Peter Kilian

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Peter Kilian , actually Fritz Schlumpf (born March 5, 1911 in Neuhausen am Rheinfall , † October 2, 1988 there ) was a Swiss working-class writer and poet.

Life

Peter Kilian - actually Fritz Schlumpf - was the son of the factory worker Heinrich Schlumpf and the Maria née Austel. He grew up with his two siblings on Rheinstrasse in Neuhausen and went to school there. He took his pseudonym Peter Kilian out of admiration for Jakob Bührer and his novel Kilian .

In order to supplement his family's household allowances, Kilian worked in a factory from the age of 14 and delivered newspapers and magazines. During this time he took part in demonstrations and protests due to the rising unemployment and began to send poems to the Schaffhausen AZ . Peter Kilian then did an apprenticeship in the Neuhauser Laboratory of Aluminum Industrie AG (AIAG) and moved to the canton of Valais at the age of 18 when the company was relocated to Chippis .

Two years later he went on a waltz , which also took him to the south of France , until he returned to AIAG because of the global economic crisis . By his own admission, he was half farmer, half worker, half vagabond. He married the Italian Victoria-Maria Rosato and was an assistant to a copper mine in the Eifisch valley . When this ceased operations after the end of the Second World War, Kilian began to work as a freelance writer and lived in a farmhouse in Hemberg in Toggenburg . Back then he had to fight for every fee and every publication.

He later returned to Neuhausen and worked as a guide in post-war art exhibitions. In addition, Kilian gave lectures and lectures, published short stories in socialist and bourgeois newspapers such as Der Bund or Basler Nachrichten . When he received the Georg Fischer Prize of the city of Schaffhausen in 1955 , Kilian was able to break away from the columnist work and wanted to turn to larger works. He published a few volumes of poetry and short stories, but did not make a breakthrough. At that time he was in frequent contact with the author Ruth Blum .

Peter Kilian died on October 2, 1988 and was buried in Neuhausen. At the time of his death he was almost forgotten; the only obituary appeared in the AZ Schaffhausen.

Artistic creation

In 1931 Kilian made his debut with verses from day and night . In the reviews, the poems are described as stormy and clumsy, "as someone writes them who has already read some things but has not yet found their own notes".

The novel Die Brockengasse , published in 1937, was originally written for a workers' literature competition and shows Kilian as a “sensitive designer of the fate of ordinary, socially disadvantaged people”. Manfred Bosch describes it as “the first attempt at prose with many deficiencies in terms of presentation, language and style”, but which at the same time authentically shows social reality. The novel revolves around the young unskilled worker Albin Steffen in the years after 1933 and the social crisis at that time. Bosch sees the "haunting sexual distress of young people" as unusual for a workers' novel.

His novels Romance in Marseille (1953) and Der Schwarze (1954) deal with his years of wandering in the south of France; in Kleine Welt am Strom (1957) Kilian describes autobiographically his youth in Neuhausen. During his time as a freelance writer, his books contained more and more humorous and entertaining elements, for example in Der Lügenbäcker or The Bride from Westphalia . Kilian also published folklore books such as Walliser Sagen and Der Blutschwur .

Kurt Bächtold writes about Peter Kilian: «He owes his special status not only to the quality of his works, but also to his background in the workforce. Alongside Jakob Bührer , he is the Schaffhausen workers' poet. " According to an editor of the Schweizerischen Jugendschriftenwerk , the name Kilian no longer appears at the publisher after 1971. However, since several titles were published there, it can be assumed that “it was popular with children and several editions of 20,000 copies were printed per title”.

Works (selection)

  • Verses from day and night. Kreis-Verlag, Schaffhausen / Neuhausen 1931.
  • The Brockengasse. Oprecht publishing house, Zurich 1937.
  • Valais legends. Reinhardt, Basel 1946.
  • The lying baker. Good writings , Basel 1951.
  • Romance in Marseille. Book Club Ex Libris , Zurich 1953.
  • The black one. Good writings, Basel 1954.
  • Small world on the river. Eichen-Verlag, Arbon 1957.
  • The bride from Westphalia. Gutenberg Book Guild , Zurich 1959.
  • The blood oath. Swiss youth publications . Zurich 1971.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Charles Linsmayer: Peter Kilian. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 10, 2007 , accessed December 12, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Jurga Wüger: The Neuhauser worker poet Peter Kilian. (PDF) In: Neuhauser Woche. February 7, 2013, p. 4 , accessed December 12, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Manfred Bosch : Bohème on Lake Constance . Libelle, Lengwil am Bodensee 1997, ISBN 978-3-909081-75-2 , p. 524 f .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Kurt Bächtold : Peter Kilian - a Neuhauser poet . In: Schaffhauser Magazin . Volume 21, No. 2 . Steiner + Grüninger, Schaffhausen 1998, p. 21-23 .
  5. ^ Paul Harnisch: Farewell to the working-class writer Peter Kilian . In: Schaffhauser AZ . No. 238 . Schaffhausen October 11, 1988, p. 9 .
personal data
SURNAME Kilian, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schlumpf, Fritz (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss working-class writer and poet
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuhausen am Rheinfall
DATE OF DEATH October 2nd, 1988
Place of death Neuhausen am Rheinfall