Niklaus Bolt

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Youth picture by Niklaus Bolt

Niklaus Bolt (born June 16, 1864 in Lichtensteig ; † February 26, 1947 in Riehen ) was a Reformed Swiss pastor and youth writer .

Life

Childhood, youth and education

Bolt came as one of ten children of the cloth merchant Nikolaus Bolt (1830–1886; son of the farmer Johann Georg Bolt and Elisabeth Rüttinger) and his wife Anna (1831–1898; daughter of the carpenter Gregor Bösch and Anna Teurer) in Lichtensteig im Toggenburg to the world. His father's business made ample profit, which is why the family was able to acquire one of the most stately houses in the city center of Lichtensteig in 1870, where Niklaus Bolt spent most of his childhood. He attended the combined secondary school in Lichtensteig, which was run jointly by Catholics and Protestants . In 1878 he moved to the grammar school in Basel , which was made possible by his sister Anna (1851–1883) 's relationships with Protestant Basel families. At the Basel grammar school on Münsterplatz he met Andreas Heusler , with whom Bolt was friends until Heusler's death.

In the meantime, the father's business success began to wane, and although the family braced themselves against the economic decline until 1881, plans to emigrate to the USA emerged that year . Niklaus Bolt's brothers Gregor and Jakob already lived in New York and worked as merchants. In 1882 the house in Lichtensteig was finally sold and the family embarked for the USA. Only eighteen-year-old Niklaus and his terminally ill sister Anna remained in Switzerland.

At this point, Niklaus Bolt had already had to leave the grammar school in Basel. The family's economic situation forced him to complete the last year of school in the Protestant seminary in Schiers , where he was able to finish secondary school a year earlier than in Basel. In 1883 he returned to Basel to study theology at the preacher's school. Upon graduation, Bolt followed his family and traveled to North America in 1887.

St. Paul and Chicago

On May 20, 1887, Niklaus Bolt met his now widowed mother and five of his siblings in the town of St. Paul on the Mississippi, with a population of around 25,000 . Bolt was quickly ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America and organized the German Presbyterian Bethlehem Congregation of St. Paul on Christmas 1887. On the initiative of the Bolt brothers, the congregation built its own church, which was inaugurated in 1890. At the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 , Bolt came into contact with the evangelist Dwight L. Moody . Bolt was asked to do missionary work in Chicago , where he subsequently worked from 1895 to 1900 and took care of immigrant Germans. At this time, Bolt published the first religious writings as editor of the monthly Das Volkswohl .

Despite his extensive activities in the USA, Bolt did not break contact with his homeland. In 1892 he traveled back to Switzerland for the first time and in 1899 he visited, among others, his childhood friend Andreas Heusler in Berlin . After returning to Chicago, he gave lectures on Switzerland. At the same time, a sore throat became noticeable, which is why he decided to cross the river again in 1900 to take it easy on the Italian Riviera . After his recovery, however, Bolt did not return to the USA, but to Switzerland to Lugano .

Niklaus Bolt around 1935

Parish office in Lugano

Bolt had preached twice in Lugano before his cure. Now he followed the call from Ticino , where he was appointed pastor of the German Protestant diaspora community in Lugano in 1901 . As part of his pastoral office, Bolt set out to found numerous associations, such as the Christian Association of Young Men , a virgin association led by Bolt's sister Martha, and the mission association . The fact that the latter was close to the Basel mission testifies to Bolt's continuing close relationship with the city on the Rhine. The networking with the Basel bourgeoisie illustrates the successful implementation of the so-called Ticino evening in the Basel city casino in 1914. This was a donation event for charitable institutions in the canton of Ticino, above all the establishment of an alcohol-free restaurant in Lugano. Thanks to the Basel funding, Bolt, who campaigned for the abstinence movement , was able to carry out the alcohol-free Pestalozzihof project in Lugano.

During his last two years in office in Lugano, Bolt took over the office of pastor in the Novaggio military sanatorium in 1922 , which he held until 1936.

Success as a youth writer

Shortly after settling in Lugano, Bolt began to publish his own literary writings. Even the first youth novel, Peterli am Lift , was received extremely positively and compared with Johanna Spyri's work by reviewers . Among the numerous books that Bolt wrote both during his parish activity and when he was retired, the most important items were the boy scout novel Alltime ready and Svizzero! The story of a youth the best reviews. Svizzero! is about a boy from the Bernese Oberland who does not want to start an apprenticeship as a tailor, therefore runs away from his parents' house and finds work in the tunnel construction of the Jungfrau Railways. The book interweaves elements of the homeland novel with the subject of the first Italian guest workers in Switzerland who worked in tunnel construction under harsh conditions.

