Josef Maria Camenzind

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Josef Maria Camenzind (born February 27, 1904 in Gersau ; † September 19, 1984 in the Bethlehem Mission House in Immensee , Küssnacht am Rigi ) was a Swiss Catholic clergyman and writer .

Life

Camenzind studied at the Seminary of the Mission Society Bethlehem (SMB) in Wolhusen and was ordained a priest in 1931 . He then worked for this fraternity as an editor , rain and religion teacher.

Camenzind's author was Heinrich Federer . Many of his works are in the tradition of this folk teller and are linked to the Christian faith. More than half of Camenzind's stories are strongly autobiographical, some books have a village-historical character ( Gersau ) and two works focus on his missionary homeland ( Manchuria ).

With his childhood memories, he ties in with the Swiss village stories of the 19th century. His early, often idyllic native literature belongs to the time of the spiritual national defense, but does not exclude a critical approach. After the Second World War , Camenzind, who not only has a meaning for the small world of his village, tells how strangers in Gersau and Gersauer in Fremde provided an orientation towards the outside world, towards other European countries, as early as the 19th century. This openness to the world allows him to immerse himself with sensitivity and empathy in north-east China, which was ravaged by the chaos of war, bandits and natural disasters in the first half of the 20th century , where his confreres of the Bethlehem Mission Society and Ingenbohler Sisters work pastoral and unconditionally humanitarian.

Camenzind was one of the last representatives of a narrative tradition that is still aimed at a readership rooted in the church and not influenced by the hectic and multimedia literary industry. His works are therefore worth reading as historical documents.

Camenzind was honored for his work in 1935 and 1954 by the Swiss Schiller Foundation and in 1971 received the Central Switzerland Literature Prize as “Poet of Home and of the World”.

Works

  • My village by the lake (1934)
  • The Voice of the Mountain (1936)
  • A couch potato travels to Asia (1939)
  • Youth at the Lake (1940)
  • Shipmaster Balz (1941)
  • The Sagenmatt Brothers (1943)
  • The vagabond's son (1951)
  • Europe in the Village (1951)
  • Majesties and Vagans (1953)
  • The year without a mother (1958, revision and expansion of "Die Brüder Sagenmatt")
  • Marcel and Michael (1959)
  • Da-Kai (1959)
  • That's the way it was back then (1976)
  • Home between War and Peace (1976)
  • Between Storms and Stars (1978)
  • Poor Yet Rich Days (1982)

Stories from the main works in selected volumes

  • My village by the lake (1956)
  • The spa guest from Berlin (1964)
  • Stories from my village by the lake (1966)
  • In the village by the lake (1976)
  • The Boy from the Mill (1979)

Stories from the main works in separate editions

  • A shooting festival (1937)
  • The "dear God" from Ireland (1942)
  • Eerie Ending of a Secret Visit (1944)
  • Between Amur and Sungari (1948)
  • Marzelli and the Queen of Holland (1954)
  • The Allora (1956)

Published posthumously

  • From Rigi to Manchuria. A text selection. Edited by Andreas Schenker and Heinrich Geisser. Swiss Texts, New Series, Volume 30. Chronos, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-0340-0959-1 .

bibliography

  • Andreas Schenker: Bibliography Josef Maria Camenzind SMB (1904–1984). Editor and writer. Mission Society Bethlehem, Immensee 2009.

exhibition

  • Camenzind-Stübchen in the local history museum of the old town hall of Gersau: The permanent exhibition provides insights into the life and work of the poet. Limited opening hours, information

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Camenzind, Joseph Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Catholic clergyman and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Gersau
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1984
Place of death Küssnacht am Rigi