Jost Bernhard Häfliger

Jost Bernhard Häfliger

Jost Bernhard Barnabas Häfliger (the family name is also written as Häffliger, Haefliger, Haeffliger, Haeflinger, Haefflinger ; born  June 11, 1759 in Beromünster ; †  June 1, 1837 in Hochdorf ) was a Swiss Roman Catholic clergyman. He worked as a promoter of the Lucerne rural school system and was a pioneer of Swiss-German dialect poetry.

Life and attitude

Haefliger was born into a distinguished family of Lucerne patch Beromünster, where his eponymous father as pin Ammann worked. After attending the local collegiate school, he studied law and theology in Solothurn , Lucerne , Constance and Strasbourg ; He completed his studies with a doctorate in theology and a licentiate in both rights (canonical and secular). In 1783 he was ordained a priest .

From 1783 and 1784 he was vicar in Neudorf , from 1784 to 1793 a priest in Beromünster and from 1793 until his death a priest in Hochdorf. In addition, he served in the Hochdorf chapter from 1795–1807 as sextary, 1807 as chamberlain and from 1808 as dean ; He was 1798–1802 school inspector in the Hochdorf district, 1806–1818 high school inspector in the Seetal school district and 1807–1830 examinations councilor in the spiritual examination board as well as apostolic protonotary .

Like his father and his Escholzmatter colleague Franz Joseph Stalder , Häfliger was originally a supporter of the Catholic Enlightenment and the Helvetic Republic . He campaigned for the liberation of the peasants and characterized Jesus Christ in a sermon in 1798 as sanculottes . During the anti-Helvetic coup d'état by the Provisional Central Committee in 1802, the military commanding Colonel Hauser threatened him with arrest, whereupon he fled to Abtwil .

In the post-Helvetic era he became more conservative and turned into an "intrepid fighter for the Catholic Church". In the dispute between the Lucerne general vicar Probst Göldin and the enlightened Constance diocese administrator Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg in 1814, he was the spokesman for the Lucerne clergy. He turned against the Baden article , according to which the Catholic Church should be placed under the supervision of the liberal state, and against Friedrich Froebel 's educational institution in Willisau, which was run in the spirit of Pestalozzi . Theologically he now joined the school of Johann Michael Sailer , which represented an internalized and pastoral theological Christianity.

Act

Häfliger earned important services in the renewal of the rural school system. He was a supporter of the reforms advocated by the Helvetian education minister, Philipp Albert Stapfer , and, against various opposition, managed to get a school built in every congregation in his chapter. Together with the Hochdorf teacher Fridolin Wyss, he offered advanced training courses for the teaching staff. In addition, he was actively involved in the pastoral care and liturgical reform of Konstanz, which was promoted by the then Vicar General Wessenberg.

In 1808 he founded the Swiss Music Society together with Hans Georg Nägeli , and was its first president. In the same year, after having been a guest from 1797, he joined the Helvetic Society , whose secretariat he led from 1810 to 1819. He was also a member of the Lucerne Reading Society .

Häfliger wrote numerous "folk songs", as he called them, in Lucerne dialect , the purpose of which was to convey and cultivate good morals and patriotic feelings. He rarely composed his own melodies, but rather used well-known tunes, often those by Nägeli, to support his poems. Häfliger's first poems, which were initially distributed on flying pages , were almost all politically colored; the author slipped into the form of a farmer and tried, in deliberately rough language, to bring the people closer to the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Helvetic. The later poems, however, were partly influenced by Johann Peter Hebel's Allemannic poems published in 1803 and probably also by Gottlieb Jakob Kuhn ; The praise of country life with its work and its festivals and contented modesty was sung. Finally, in the anthology of 1813, Häfeli only included a minority of the songs that he wrote in 1798 and 1799; He eliminated the "documents of political errors", which reflected "the change from [Francophile]" patriots "to Swiss". In his charades , written in 1811 and 1812, he tried to trump lever - "his ambition was to become the Swiss lever". In addition to his own poetry, he also collected the traditional, genuine folk songs and worked as a promoter of choral singing. - Häfliger's poems and songs are largely forgotten today. The only thing that is still sung occasionally, the 1794 resulting What sust d 'Schwytzer bruuchid, the 1946 in the sing-song, the song book of the hermit students, and in 1961 in the collection What our fathers sang the folk song researcher Alfred Leonz Gassmann was taken .

During his lifetime, Häfliger enjoyed a high reputation as a musician and poet. Together with the somewhat older Josef Felix Ineichen (to whom he was inferior in originality) he was one of the pioneers of Swiss dialect literature . His poems therefore also functioned as an important source of the Swiss idiot . The careful writing of the dialect in the anthology from 1813 is also remarkable. The Germanist Walter Haas praised Häfliger's dialect literary work as follows:

“The recognition he found among contemporaries for his dialect work is indicative of the new conception of vernacular language and folk poetry, which at that time had already established itself in educated Swiss circles. On the other hand, the attitude of the [Constance] auxiliary bishop [sic!] Wessenberg, who referred to Häfliger's work as 'cowshed poetry', is just as characteristic of the German underestimation of the dialect. "

Works (selection)

• Songs in the Swiss folk tone, based on the Lucerne dialect. Lucerne 1801.
• Swiss folk songs based on the Lucerne dialect. Lucerne 1813.

