Jakob Vetsch (writer)

Jakob Vetsch, called Mundus

Jakob Vetsch (pseud .: Mundus; born October 28, 1879 in Nesslau ; † November 22, 1942 in Zurich ) was a Swiss dialect researcher and writer . He was best known for his utopia The Sun City , whose ideology he called Mundism .

Life

Signature of «Dr. Jakob Vetsch », 1913.

Jakob Vetsch spent his childhood in Wald AR , where his father was a teacher and his mother died early in childbed, and attended grammar school in Trogen and St. Gallen . In order not to have to become a teacher as his father wanted, he fled to Paris ; did not succeed there, however, returned to Switzerland in 1900 and first studied German , English and philosophy at the University of Zurich . His dissertation, supervised by Albert Bachmann , dealt with the Appenzell dialect, which he had been familiar with from childhood; the Dr. phil. he received with their partial print in 1907 (complete in 1910). Since studying English required a stay in the language area, Vetsch stayed as a German teacher in London from July 1902 to October 1903 , where the observation of social differences affected him even more than had been the case in Paris.

Already employed as an assistant editor in 1903, after his dissertation was accepted by his doctoral supervisor, he worked from 1905 to 1914 as a regular editor at the Swiss Idiotikon in Zurich , the dictionary of the Swiss German language. During this time, Vetsch was also active in the phonogram archive of the University of Zurich , which was also chaired by Bachmann , by recording numerous dialects as a "phonographist". During this time he also planned to open a «St. Gallic-Appenzell local and field names book »to be developed.

In 1910 Vetsch began, driven by social commitment, a second degree in law and economics , which he completed in 1914 with the state examination. In 1917 he received the Dr. iur .; The subject of his legal dissertation was the often misused legal loopholes and the question of how a judge should rule in such cases. From 1916 he became the secretary of the Association of Swiss Brewers in Zurich, from which he knew how to avert major financial damage during and after the First World War . In 1918 he married the millionaire daughter Marguerite Hübscher; her father was a major shareholder in the brewery industry. According to his autobiography, he received a considerable morning gift because the woman, like their daughter Irene, suffered from a hereditary disease.

In 1922 Vetsch resigned from his position and began to live as a freelance writer. In the same year his utopian work Die Sonnenstadt, set in 2100, appeared , in which he created the ideology of Mundism (from Latin Mundus, the world) in a literary way and radically with civil society and economy, with church and state, with capitalism and Colonialism settled down. In Zurich modeled Sun City , for example, was woman equal rights , retained its name after marriage and was able to him to pass on to children, the money was abolished, the working time to 25 hours per week is limited and solved the sex of marriage. Vetsch was influenced, among other things, by Silvio Gesell's free money theory , but also by Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner . Vetsch's utopia - a typical child of his time - met with broad rejection and was denigrated as a plagiarism of Tommaso Campanella's La città del Sole .

Vetsch published his work, which was published in several editions and also in Germany, at his own expense and consequently had to file for bankruptcy in April 1923. When his father-in-law and brother-in-law wanted him to be admitted to psychiatry, he fled to the Liechtenstein capital Vaduz in 1927 and a little later moved to the hamlet of Rotenboden - in the dialect "Rotaboda" - on the Triesenberg . From there he took part in the relief operation for the benefit of the population affected by the Rhine dam on September 25, 1927.

In 1934 Jakob Vetsch settled in Oberägeri - in the "Seehöfli" - in the canton of Zug . There, he served most recently ported from the Radical Party, from March 1942 until his death in November of the same year due to acute gangrene as mayor .

Works

Roman and Doctrine of Mundism

The sun city. A novel from the future, by Mundus (Dr. phil. & Dr. jur. J. Vetsch), Zurich 1922. - Newly published under the title: Die Sonnenstadt. A commitment and a way. Novel from the future for the present, by Mundus (Dr. phil. & Dr. jur. J. Vetsch), Zurich 1923 (six editions). - Newly published under the title: Die Sonnenstadt. A novel from the future for the present. With an afterword by Charles Linsmayer, Zurich 1982 (Spring of the Present, Volume 23).
A cultural image. The Swiss press reviews from January to October 1923 about the 6th edition (31st – 40th thousand) The Sun City, Zurich 1923.
Mundistic scripture sequence. 6 volumes: The world state of Mundism! Zurich 1923, What does Mundism want and how does it want it? Zurich 1923, you women and mundism. Zurich 1923, Mundism as heir and victor in labor liberation. Zurich 1923, The Mundismus der Jugend! Zurich 1924, capitalist and mundist. Zurich 1924.

