Georg Thürer

Georg Thürer

Georg Thürer (born July 26, 1908 in Tamins ; † September 26, 2000 in Teufen ) was a Swiss writer , university professor , literary scholar and historian .

Life

Georg Thürer's ancestors were Walser mountain farmers; the farms of both grandfathers were on the Romansh language border. His father was the pastor Dr. phil. H. c. Paul Thürer, his mother, Nina, b. Accola, was the daughter of a Landammann . In 1910 the family moved from Graubünden to the canton of Glarus , to Netstal in the Linth valley, where the father was a pastor. In Glarnerland Georg Thürer has taken root, the local rural community was in the judgment of the Alsatian folklorist Raymond Matzen be practiced for him, "popular government" and have him grow up as upright and combative people. He attended primary and secondary school in Netstal from 1915 to 1924, where he also learned Glarus German in the schoolyard, the dialect that he later spoke in poetry and in everyday life. 1924–1928 he attended the Thurgau teachers' seminar in Kreuzlingen , where he developed his special interests in history, poetry and theater. From 1928 to 1932 Thürer studied mainly in Zurich , but also in Geneva and Paris . During this time he joined the Swiss Zofinger Association . He received his doctorate in Zurich as a Dr. phil. with a dissertation on the "culture of the old country of Glarus" and obtained the diploma for the higher teaching post .

From 1932 to 1935 Thürer worked as a teacher at the high school in Biel on the German-French language border, where he became really aware of the tension between cultures and prompted him to take a closer look at Swiss democracy . From 1935 to 1940 he was a history teacher at the canton school and the secondary school in St. Gallen . Since the early 1930s he openly opposed German National Socialism and Italian fascism with their leadership cult , racial fanaticism and their striving for cultural and linguistic dominance , and since 1939 has been involved in the intellectual resistance movement "Res Publica" against totalitarian tendencies of all kinds at home and abroad Abroad, especially through his publication activity against Nazi attempts at intimidation, such as in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung .

After the surrender of the Nazi regime, Georg Thürer immediately advocated reconciliation with his German neighbors, because his hostility was directed at the criminal regime, not the people. From 1945 to 1949 he headed the St. Gallen Grenzlandhilfe, which provided humanitarian aid in the Bavarian capital of Munich , among other places . On behalf of the British Foreign Office , he visited camps with German prisoners of war in Great Britain in detail in 1947. He spoke out in favor of European cooperation after the war. At the request of the American military administration , he conducted courses in democracy for mayors in Germany . In view of the National Socialist atrocities in Switzerland, this commitment did not initially meet with universal approval. This also applied to Thürer's differentiated and balanced assessment of the poet Hermann Burte , who had been compromised by National Socialism , who nevertheless recognized his literary merits and therefore met with criticism in part in Switzerland and Germany.

From 1940 to 1978 Georg Thürer was professor of German language and literature and of Swiss history at the University of St. Gallen . He married Maria Elisabeth Tobler in 1941 and they lived in the woman's parents' house in Teufen in the Appenzeller Land , where their children grew up. Georg Thürer's scientific and pedagogical commitment contributed a lot to the development and reputation of the St. Gallen University, not least through his widely popular public evening lectures. He was also active in many cantonal, federal and international associations and commissions.

Works

Thürer's literary work comprises well over 400 titles. His St. Gallen story deserves special attention , a two-volume presentation, published from 1953 to 1972, which goes from the beginning to the present day, comprises a total of 1648 pages and is a standard work that is not only widespread in specialist libraries. His study Essence and Dignity of Dialect (Zurich: Schweizer Spiegel Verlag 1944) emphasizes the special importance of the Swiss dialect, because it is "not just any piece of our household goods, but sun and soul on the entire front of the Schweizerhaus facing the Rhine" ( op. cit., pp. 54f.). In his alemannischen poetry he is based on Johann Peter Hebel , to Hermann Burte and in Switzerland Meinrad Lienert and Joseph Reinhart, next to the Middle High German of Walter von der Vogelweide . Georg Thürer published the Holderbluescht collection of poems in 1962 . This “Alemannic dialect reader” contains poems and stories from all parts of the Alemannic-speaking area , albeit without Swabian, with basic considerations on Alemannic in Switzerland and the neighborhood (South Baden, Vorarlberg, Liechtenstein and Alsace).

Honors

• 1978 Leverage thanks to the “Leerrach Lever Association”.

literature

• Wolfgang Göldi: Thürer, Georg. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Hans Siegwart: Prof. Dr. phil. Georg Thürer - curriculum vitae and work. In: Between Cultures. Ceremony for Georg Thürer on his 70th birthday. Edited by Felix Philipp Ingold. Bern 1978.
• Raymond Matzen : Foreword. In: Georg Thürer: Froh und fry. Swiss German poems in Glarus dialect. Kehl 1985 (The preface by the Strasbourg university professor Raymond Matzen provides a biography of Georg Thürer.).
• Dietrich Seybold: Georg Thürer . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 3, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 1946 f.
• Georg Thürer: For the hundredth birthday of the poet Hermann Burte. In: The Markgräfler Land. Issue 1/2 1979, published by the Markgräflerland Working Group for History and Regional Studies e. V. and the Hebelbund Müllheim e. V.
• Paul Zinsli: Georg Thürer's dialect poetry. In: Georg Thürer: Froh und fry. Swiss German poems in Glarus dialect. Kehl 1985.

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Thürer in the catalog of the German National Library
• About Georg Thürer in the Ostschweizerische Grenzlandhilfe

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schweizerischer Zofingerverein, Schweizerischer Altzofingerverein (Ed.): Membership Directory 1997. Zofingen 1997, p. 71 (available in the Swiss National Library , call number SWR 1338).
2. ↑ Lever Bunch Lörrach - Lever Thank You Bearer.