A complete list of the writings can be found in Geschichtsfreund 71, 1916, pp. 220–226.

literature

• Josef Egli: Dean Jost Bernhard Häfliger (1759-1837). Priests, poets, musicians. In: Seetaler Brattig 28, 2006, pp. 60–62 (with portrait, song Was bruucht men i der Schwyz? And image of the tombstone; digitized version ).
• Walter Haas : Lozärnerspròòch. A history of the Lucerne German dialect literature with an author's lexicon and a reader. Räber, Luzern / Stuttgart 1968, pp. 22–24 and 68–70.
• Walter Haas: Jost Bernhard Häfliger. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Josef Anton Häfliger: Historical facts about the family Häfliger. The Beromünster branch. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 71, 1916, pp. 139–175, here pp. 165–172 ( digitized version ); complete list of writings on pp. 220–226 ( digitized version ).
• J [osef] A [nton] H [äfliger]: Häfliger, Jost Bernhard. In: Historical-Biographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 4: Güttingen - Milan. Administration of the Hist.-Biogr. Lexikons der Schweiz, Neuchâtel 1927, p. 43 f.
• Waltraud Hörsch, Josef Bannwart: Lucerne parish and world clergy 1700–1800. A biographical lexicon (=  Lucerne Historical Publications. Volume 33). Rex, Luzern 1998, ISBN 3-7252-0658-9 , p. 177 f.
• Reinhard Müller: Haefliger, Jost Bernhard Barnabas. In: German Literature Lexicon . Biographical-bibliographical manual. 3rd, completely revised edition. Volume 7: Haab - Hogrebe. Edited by Heinz Rupp and Carl Ludwig Lang. Francke, Bern / Munich 1979, ISBN 3-7720-1461-5 , column 65 f.
• Peter Niederhauser: Pastor Jost Bernhard Häfliger, 1759–1837. From his life and work. Wenslingen 1967.
• Hans Trümpy : Swiss German language and literature in the 17th and 18th centuries (=  writings of the Swiss Society for Folklore. Volume 36). Basel 1955, especially pp. 308–323.

Web links

• Publications by and about Jost Bernhard Häfliger in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library

Footnotes

1. ^ Career and offices (with the exception of the apostolic protonotary) according to Waltraud Hörsch, Josef Bannwart: Lucerne Parish and World Clergy 1700–1800. Rex, Luzern 1998, p. 177 f., Here p. 177; the addition of the apostolic protonotary after Josef Anton Häfliger: Historical facts about the Häfliger family. The Beromünster branch. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 71, 1916, pp. 139–175, here p. 165.
2. ^ Josef Anton Häfliger: Historical facts about the family Häfliger. The Beromünster branch. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 71, 1916, pp. 139–175, here pp. 165–167.
3. ^ Josef Anton Häfliger: Historical facts about the family Häfliger. The Beromünster branch. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 71, 1916, pp. 139–175, here p. 167.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Waltraud Hörsch, Josef Bannwart: Lucerne Parish and World Clergy 1700–1800. A biographical lexicon. Rex, Luzern 1998, p. 177 f., Here p. 177.
5. ^ ^{A b} Walter Haas: Lozärnerspròòch. A history of the Lucerne German dialect literature with an author's lexicon and a reader. Räber, Luzern / Stuttgart 1968, pp. 22–24 and 68–70, here p. 70.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Josef Anton Häfliger: Historical facts about the family Häfliger. The Beromünster branch. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 71, 1916, pp. 139–175, here p. 166.
7. ^ Arnold Niggli: The Swiss Music Society. A study of the history of music and culture. Zurich 1886; Josef Anton Häfliger: Historical facts about the family Häfliger. The Beromünster branch. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 71, 1916, pp. 139–175, here p. 170 f.
8. ↑ Entire section after Hans Trümpy: Swiss German Language and Literature in the 17th and 18th Centuries (=  writings of the Swiss Society for Folklore. Volume 36). Basel 1955, pp. 308-323; Walter Haas: Lozärnerspròòch. A history of the Lucerne German dialect literature with an author's lexicon and a reader. Räber, Luzern / Stuttgart 1968, pp. 22–24 and 68–70, here pp. 23 and 69.
9. ↑ Quotes from Hans Trümpy: Swiss German Language and Literature in the 17th and 18th Century (=  writings of the Swiss Society for Folklore. Volume 36). Basel 1955, p. 311.
10. ^ Quote from Hans Trümpy: Swiss German Language and Literature in the 17th and 18th Centuries (=  writings of the Swiss Society for Folklore. Volume 36). Basel 1955, p. 318.
11. ^ Walter Haas: Lozärnerspròch. A history of the Lucerne German dialect literature with an author's lexicon and a reader. Räber, Luzern / Stuttgart 1968, pp. 22–24 and 68–70, here p. 69.
12. ^ Walter Haas: Lozärnerspròch. A history of the Lucerne German dialect literature with an author's lexicon and a reader. Räber, Luzern / Stuttgart 1968, pp. 22–24 and 68–70, here p. 69.
13. ↑ Walter Haas: Jost Bernhard Häfliger. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland.
14. ^ Walter Haas: Lozärnerspròch. A history of the Lucerne German dialect literature with an author's lexicon and a reader. Räber, Luzern / Stuttgart 1968, pp. 22–24 and 68–70, here p. 22.
15. ↑ According to the full text search for Häfl * and JBHäfl * on https://digital.idiotikon.ch/ .
16. ↑ Hans Trümpy: Swiss German language and literature in the 17th and 18th centuries (=  writings of the Swiss Society for Folklore. Volume 36). Basel 1955, p. 319.
17. ↑ Häfliger's personal copy of the Swiss folk songs with corrections, additions and three unpublished songs in the appendix is ​​owned by the Central and University Library Lucerne (Walter Haas: Lozärnerspròòch. A history of Lucerne German dialect literature with an author's lexicon and a reader. Räber, Luzern / Stuttgart 1968, p. 22-24 and 68-70, here p. 70).