Jacques M. Bächtold

Grave of Jacques M. Bächtold and his wife Anni, née Wirth, in Niederweningen

Jacques (Jakob) Marius Bächtold (born November 11, 1887 in Geneva , † November 11, 1984 in Niederweningen ) was a Swiss teacher and didactic . During his time as a seminar teacher in Kreuzlingen , he did fundamentals for the intellectual culture of his place of residence and work, and after his retirement he campaigned for Swiss German in a variety of ways . Among other things, he founded the Thurgauische Kunstgesellschaft and kept Albert Weber's Zurich German dictionaryto the end, which went down in history as a milestone in Swiss-German dialectology. His work at Bund Schwyzertütsch and (under the pseudonym Häxebränz ) at the Tages-Anzeiger gave him the position of one of the most well-founded and prominent connoisseurs of the Zurich German dialect in the 1960s and 1970s .

Education and professional activity

Bächtold was born in French-speaking western Switzerland as the son of a factory worker of Schaffhausen origin and a woman from Geneva . The family moved to Winterthur in 1900 and later to Zurich . Bächtold, whose mother tongue was French, learned Zurich German so quickly and well that he was later considered a typical representative of this dialect.

After primary and secondary school, he attended the teachers' seminar in Küsnacht , where he received his primary school teacher patent. He then worked as a caretaker at some schools. 1908 he settled at the University of Zurich matriculate to German and Romance languages to study. His dissertation, submitted to Adolf Frey in 1913 and printed two years later, was entitled A Swiss Literary History; it saw itself as a criticism of the basic work History of German Literature in Switzerland by the former Swiss doyen of literary studies, Jakob Baechtold . In July 1915 he married Anna Wirth (1888–1981).

From 1914 to 1943 Bächtold was a teacher for German and French at the teachers' seminar in Kreuzlingen . One of his first students was Henry König . Working in the immediate vicinity of Germany, he took a clear stand against National Socialism at an early stage (among other things as a discussion speaker against Jakob Schaffner ) and served as a censor after the beginning of the Second World War . In 1943 he was appointed professor for didactics in the mother tongue at the newly founded senior teacher seminar in Zurich. He retired in 1955.

During his time as a teacher, Bächtold published a number of essays on topics such as style training, ways to meaningful reading, leisure time and reading, didactics, the use of records in school as well as the tasks and goals of mother tongue teaching.

Cultural preservation activity

In order to give Kreuzlingen, which at that time saw itself more as a suburb of Constance than as an independent village, more cultural self-confidence, Bächtold founded several institutions at his place of work. In 1917 he initiated the Society for Music and Literature Kreuzlingen and the surrounding area - from 1925 Society for Music and Literature Konstanz-Kreuzlingen - which dissolved in 1935 as a result of the break-away of Konstanz , which had now become National Socialist. In 1934 he organized an art exhibition with works from Kreuzlingen's private collection, including the sculptor Henri König , who was now working in Geneva . At the same time he announced the foundation of the Thurgau Art Society , which he then presided over from 1938 to 1945. The local public library also goes back to Bächtold. He also gave lectures on Swiss poets and Swiss cultural values in Kreuzlingen.

Dialect care activity

After his retirement, Bächtold was appointed to several positions in the Bund Schwyzertütsch (now the Swiss German Association ). For a short time he served as chairman of the federal government, for many years as its secretary. His ongoing work at the advice and information center of the Federal Schwyzertütsch and as President of the Zurich section, the Züri Group, was particularly formative .

When his long-time friend Albert Weber died, he continued his project for a Zurich-German dictionary and completed it in 1961. The second edition, a thorough revision of the first, was also his work. The Zurich German dictionary by Weber and Bächtold triggered a boom in Swiss German dialect dictionaries that has continued to this day.

From 1963 onwards, for ten years, Bächtold wrote a total of 513 oral and literary articles on Zurich German in particular, Swiss German in general and on dialect literature in every Saturday edition of the Zürcher Tages-Anzeiger under the pseudonym Häxebränz - popularly for Exuperantius , Zurich's third city saint . 99 selected word stories were published in book form in 1975, provided with drawings by the Gurin graphic artist Hans Tomamichel . He published further articles in particular in the journals Heimatschutz and Schweizerdeutsch . In addition, Bächtold initiated Zurich German courses for foreigners, for which he designed a special course. He represented Zurich German on the record Swiss Dialects published on the occasion of the Swiss national exhibition Expo 64 , and on behalf of the Zurich senior teacher seminar he transferred seventeen fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm in dialect, which he then recorded on tape.

