Hortulus (magazine)
hortulus was a Swiss literary magazine in German that was published by the writer Hans Rudolf Hilty in Tschudy-Verlag, St. Gallen . The first issue appeared in March 1951 with the subtitle Quarterly Writing for New Poetry . Up to and including 1956 four issues were delivered annually. In 1957 Hilty increased this to six issues with the subtitle Illustrated Two Monthly Journal for New Poetry . With the number 67, this was the fifth issue of the 13th year, the publication was stopped in October 1964.
The focus of hortulus was poetry , followed by short prose and later excerpts from novels and dramatic works. hortulus published only first prints of works in the German language or of German translations of foreign language poetry. Reviews or essays were explicitly excluded . From 1957 onwards, Hans Rudolf Hilty wrote for each issue a two-page introduction to the respective contributions or the concept as well as occasional reflections on the literature on the German-speaking countries and beyond.
The first six years were primarily oriented towards the local area and most of the time featured contributions from authors from Switzerland. The circle of authors and the influence of hortulus expanded considerably in the course of the 1950s. Karl Krolow and Ilse Aichinger were among the first authors from Germany to publish articles in hortulus . The success of the magazine prompted Hilty to make significant changes, which he announced in December 1956: “Encouraged by the strong response that our magazine has recently received, we have decided to publish it as a two-month publication with 6 illustrated issues from 1957 onwards. [...] Above all, we will be able to publish a larger piece of prose here and there. We also intend to reserve one of the six booklets for the transmission of contemporary poetry from other language areas. In addition, the graphic jewelry should be looked after even more; In the future, an original colored art sheet will occasionally be enclosed in a booklet. This will increase the subscription price from CHF 8 to CHF 12 ».
The books for years five and six already contained small black and white images based on woodcuts or drawings . From issue 25 (first issue 1957) each issue (with the exception of double issues 49/50, 55/56 and 61/62) was delivered with a mostly double-sided graphic insert. The smaller illustrations have been retained; later on, some elaborate artistic designs were added to the booklet covers. Some of these inserts and illustrations come from well-known artists and are valuable today.
After Hilty's death in 1994, the Swiss poet Kurt Marti wrote: "The Federal Republic had its 'Group 47', German-speaking Switzerland its Hortulus".
Issues of Special Interest
- Issue 28 (1957) with the first publication of Ingeborg Bachmann's poem Freie Geleit
- Issue 32 (1958) with a complete dramatic work by Max Frisch : The great anger of Philipp Hotz. A sketch
- Booklet 33 (1958) with a two-tone woodcut by Hans Arp and a small anthology of his poems
- Issue 37 (1959) New Poetry from Israel
- Issue 40 (1959) with a monotype by Meret Oppenheim and a pen drawing by Ludwig Meidner on the cover
- Issue 43 (1960) with scenes from the play I and I from the estate of Else Lasker-Schüler and a monotype by Meret Oppenheim
- Volume 44 (1960) Japanese poetry of our days
- Issue 47 (1960) with a woodcut by HAP Grieshaber and a chapter from Martin Walser's novel Halftime
- Double issue 49/50 (1961) «a reading» from ten volumes of hortulus (poetry and short prose) with a complete list of literary publications and graphic contributions of all editions published up to then
- Booklet 53 (1961) with a drawing (double-sided insert) and three poems by Raoul Hausmann
- Issue 64 (1963) is entirely dedicated to women poets. In the run-up to the tenth Meersburg poets meeting, hortulus published articles by Elisabeth Borchers , Christine Busta , Hilde Domin , Nelly Sachs and other contemporary writers.
literature
- Hans Rudolf Hilty: Between poets and poetry consumers: experiences with the magazine "Hortulus". In: Du - cultural monthly journal , Volume 19, Issue 8, 1959, pp. 77-80. (on-line)
- Janet K. King: Literary Journals 1945-1970. Metzler, Stuttgart 1974, DNB 1045435325 , pp. 92, 93.