Franz Fassbind

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Signature Franz Fassbind
Signature of Franz Fassbind, from his book "Incidents - 13 stories from uncanny everyday life", published in 1979 by Pendo Verlag, Zurich

Franz Fassbind ( Franz Bernardin Thomas Fassbind ) (born March 7, 1919 in Unteriberg ; † July 9, 2003 in Adliswil ) was a Swiss writer , playwright and journalist .

life and work

Franz Fassbind was born in 1919 as the son of the photographer and small publisher Bernardin Fassbind (1887–1954) and Lina Fassbind-Marty (1884–1931) in Unteriberg in the canton of Schwyz . He grew up in poor conditions, first in the Engadine , then in Zurich's industrial district and in Wipkingen . Later he attended the collegiate school of the monastery Einsiedeln and the Jesuit college in Feldkirch . During these years Franz Fassbind wrote his first poems and small compositions . After dropping out of high school, he studied music at the Zurich Conservatory and German at the University of Zurich from 1936 . Without ever completing a degree, he worked as a freelance journalist, writer and composer. The first poems were published in 1936, at Christmas 1938 Radio Beromünster broadcast its first radio play , and three years later a first novel was published .

Franz Fassbind was best known for his work for Swiss radio . His radio plays and features had a formative effect from 1938 to 1974. Just as important was the series of programs he initiated, “The International Forum”, in which he allowed well-known scientists to have their say. His radio reviews in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung found a wide readership. The journalistic work is also an expression of the movement of intellectual national defense . In the dramaturgy of the radio play published in 1943 , he also reflected on his radio work theoretically.

In 1956 he turned to the medium of film . For The Art of the Etruscans he provided both the script and the music. The work earned him the 1st Film Prize of the City of Zurich . From 1948 Fassbind's main poetic work, Die Hohe Messe , was published in demanding terzins based on Dante . There, as in his novels of the post-war period , the focus is on dealing with Catholicism in today's world.

Fassbind married Gertrud Schmucki in 1941; the only daughter Ursula was born in 1943. The family lived in Adliswil near Zurich, where Franz Fassbind died on July 9, 2003 at the age of 84.

From 1988 to 1991 Peter Wild published an edition of his work at Walter Verlag in Olten .

Awards

Works (selection)

  • Poems , Zug: Kalt-Zehnder, 1937.
  • Timeless life (novel), Olten: Walter, 1941.
  • The Samaritan. A play by Henri Dunant , Zurich: Neuer Bühnenverlag, 1942
  • Atom bomb. A spoken oratorio , Einsiedeln, Zurich: Benziger , 1945.
  • The high mass. Four songs from a world poem , Einsiedeln: 1948 (special edition of the 26th annual conference of the Swiss Bibliophile Society ).
  • Songs from a tavern . With drawings by Klaus Brunner , Solothurn, 1959 (Seventh Solothurn private print). Reprint: Zurich: Pendo , 1981.
  • Poverello , Zurich: Pendo, 1979.
  • Incidents - 13 stories from the uncanny everyday life , Zurich: Pendo, 1979
  • The Works of Mercy , 1975 (reprinted under the title: Signs in the Sands , 1982).
  • Work edition. In twelve volumes , ed. by Peter Wild (vol. 12 published by Franziska Schläpfer, biography), Olten: Walter, 1988–1991 (vol. 12: 1997).

literature

  • Reto Caluori: Franz Fassbind . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 559 f.
  • Franziska Schläpfer: Out of duty to passion . Verlag Schwyzer Zeitung, Schwyz 1997.
  • Peter Wild: Franz Fassbind (* 1919). The fellow human being - the gospel . In: Joseph Bättig, Stephan Leimgruber (Hrsg.): Grenzfall Literatur. The question of meaning in modern literature in quadrilingual Switzerland . Paulusverlag, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-7228-0320-9 , p. 266-282 .

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Fassbind, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fassbind, Franz Bernardin Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer, playwright and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Unteriberg
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 2003
Place of death Adliswil