At the end of 1972, at the age of 85, Bächtold resigned from all his offices on the board of the Schwyzertütsch Federation, as head of its language department and as editor of the dialect of the Tages-Anzeiger . One of his last contributions to Swiss German was his collaboration in the development of the greatly expanded third edition of the Zurich German dictionary, which came out in 1983.

Honors

In 1976 Bächtold received an honorary gift from the government council of the canton of Zurich for his versatile work . As early as 1965, the Züri des Bundes Schwyzertütsch made him an honorary member.

Publications (selection)

A Swiss literary history. Diss. Univ. Zurich. Honer, Kreuzlingen 1915.
(taken from Albert Weber :) Zurich German dictionary . Schweizer Spiegel, Zurich 1961; 2nd, heavily revised edition, ibid. 1968; 3rd, revised and greatly expanded edition Rohr, Zurich 1983 (grammars and dictionaries of Swiss German in a comprehensible representation III), ISBN 3-85865-054-4 .
99 x Züritüütsch. How me Züritüütsch fountains, talks, writes, säit de Häxebränz. Rohr, Zurich 1975 (4th edition 1982).

literature

J. J .: Jacques Marius Bächtold at the age of 80. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 11, 1967, p. 33.
Rudolf Trüb : Resignation of Prof. J. M. Bächtold. In: Heimatschutz. Patrimoine 68 (1973), p. 32 ( digitized version ).
Bernd Steiner: De Häxebränz fyret s isig Hoochsig. In: Tages-Anzeiger of July 25, 1980, p. 17.
Arthur Baur : A great friend of the dialect. On the death of Jacques M. Bächtold. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 16, 1984, p. 42.
Rudolf Trüb: On the death of Jacques M. Bächtold. In: Tages-Anzeiger of November 13, 1984, p. 19.
Albert Schoop: Dr. Jakob Marius Bächtold in memory. In: Annual booklet of the old gymnastics and the alumni of the Kreuzlingen seminar 1985, pp. 79–82.
Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Bächtold, Jacques Marius. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . Vol. I, p. 645.
Necrology for Jakob Marius Bächtold. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 61, 1986, p. 195 ( e-periodica.ch ).

Web links

Matriculation edition of the University of Zurich: Bächtold, Jacques M (arius).
Publications by and about Jacques M. Bächtold in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library

Individual evidence

↑ Albert Schoop, who knew Bächtold from his time in Kreuzlingen, said in his obituary that Bächtold did not "care for his mother" until he was called to Zurich in 1943, perhaps also in memory of the background story of the Zurich novellas Gottfried Keller, his favorite poet "( 81) Jacques M. called. This information is incorrect, as he was already enrolled under this first name as a student at the University of Zurich. Apparently Bächtold only changed from the original Jacques to Jakob during his time in Kreuzlingen .
↑ Swiss dialects. Twenty German-speaking dialects, spoken by connoisseurs and lovers. His Master's Voice ZELP 304, Emiag, Zug 1965. The text presented by Bächtold was entitled Der Andrees and sys Fröili .

personal data
SURNAME	Bächtold, Jacques M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bächtold, Jacques Marius; Bächtold, Jakob Marius; Häxebränz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss didactician, cultural promoter, dialect lexicographer and dialect curator
DATE OF BIRTH	November 11, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH	Geneva
DATE OF DEATH	November 11, 1984
Place of death	Niederweningen

[1] Albert Schoop, who knew Bächtold from his time in Kreuzlingen, said in his obituary that Bächtold did not "care for his mother" until he was called to Zurich in 1943, perhaps also in memory of the background story of the Zurich novellas Gottfried Keller, his favorite poet "( 81) Jacques M. called. This information is incorrect, as he was already enrolled under this first name as a student at the University of Zurich. Apparently Bächtold only changed from the original Jacques to Jakob during his time in Kreuzlingen .

[2] Swiss dialects. Twenty German-speaking dialects, spoken by connoisseurs and lovers. His Master's Voice ZELP 304, Emiag, Zug 1965. The text presented by Bächtold was entitled Der Andrees and sys Fröili .