Linguistics and dialect research

Article in the Swiss Idiotikon, volumes VI, VII and beginning of VIII (1905–1914).

Wald AR (sound), Wenker sentences, spoken and original transcription by Jakob Vetsch, recorded in October 1909. Edited by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Vienna 2002.

Wald AR (sound), folk tale, spoken and original transcription by Jakob Vetsch, recorded in October 1909. Mr. from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2002.

Origin and original meaning of the word «Rood». In: Appenzellische Jahrbücher 1906, pp. 226–246.

Üseri Puuresprooch. For the hundredth birthday of the Appenzell dialect researcher Dr. Titus Tobler . In: Appenzell calendar. Trogen 1907.

The sounds of the Appenzell dialect. Huber, Frauenfeld 1910 (contributions to Swiss German grammar I). - Previous partial print: The vowels of the stem syllables in the Appenzell dialects. Dissertation at the Philosophical Faculty I of the University of Zurich. Huber, Frauenfeld 1907.

Sorrows and joys of a wandering dialect researcher. In: Monthly Gazette of the Appenzell Association Zurich, No. 5, 1917.

Jurisprudence

Circumvention of the law (in faudem legis agere): theory, case law and legislation. A contribution to general legal theory. Dissertation at the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich. Zurich 1917.
On the customs treaty with Liechtenstein: the standpoint of the opponents of the union. Edited by the Werdenberg Initiative Committee: G. Schwendener, J. Vetsch. Buchs SG 1923.

Autobiography

An Easter song. Zurich 1924. Private print, unpublished.

literature

Charles Linsmayer : Jakob Vetsch. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Charles Linsmayer: Afterword. In: Jakob Vetsch: The sun city. A novel from the future for the present. Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, pp. 295-349.
Fritz Schoellhorn : Utopian writing against property and money. A counterpart to the book “Die Sonnenstadt” by Dr. jur. and phil. J. Vetsch. Winterthur 1923.
Gaston Isoz (Ed.): On the "Rood" with the Appenzell dialect researcher Jakob Vetsch called "Mundus" 1879–1942 . VGS Publishing Cooperative St. Gallen 2017.

Web links

Wikisource: Jakob Vetsch - Sources and full texts

Literature by and about Jakob Vetsch in the catalog of the German National Library
Residential community Oberägeri: Jakob Vetsch: The utopian and mayor
Texts on Jakob Vetsch by Charles Linsmayer

proof

↑ For example, most of the recordings in the publication: Schweizer Mundarten come from Vetsch . Edited by Otto Gröger on behalf of the leading commission of the phonogram archive of the University of Zurich . Hölder, Vienna 1914 (session reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Philosophical-Historical Class 176, 3, at the same time a communication from the Phonogram Archives Commission 36).

↑ See our place and field names. A suggestion to work on the st. Gallic-Appenzell local and field names book. Published by the Historical Association of the Canton of St. Gallen (no year). It speaks of «Dr. phil. J. Vetsch, Spiegelgasse 18, Zurich 1, who took over the elaboration of the work ».

↑ Charles Linsmayer writes in his edition of the "Sonnenstadt" on page 302 "1909", but according to the matriculation edition of the University of Zurich , Vetsch began studying law in the autumn of 1910.

personal data
SURNAME	Vetsch, Jakob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mundus (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dialect researcher and freelance writer
DATE OF BIRTH	October 28, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nesslau
DATE OF DEATH	November 22, 1942
Place of death	Zurich

[1] For example, most of the recordings in the publication: Schweizer Mundarten come from Vetsch . Edited by Otto Gröger on behalf of the leading commission of the phonogram archive of the University of Zurich . Hölder, Vienna 1914 (session reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Philosophical-Historical Class 176, 3, at the same time a communication from the Phonogram Archives Commission 36).

[2] See our place and field names. A suggestion to work on the st. Gallic-Appenzell local and field names book. Published by the Historical Association of the Canton of St. Gallen (no year). It speaks of «Dr. phil. J. Vetsch, Spiegelgasse 18, Zurich 1, who took over the elaboration of the work ».

[3] Charles Linsmayer writes in his edition of the "Sonnenstadt" on page 302 "1909", but according to the matriculation edition of the University of Zurich , Vetsch began studying law in the autumn of 1910.