Peider Lansel

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Peider Lansel (born August 15, 1863 in Pisa , † December 8, 1943 in Geneva ) worked as a poet, essayist and political propagandist for the preservation and recognition of Romansh almost throughout his life . For more than thirty years he has written and lavishly edited several collections of poetry, published various essays and lectures and, as the editor, obtained editions of the complete works of other authors. He also arranged for translations of numerous poems from world literature into Romansh - for example by Nietzsche, Heine, Goethe, Lenau and Lermontow. For his great commitment to the Romansh language and culture, he was honored by the University of Zurich with the “ doctor honoris causa ” in 1933 and ten years later he was awarded the Great Schiller Prize for his poetic work .

Life

Childhood and youth

Peider Lansel was born on August 15, 1863 in Pisa , the first-born son (of five sons and two daughters) of Andri Töna Lansel from Sent (1831-1900) and Emilia Steiner from Lavin (1837-1901). Andri Lansel had founded a branch of the family business in Florence in Pisa.

Peider Lansel grew up in Pisa until he was nine and, like most emigrants, spent the summer in the Engadine. He attended the school in Sent and the canton school in Chur . The training was rounded off by a visit to the Frauenfeld commercial school and a one-year stay in Rolle VD . Around 1879, at the age of 16, he started as an apprentice in the businesses of the Könz and Lansel families in Arezzo and Livorno. When his father withdrew from the business and returned to Switzerland, Peider Lansel took over his father's business in Pisa at the age of 21 and ran it successfully. After a few years, however, he more or less left the business to his brothers Andri and Emil.

Return to Switzerland

In 1893 he married Emma Curdin (Corradini) from Sent. They had four children together in Pisa (the first-born daughter Erica died at the age of one, followed by Erica (II), Bignia and Andri Albert). In 1906, at the age of 43, Lansel definitely returned to Switzerland with his family, first to Sent and then to Geneva for the further education of the children. However, Lansel still spent many months in the Engadine and on the move. From that time on he devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of Romance culture and his work as a poet.

Lansel as a language fighter and promoter

With his writings he fought for a renaissance of Romansh. His linguistic essays in defense of Romansh against irredentist writings from Italy, which degraded Romansh to a Lombard dialect and called for the incorporation of the Romansh regions into Italian territory, received great importance and attention.

Lansel had lively correspondence with personalities such as Federal Councilor Philipp Etter , Gonzague de Reynold , Frédéric Mistral , Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz , Swiss Consul General in Italy Georges Wagnière, Giulio Bertoni , Giorgio Del Vecchio , Carl Spitteler , Edgar Piguet and others. His villa on Rue Toepffer in Geneva was a meeting place for numerous students, young writers and established intellectuals and artists such as Otto Barblan and Henri de Ziegler .

In 1911 Lansel and Pastor Otto Gaudenz founded the Chalender Ladin , an annual almanac. For a long time he was an active collaborator and promoter of this official body of the Uniun dals Grischs, which to this day has its motto on the cover sheet: “Aunt Rumantschs, be rumantsch! Only Romansh among Romansh! ". Over time he has amassed an important collection of ancient Romanesque manuscripts and books. At the Swiss National Exhibition in Bern in 1914 , he exhibited various documents and objects from his personal collection in a showcase.

Lansel as a collector

Peider Lansel was also an avid collector of Romance folk songs. With a phonograph from the Edison company imported from America , he recorded over three hundred folk songs between 1912 and 1915 in the Engadin, Münstertal and Bergün. In addition, he was a pioneer of photography in the Engadine and animated famous photographers such as Rudolf Zinggeler to capture the life and customs of the Engadine in photographs. From Lansel's estate, 75 Edison wax rollers with the music recordings and 371 glass plates with the photographs are kept in the library of the Fundaziun de Planta in Samedan.

Swiss consul in Italy

In 1926, at the age of sixty-three, Lansel was forced to return to business in Italy after the death of his brother-in-law Oscar Corradini and his twenty-six-year-old son Andri Albert. He settled in Livorno with his wife and widowed daughter Erica. From 1927 to 1934 he was the Swiss consul in Livorno during a very politically turbulent period. In 1934 he definitely returned to Switzerland.

Old age and awards

In 1933, on his seventieth birthday, the University of Zurich awarded him the Doctor honoris causa for his great services to the Romansh cause . On his eightieth birthday, he was the first Romansh to be awarded the Great Schiller Prize. He passed away a few months later. His estate is in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern .

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personal data
SURNAME Lansel, Peider
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romansh poet and language promoter
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Pisa
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1943
Place of death Geneva