Kurt Guggenheim

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Kurt Guggenheim (born January 14, 1896 in Zurich ; † December 5, 1983 there ) was a Swiss writer .

Life

Kurt Guggenheim came from a Jewish merchant family. At the urging of his father Hermann Guggenheim he learned a merchant profession, worked in Le Havre in a coffee - import company and took over after his father's death his company, which he in subsequent years of the Great Depression slipped and went bankrupt .

He then worked for a while as a copywriter , editor and antiquarian until he turned entirely to writing. When his first novel Entfesselung was published, he was 39 years old. He achieved his breakthrough in 1938 with Riedland , a novel about oil drilling in the reed area on upper Lake Zurich . In addition to his novels, he also wrote a number of theater plays and was (co-) author of film scripts , for example by Wachtmeister Studer and Wilder Urlaub (based on his novel of the same name).

The young Guggenheim's love for Eva Hug - the later wife of his writer colleague Albert J. Welti -, whom he was not allowed to marry (probably because of the anti-Semitic attitude of the Hug family), was formative for the young Guggenheim . This love was processed several times in the work, for example in All in All or in The Early Years . In 1939 he married the widowed Gertrud Schlozer.

During the First World War , Guggenheim advocated pacifist ideals in connection with the religious and social ideas of the Swiss theologian Leonhard Ragaz and considered refusal to serve . During the Second World War he voluntarily rejoined the Swiss Army , from which he had been expelled (due to bankruptcy !). In his novel We were our four , he processed his experiences during the occupation of the border in World War II, as well as his encounter with Albin Zollinger .

Another important topic is dealing with Judaism . The father was over-conform, almost denied being Jewish. In the first decades of the 20th century, many Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe and brought a completely different Judaism to Zurich than that of the long-established Jewish families from which Guggenheim came. These Jewish milieus in Zurich are described in his main work , the novel tetralogy Alles in Allem .

The preoccupation with the life and work of Jean-Henri Fabre , mediated by the aforementioned biologist Eva Welti-Hug, was particularly important for Guggenheim's intellectual development . In doing so, he achieved excellent German translations of " Homer der insects", which were later published under the title The Open Secret . With the novel-like approximation of grain of sand in 1959, he also created a literary monument to the great French entomologist . Since 1967 he was a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry .

Guggenheim has described himself several times as a “local writer”: he writes for the people he lives among. His estate is in the Zurich Central Library .

He found his final resting place in the Rehalp cemetery in Zurich .

Awards

Works

Prose, essays

  • Unleashing. Novel. Schweizer Spiegel, Zurich 1935
  • Seven days. Novel. Schweizer Spiegel, Zurich 1936
  • Riedland. Novel. Schweizer Spiegel, Zurich 1938
  • Wild vacation. Novel. Schweizer Spiegel, Zurich 1941
  • The secret journey. Novel. Artemis, Zurich 1946
  • We were our four. Novel. Artemis, Zurich 1949
  • All in all. Novel in four volumes. Artemis, Zurich:
  • * Volume 1, 1900-1913. with eight original lithographs by Hans Falk , 1952
  • * Volume 2, 1914-1919. with eight original lithographs by Hans Falk, 1953
  • * Volume 3, 1920-1932. with drawings by Arnold Kübler , 1954
  • * Volume 4, 1933-1945. with drawings by Arnold Kübler, 1955
  • Peace of heart. Novel. Artemis, Zurich 1956
  • Grain of sand for grain of sand. The encounter with J.-H. Fabre. Artemis, Zurich 1959
  • The truth under the flow sheet. From the diary. Artemis, Zurich 1960
  • Home or domicile? The position of the German-Swiss writer in the present. Artemis, Zurich 1961
  • The early years. Report. Artemis, Zurich 1962
  • Diary at the Schanzengraben. Ceremony for the 125th anniversary of A. Welti-Furrer AG. With drawings by Karl Mannhart . Artemis, Zurich 1963
  • Salt of the sea, salt of tears. Artemis, Zurich 1964
  • The end of Seldwyla . A Gottfried Keller book. Artemis, Zurich 1965
  • The golden cube. Novel. Artemis, Zurich 1967
  • 125 years of weaving machines. Maschinenfabrik Rüti AG, Rüti 1967
  • Why me? Words for the sick. Artemis, Zurich 1968
  • Minute of life. Novel about the friendship between Zola and Cézanne . Artemis, Zurich 1969
  • Mignon and Peregrina. Encounters. Jacobi, Bremen 1970
  • The holy comedian. Narrative. Benziger, Zurich 1972 (on Jean Rotrou and Genesius von Rome )
  • Called and not called. Novel. Benziger, Zurich 1973
  • Later. Four stories. Benziger, Zurich 1974
  • The labyrinthine promenade. Goethe's trip to Zurich, Stäfa and the Gotthard in 1797. Huber, Frauenfeld 1975
  • Everything is worth talking about. Words for the new day. Huber, Frauenfeld 1977
  • The puzzle game. Novel. Huber, Frauenfeld 1977
  • Just one time. Diary pages 1925–1980. Three volumes. Huber, Frauenfeld 1981-1983

Dramas

  • The cheerful retirement. Comedy. Reiss, Basel 1938
  • The Dying Swan (The Fall of the Second Squadron). Play in three acts. Reiss, Basel 1943

Radio plays

  • Micheli. Swiss Radio DRS , 1945
  • Laederach family. Radio play series, DRS 1949–1951

Film scripts

Translations

Work edition

Published by Charles Linsmayer in Huber Verlag, Frauenfeld 1989–2014:

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Guggenheim, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1983
Place of death Zurich