary work

Balmer made his debut as an author in 1914 when he published a (High German) article in the Berner Tagblatt about the state exhibition, which was temporarily closed as a result of the outbreak of World War I. In Dörfli theater of the same national exhibition for the first time he stepped on himself as an actor. In 1915 he took part in the founding of the Bernese Heimatschutz Theater . While playing the pieces by Simon Gfeller , Otto von Greyerz and Karl Grunder , his love for the Swiss German mother tongue awoke , and from that point on he wrote almost exclusively in Bern German . In 1922 he published his first volume of stories.

Balmer was a local poet . This attitude becomes clear, for example, in an article that he published in the federal government :

«Vowäge, I don’t forget: The country doesn’t bring fruity eggs, gorgeous fruit, tender greens and vürnähmi Chrütter - no, what’s taken care of by the city and the state went against with men of good wood and wonderful juice! U the fruity blue is called the annoyed, naughty and Stedter was so necessary before the Zyt! "

He got on very well with the common people of the country and was a good listener - much of what he heard was incorporated into his stories. Paul Eggenberger wrote in his obituary for Balmer:

“Everywhere he is looking for a meeting with a monk and has found the door open with syr hard-like art. It is no wonder that he has become a monk expert, as I do not find it helpful. And that is because of the important supervisors of sym ryche and literary warmth, crowned by success, giving him dignity, scooping up on everything, us the pulsating gardening, everyday problem hesitating and the whole synergistic glasses direct calls. "

Balmer's stories and plays - which he staged himself - were very successful. Arnold H. Schwengeler postulated in his obituary for Balmer that Balmer was the "most celebrated and most successful author of the Bernese dialect theater". But he was also one of the last representatives of the so-called «first dialect wave» that broke out around 1900. Beat Jäggi therefore wrote in 1966:

«One after the other goes. And the young people, where we are gardening, are looking for a lot of harrows and changes from Bärnbiet to Oschtschwyz. "

He told his stories all over Switzerland, about which he wrote in the federal government :

«I am a poor sinner, a pastor of the Wägli uf, the Chilche. The isch grafted full gsi; On the port lounges above het si the male choir gsädlet gha. - The priest goes uf d'Chanzel un i gange to the Toufstei. - But Herrjeses, the chair is vil z'nider, since I can't sit - u stah wott i nid! Tz, tz, tz! Enu, for the time being i am afe chocked u bi glad gsi that the toufstei het wrongly covered. - Mi het begs, gsunge, against begs - the male choir sings its song - so, now it would be thanks to me - the pastor git mer it sign. - What do you do? - Mira probably, I suddenly twisted my revenge on uf e chair prevent u squat on it. So, now i'm taller, u d'Prediglüt möi ömel my chopf gseh. I fah a - u what do i saw? Na de short Ygangswort han i halt i gods name e Hinderegg-Gschicht glass. But there is a lot of Luschtigs and Derbs echoing inside; öppis change or usselah han i nid chönne, i bi nid prepared gsi. D'Lüt is called si zersch no chlei gschiniert u hinderha, but Balinese het alls grediuseglachet. I'm completely in it for inecho, ha luschtig druf los dozänteret u derby fortunately forgot that I forgot that when it hurts badly. I ha's dürebhouptet, d'Zyt before the sermon was filled out, in the guest part, I ha no zimli overarched. Bimene hair would have twitched up on the Louben, no clap! - The syg now one e churzwyligi preaching gsi, het nachhär e male choristers gseit - the pastor sett all Sunntig e settigi ha, är überchäm de eh neither nid e chlei meh Lüt! »

Balmer was a member of the Berne Writers' Association.

Visits to the South Walsers in Piedmont, Aosta Valley and Ticino

Through a friend whose family came from Alagna Valsesia , Balmer became aware of the Walser mountain villages in northern Italy and Ticino. Between 1923 and 1938 and again after the war in 1948 he drove several times to Gressoney , Alagna Valsesia, Rima , Rimella and Gurin ; He reported on his travels, encounters, the archaic High Alemannic South Walser German as well as local customs and songs (including poems by Pietro Axerio ) in the Bernese Bund and in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung . The remote village of Rima was also visited by Clara Stockmeyer , editor at the Schweizerischer Idiotikon , during the same period ; she may have been inspired by Balmer. At the express request of the (now deceased) dialectologists Albert Bachmann , Otto von Greyerz and Emanuel Friedli , Balmer published his reports in 1949 under the title Die Walser im Piemont. From the life and language of the German settlers behind Monte Rosa in book form.

As Balmer announced in the foreword, he did not want to write a "learned treatise": "I limited myself [...] to a faithful description of the language and customs as they were perceived by the eye and ear on the spot." It is - especially in the sections about Alagna and Rima - a very personal book, the focus of which is on human encounters and the somewhat wistful description of a culture threatened by modernization. Balmer documented a culture that has largely disappeared in the meantime, making his book an important source for Paul Zinsli's 1968 standard work Walser Volkstum .

