Hans Morgenthaler

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Hans Morgenthaler (born June 4, 1890 in Burgdorf , † March 16, 1928 in Bern ; pseudonym: Hamo ) was a Swiss writer , geologist and alpinist .

Life

Hans Morgenthaler was born as the eldest son of the advocate and later mayor of Burgdorf, Otto Morgenthaler. He lost his mother at the age of eleven. After the maturity in his hometown (1909), he studied zoology and botany at the ETH Zurich , where he in 1914 with a thesis on the birch ( Betula alba ) doctorate . During his student days, he suffered severe frostbite while climbing Tödis in March 1911 , so that he lost almost all of his front phalanges. Later, after 1920, he completely stopped his mountaineering activities.

His first book, Your Mountains, was published in 1916 with entries loosely strung together from a mountaineer's diary and pen drawings. In the same year he began a second degree in geology in Bern . After graduating with a thesis on the Aarmassiv , Morgenthaler moved to Southeast Asia for a Swiss mining company in 1917 to look for gold, silver and tin deposits in the Siamese jungle. When he fell ill with malaria in 1920 , he returned to Switzerland and began to work through his Malaysian-Siamese experiences both literarily and scientifically. In addition to a work on the geology and ore deposits in back India (1922), Matahari was published in 1921 , a book that was also highly valued by Hermann Hesse . He had the opportunity to present his Southeast Asian experiences to a broader public in reading trips and slide shows.

In 1922, he met the Swiss writer Robert Walser from his cousin Ernst Morgenthaler . In the summer of the same year he visited Hermann Hesse in Montagnola . He was then diagnosed with tuberculosis , which he tried to cure from July 1922 to the end of 1924 in several spa stays in the canton of Graubünden . During his time in Arosa , Morgenthaler got to know various people who had a decisive influence on his further life and were partly reflected in his stories. He made the acquaintance of the painter couple Ignaz (1892–1969) and Mischa Epper (1901–1978) from Ascona , with the painter Fritz Pauli (1891–1968) and with Lizzy Quarles van Ufford, Mischa Epper's sister. Hamo spent a week with Lizzy in Ascona in April 1923 and made her the title character of his novel Woly, Summer in the South .

After further health problems, he took up the cure in Arosa again and this time got to know the writer Jakob Bührer (1882–1975) and his wife Elisabeth Thommen (1888–1960). A love affair developed between Elisabeth Thommen and Hans Morgenthaler in Davos . When the lover returned to her husband, the situation escalated. Furious, Morgenthaler broke into the Buehrer's apartment and partially demolished it. He then fled to his cousin, the psychiatrist Walter Morgenthaler (1882–1965), and was treated by him in 1925 in Münchenbuchsee . On the advice of his cousin, Hans Morgenthaler was admitted to the Waldau psychiatric clinic near Bern, where he was treated until autumn 1925.

After his release from Waldau, he moved to Ticino and settled in Cassarate . From here he took up contact with Hermann Hesse again and became friends with Emmy Ball-Hennings (1885–1948). He now began to do more lyric work. His writing career had stalled. After his first success with the book Matahari , which was published in a Dutch edition in 1922 and in an English and an American edition in 1923, he had difficulty finding a publisher for the follow-up novel Gadscha Puti (published posthumously in 1929). Other works, such as the sanatorium novel Eymann's Kur , remained fragments. Since 1924 he wrote more and more book reviews in newspapers and magazines, especially in the Basler National-Zeitung . After Orell Füssli Verlag after Gadscha Puti had also rejected the “confession” in the city in 1926 , Morgenthaler fell into another crisis that ended in a nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt .

After treatment in the psychiatric clinic in Casvegno near Mendrisio , he returned to Bern via Ascona in March 1927, where he found support in Marguerite Schmid, a friend from his student days. Morgenthaler began to paint and came back into contact with the sculptor Karl Geiser (1898–1957). His lung disease was getting worse. After a last stay at the Berner Höhenklinik Montana , Hans Morgenthaler returned to Bern in an incurable condition, where he died on March 16, 1928.

Works

  • Contributions to the knowledge of the forms of the collective species Betula alba L., with variation-statistical analysis of the phenotypes. Dissertation Zurich 1915.
  • You mountains. Atmospheric images from a mountaineering diary. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1916.
  • Matahari. Mood pictures from the Malay-Siamese tropics. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1921, online .
  • Myself. Feelings. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1923.
  • Woly. Summer in the south. Novel. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1924.
  • Gajah Puti. A mining adventure. Edited by Fritz Hegg. Francke, Bern 1929.
  • The end of the song. Lyrical testament of a consumption addict. Poems. Edited by Hugo Marti and Marguerite Schmid. Francke (annual edition of the Bern Art Society), Bern 1930.
  • In the city. The confession of Karl von Allmen. Autobiographical Notes, ed. by Otto Zinniker. Spaten, Grenchen 1950.
  • Dead yodel. Poems. Edited by Kurt Marti . Candelabra, Bern 1970.
  • Poet's misery. A Hans Morgenthaler Breviary , ed. v. Georges Ammann. Places, Zurich 1977.
  • Hamo, the last devout European. His life, attempts and efforts. A Hans Morgenthaler reading book. Edited by Roger Perret. Lenos (Litprint 40), Basel 1982.
  • The curious poet Hans Morgenthaler . Correspondence with Ernst Morgenthaler and Hermann Hesse. Edited by Roger Perret. Lenos (Litprint 37), Basel 1983.

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Morgenthaler, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hamo (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer, geologist and alpinist
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgdorf BE
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1928
Place of death Bern