Hugo Loetscher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hugo Loetscher (2006)

Hugo Loetscher (born December 22, 1929 in Zurich ; † August 18, 2009 there ; entitled to live in Escholzmatt ) was a Swiss writer , editor and journalist .

Life

Hugo Loetscher grew up in Zurich. After graduating from high school , he studied philosophy , sociology and literature at the Universities of Zurich and Paris . In 1956 he received his doctorate with the thesis The political philosophy in France after 1945 in Zurich to the doctor of philosophy.

He then worked as a literary critic for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Weltwoche . From 1958 to 1962 he was a member of the editorial team of the monthly magazine du , from 1964 to 1969 he was a member of the features section of Weltwoche . He worked as a freelance writer until his death on August 18, 2009. He published regularly in smaller, independent magazines such as the Swiss monthly magazine .

Since the 1960s, Loetscher has traveled extensively to southern Europe and later to Southeast Asia and has been to Latin America , especially Brazil , on a regular basis . In addition, there have been various guest and poetics lectureships since the 1980s , such as 1979/80 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles , 1981 at the University of Freiburg , 1981/82 at the City University of New York , 1988 at the University of Munich and 2008 at the Shanghai Foreign Language University and the University of California, Berkeley . After Manuel Gasser , Nicolas Bouvier and Charles-Henri Favrod , Hugo Loetscher was the fourth President of the Foundation for Photography from 1987 to 1992 .

Hugo Loetscher knew Friedrich Dürrenmatt and the painter Varlin , the three were good friends and in close collaboration with each other (Varlin also painted the two). Loetscher later published Varlin's first monograph.

Hugo Loetscher died on August 18, 2009 after a serious heart operation in Zurich and was buried in a grave of honor at the Sihlfeld cemetery (No. FG 81203).

Hugo Loetscher (1993)

Artistic creation

Hugo Loetscher first came out with a drama : on September 22, 1960, his “Play in 26 Pictures” entitled Shift Change was premiered at the Schauspielhaus Zurich . In the same year he founded an eight-page literary supplement with the title Das Wort in the cultural magazine du , for which he wrote his first essays . In 1963 his first novel Abwässer was published , in the subtitle not referred to as a novel , but as "an expert opinion ". Loetscher's works - in addition to his drama and a volume of poetry, exclusively prose works - are often based on his travel experiences, but also include autobiographical elements. He has also worked as an editor in various fields (such as photography ) and as a translator . Loetscher was a member of the Swiss Writers' Association , of which he was President from 1986 to 1989, and a corresponding member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt .

Hugo Loetscher's archive is located in the Swiss Literature Archive in Bern . His work is supervised by Diogenes Verlag . His last work Was my time my time was published on August 21, 2009, three days after his death.

The Dürrenmatt affair

After Dürrenmatt's death, Loetscher was sued by his widow Charlotte Kerr . Reason: Loetscher had written a text about the abdication of the famous poet and published it 13 years after his death (in the book Reading Instead of Climbing from 2003), through which the widow saw her personal rights violated. She criticized described details such as the hands of the body laid out or a Stephen King book on his bedside table or the claim that she had to be supported in church. Loetscher remembers wrongly: Dürrenmatt was an atheist and as such did not fold his hands; besides, she never allowed herself to be supported in life. Loetscher reported that there was a drawing of the dead man on which his hands were folded. Kerr asked for it - and burned it. Loetscher emphasized that he had been Dürrenmatt's friend for many years. "Not the last seven years," replied the widow. Photos proved otherwise, however. Kerr's lawsuit was dismissed by a Berlin court in 2005. "For me, Ms. Kerr corresponds to the cliché of the widow who wants to occupy everything for herself," commented Hugo Loetscher in an interview with Spiegel in April 2005.

Awards and honors

Works

Editing

  • CE Jeanneret : On the poetry of building . Selection, transl. Hugo Loetscher. In: Collection Horizont . Arche, Zurich 1957.
  • Manuel Gasser : The world before your eyes. Travel and people . Arche, Zurich 1964.
  • António Vieira : The sermon of Saint Anthony to the fish . Arche, Zurich 1966 (Original title: Sermão de Santo Antonio aos peixões . Translated by Georges Günter).
  • Varlin : The painter and his work . Varlin, texts by Varlin. Arche, Zurich 1969.
  • Daniel Bodmer, Sylvia Staub, Heinz Wolfensberger: Zurich . Aspects of a canton. Zurich 1972.
  • Hugo Loetscher (editor), DQ Stephenson (English), Gerda Bouvier (version française): Photography in Switzerland from 1840 to today / Photographie en Suisse de 1840 à aujourd'hui / Photography in Switzerland 1940 to today / . Ed .: Foundation for Photography Switzerland / Fondation pour la Photographie / Foundation for Photography. Niggli / Hatje, Teufen / Stuttgart 1974 ( German , French , English ).
    • exp. New edition: Benteli, Bern 1992
  • Adrien Turel : Record of an unsuccessful life . Frauenfeld 1976.
  • with Friedrich Dürrenmatt , Max Frisch , Jürg Federspiel , Manuel Gasser , Ludmila Vachtova : Varlin. Edition Scheidegger in Verlag Huber, 1978, ISBN 3-719306-18-6 .
  • Hans Falk : Circus on the subject . Zurich 1981 (with Fritz Billeter ).

More translations

literature

Web links

Commons : Hugo Loetscher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NZZ , September 3, 2009: Traveling writer and reporter
  2. ↑ Der Spiegel , No. 15, April 11, 2005: Spiegel-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg. P. 161
  3. ↑ See: I am a secondo - from Escholzmatt to Zurich . Speech on the granting of Escholzmatter community citizenship. In the illustrated book Escholzmatt , ibid. 2009
  4. ↑ radio play version of Wunderwelt , as Hsp. von den Hgg., pp. 127-146; and Peter K. Wehrli : A Zurich Capriccio - Un caprice zurichois, about Loetscher and Paul Nizon , bilingual. German-French, French transl. Manuel Meune u. a., pp. 147-155
personal data
SURNAME Loetscher, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 2009
Place of death Zurich , Switzerland