The success of Bolt's youth books is not only evident in the many positive reviews, but also in the high number of copies. Svizzero! sold around 86,000 times by Bolt's death. A number that, apart from Johanna Spyris Heidi, no other Swiss book for young people had reached. In addition, Bolt's youth books have been translated into numerous languages. The Stuttgart publishing house JF Steinkopf , who published most of Bolt's books, was not least responsible for the far-reaching success of his literature .

Niklaus Bolt's stories can be classified in the genre of the homeland novel , for example by depicting the mountains as a formative force. At the same time, Bolt's works are a moral appeal in the sense of Basel Protestantism and political conservatism . Furthermore, the stories of Daisy and the two works The Fireman and His Child and Christoph's Escape suggest Bolt's past in the USA.

Niklaus Bolt was mentioned by contemporaries in the same breath as Johanna Spyri and Jeremias Gotthelf and his stories of “little heroism” were praised, and Bolt also filled the gap in boys' literature in Switzerland with his books. After Johanna Spyri's death in 1901, Swiss women authors wrote almost exclusively literature for girls: Olga Meyer Anneli , Ida Bindschedler die Turnachkinder or Elisabeth Müller Vreneli .

Bolt's writing style is characterized by a straightforward language, which critics and readers described in the most successful case as "powerful" and "gripping". On the other hand, this short language was also criticized because it led to the incomprehensibility of the stories piece by piece. Artists such as Otto Plattner , Rudolf Münger , Burkhard Mangold and Giovanni Müller were responsible for the illustrations of many of his books .

After his professional retirement, Niklaus Bolt, who remained single for life, spent the last years of his life together with his sister Martha in Lugaggia , where he continued to write literary work and cultivated written and personal contacts. Apart from his childhood friend Andreas Heusler, he corresponded with personalities such as Albert Schweitzer , the Swiss Federal Councilor Giuseppe Motta , the theologian Friedrich Gogarten and the Germanist Otto von Greyerz . In 1947 Bolt died in Riehen near Basel.

Works

Niklaus Bolt's oeuvre includes, in addition to the youth novels, the two autobiographical writings Hüben and Drüben and Weg und Treffen. A book of memory . In addition, Bolt published numerous poems that were printed in magazines and newspapers and are collected in his estate .

Even while he was still alive, Bolt intended to keep his estate in the Swiss National Library in Bern. For this purpose he commissioned an estate commission, which also included the Basel historian René Teuteberg . In four stages between 1951 and 2002, however, Teuteberg did not hand over documents worthy of the legacy to the State Library in Bern, but to the Basel University Library , where Bolt's estate is still to this day.

  • Strokes and Over (1901)
  • Peterli at the lift (1907)
  • Daisy on the Gemmernalp (1910)
  • Daisy or A Little Flower That Never Wilts (1911)
  • Svizzero! The Story of a Youth (1913)
  • Always Ready (1916)
  • Jochen the Young Boy (1921)
  • Now I'm a Boy (1922)
  • The fireman and his child (1927)
  • Christoph's Escape (1930)
  • Michel Edlibach's Confession (1931)
  • Paths and encounters. A Book of Memory (1935)
  • The Confederate of Cimabella (1939)
  • Franzl in Toggenburg (1940)
  • An Easter Messenger (1941)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d René Teuteberg : The pastor poet Niklaus Bolt . Heinrich Majer, Basel 1953.
  2. ↑ Basel University Library, Manuscript Department. SIGN .: NL 8, C: letters.
  3. ↑ a b Niklaus Bolt: Paths and Encounters . JF Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1935.
  4. ↑ Basel University Library, Manuscript Department. SIGN .: NL 8, D1: Various.
  5. ↑ Basel University Library, Manuscript Department. SIGN .: NL 8, A3: Biographical.
  6. ^ Website of the Hotel Pestalozzi in Lugano (accessed December 30, 2016).
  7. ^ Theodor Krummacher : Memories from office and house . Mittler, Berlin 1937.
  8. ^ A b Serge Hediger: Bolt's books for boys. Tagblatt, September 3, 2015, accessed December 7, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Basel University Library, Manuscript Department. SIGN .: NL 8, C3: Biographical.
  10. ↑ Verena Rutschmann: Bolt, Niklaus. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  11. ↑ a b Basel University Library, manuscript department. SIGN .: NL 8, C2: Biographical.
  12. ↑ Basel University Library, Manuscript Department. SIGN .: NL 8, B: works.
personal data
SURNAME Bolt, Niklaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss pastor and writer for young people
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Lichtensteig
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1947
Place of death Riehen