Awards

• 1941 and 1950: Honorary gift from the literature credit of the city of Bern
• 1948: Total works award of the Swiss Schiller Foundation "for his dialect poetry"
• 1960: Literature Prize of the City of Bern
• Honorary citizen of Laupen

plant

The first editions were all published by A. Francke Verlag in Bern.

stories

• Zytröseli. Gschichtli u Jugeterinnerunge (1922, 2nd, increased edition 1927)
• Friesli. Youth memories and Gantrischgschichtli (1924)
• D'Glogge from Wallere. Schwarzeburger-Gschichte (1924, 3rd edition 1951)
• Bueberose. Tales from the Bear Pig (1925)
• Sunn and Schattesyte. Zwo Gschichte us em Simmetal (1927, 2nd edition 1955)
• Vo chlyne Lüt (1928)
• Chrüztreger (1930)
• Sunneland. Ticino history (1937, 2nd edition 1960, Italian translation under the title Paese del Sole. Racconti ticinesi con disegni dello autore , 1939, 2nd edition 1961)
• Meie. E Struuss bärndütschi story (1943, 2nd edition 1956)
• Mümpfeli (1945)
• From the Wystock. Chlyni story of great men (1964)
• numerous stories in the Schwyzerlüt magazine and in other publications
• together with Hans Rudolf Balmer , Ernst Balzli , Hermann Hutmacher , Hans Zulliger : Bärner Gschichte (1952, 2nd edition 1953)

Plays

• The lucky hoger (1929, 3rd edition 1951)
• Deframa. It Vorgsetztebott in 1950 (1930)
• Theater im Dorf (1931, 3rd edition 1956)
• The latinischi legation (1933, 2nd edition 1946)
• The Riedhof. Dramatic pictures from the life of a peasant family (1933, 3rd edition 1951)
• Before Gricht (1934, 4th edition 1956)
• E Dürsitz. Schwarzburger Spinning Evening (1934)
• Die zwöüiti Frou (1935, 3rd edition 1965)
• Ds Gotti (1936)
• E Gschaui (1938)
• The new weigh. Dialect about a merger of goods (1939, 3rd edition 1958)
• Romance (1940)
• Herr Diräkter (1941)
• The Ettlis Bear (1946, 2nd edition 1947)
• Ds Heilig Füürli (1947, 2nd edition 1960)
• D's Promises (1948, 2nd edition 1964)
• Ds new Schuelhus (1953)
• Big Go (1958)

additional

• together with Otto von Greyerz: Rudolf Tavel on his 60th birthday, December 21, 1926. Francke, Bern 1926.
• Uttewil. From the farm u vo syne Lüt. Es Buech about the Schnyder family (private print, 1941).
• The Walser in Piedmont. About the life and language of the German emigrants behind Monte Rosa. Francke, Bern 1949.

filming

The play Der Glückshoger was filmed in 1941; Balmer wrote the dialogues himself. The actors came from Bern's Heimatschutz Theater. Berta Hackl-Schweizer was in charge of production and was supported by director Richard Brewing and cameraman Werner Stählin. Hans Steingruber wrote the music. The film was produced by Turicia-Film A. G. Zurich .

literature

• Reto Caluori: Emil Balmer . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 108.
• German Literature Lexicon . Biographical-bibliographical manual. 3rd, completely revised edition. Volume I: Aal - Bremeneck. Edited by Bruno Berger and Heinz Rupp. Francke, Bern / Munich 1968, Col. 294 f.
• Poet and writer of the homeland. Authors of the Bern Writers' Association and their works. Bern 1943, pp. 11-13 ( online ).
• Lexicon of the Bern writers' association 1961. Edited by the Bern writers association. Haupt, Bern 1962.
• Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Balmer, Emil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966 ( online ). With obituaries by Beat Jäggi , Paul Eggenberg, Ernst W. Eggimann, Arnold H. Schwengeler and Peter Sunnefroh, numerous texts by Emil Balmer , which were first published in the Bund , and a (not entirely error-free) bibliography.

Web links

• Publications by and about Emil Balmer in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Literature by and about Emil Balmer in the catalog of the German National Library

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b} Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, p. 13.
2. ↑ Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, pp. 1 and 8.
3. ↑ Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, pp. 9, 12 and 15 f.
4. ↑ Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, p. 3.
5. ↑ Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Volume XIV, Col. 1195, article abe ⁿ -trinkele ⁿ ( digitized version ); Emil Balmer: Ds Abetringele z'Loupe. In: Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, p. 41 f.
6. ↑ The Balmer family grave, photography on findagrave.com.
7. ↑ Again in: Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, p. 27 f.
8. ↑ Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, p. 8.
9. ↑ Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, p. 1.
10. ↑ Schwyzerlüt. Font series for üses Schwyzerdütsch. Volume 28, No. 3, 1966, p. 39.
11. ↑ ^{a b} Emil Balmer: The Walser in Piedmont. About the life and language of the German settlers behind Monte Rosa. Bern 1949, p. 9.
12. ^ Paul Zinsli: Walser Volkstum in Switzerland, Vorarlberg, Liechtenstein and Piedmont. Heritage, existence, essence . Huber, Frauenfeld 1968; 7th, supplementary edition, Bündner Monatsblatt, Chur 2002.
13. ↑ (Mitget. :) "The lucky hit ." A homeland film. In: Swiss Film. Film Suisse, Volume 7, Issue 113 (1942), p. 8; accessed on June 20, 2020.
14. ↑ The lucky hit. In: Swiss Film. Film Suisse, Volume 7, Issue 113 (1942), p. 24; accessed on June 20, 2020.