Robert Mächler

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Robert Mächler (born December 24, 1909 in Baden AG ; † February 15, 1996 in Aarau ) was a Swiss writer and journalist .

Life

After surviving the psychological crisis in his youth and studying at the University of Bern, Robert Mächler worked as a journalist from 1935, first for the Bern daily newspaper Der Bund , then until 1960 for the Badener Tagblatt . From then until his death he lived as a freelance journalist, philosopher critical of religion and writer in Unterentfelden near Aarau. As a man of letters he devoted himself in particular to the Swiss poet Robert Walser , with a biography and as co-editor of the complete edition of Walser's works, which was arranged by Jochen Greven.

Until his replacement from Christianity at the beginning of the 1960s, he saw himself “a bit as a knight” of Karl Barth's theology and was of the opinion “to contradict wherever Christian theological thinking is not recognized as the basis of all spiritual endeavors. "Since leaving the church in 1963, the" sensible " agnostic Mächler passionately pleaded , despite all inhumanity and unreasonableness, for a" rationalization "of people who were freed from any clerical control. His essays critical of culture and the church in numerous Swiss newspapers, in particular the Badener Tagblatt, give eloquent testimony to this, as does the debate between Robert Mächler and the pastor and poet Kurt Marti, which has been published several times and also received attention beyond Switzerland's borders .

His literary work has been cared for by the Robert Mächler Foundation since his death . The foundation was dissolved in 2010. The foundation had previously awarded a prize to “writers, publicists, scientists or institutions outside the churches” , “whose work is committed to ethics and the meaningful agnosticism of Robert Mächler as well as the contemporary continuation of historical enlightenment” . His estate is in the Aargau State Archives .

Works

  • The optimistic. People- friendly and other poems , Gropengiesser, Zurich 1948
  • Baden , Haupt (Schweizer Heimatbücher 67), Bern 1955
  • The year of judgment. A testimony (autobiographical novel), Aehren, Affoltern 1956
  • The Christian free spirit. Attempt to truly contemplate Jesus , Pallas, Zurich 1961
  • All kinds of castle ghosts. Three castle games in Aargau , Mueller, Lenzburg 1963
  • The life of Robert Walser. A documentary biography , Kossodo, Hamburg 1966
    • 1976, then 1992 and 2003 new editions by Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 3-518-39986-1
  • Guidelines for Reason , Self-published, Unterentfelden 1967
  • On the foundation of intellectual unity , self-published, Unterentfelden 1971
  • Sprüche , self-published, Unterentfelden 1973
  • Robert Walser in memory. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death on December 25, 1976 (with Elio Fröhlich), Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1977
  • "Man is not there for Christianity". A dispute about God and the world between a Christian and an agnostic (with Kurt Marti ). Foreword by August E. Hohler , Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hamburg 1977
    • Released in 1993 under the title So that man finally becomes what he could be , Benziger, Zurich
      • Relaunched in 2002 under the title Where to get an ethic from? Discussion about reason and belief . With a foreword and comments by Werner Morlang , Nagel & Kimche, Zurich
  • For a better mental climate. Findings and principles , self-published, Unterentfelden 1992
  • Robert Walser, the undiscovered . Essays from four decades, ed. v. Werner Morlang, Pendo, Zurich 1999
  • Between kneeling and damnation. A selection from his work critical of religion and the church , ed. v. Karlheinz Deschner, Merlin, Gifkendorf 1999, ISBN 3-926112-95-6
  • Robert Mächler - a Don Quixote in Swiss intellectual life? A selection from the autobiographical, religious-philosophical and ethical-utopian work , ed. v. Gabriele Röwer, Pano, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-907576-17-9
  • Errors and omissions excepted. Aphorisms and Reflections on God and the World , ed. v. Gabriele Röwer, Haupt, Bern 2001, ISBN 3-258-06388-5

Robert Mächler Foundation and Robert Mächler Prizes

Shortly before his death, the writer and church critic Karlheinz Deschner was able to persuade Robert Mächler to agree to the establishment of a foundation named after him. She looked after Mächler's literary estate, published what was available or reissued it. Every two to three years it awarded the Robert Mächler Prize for critical education and humanitarian commitment , each endowed with CHF 20,000 .

The previous awards

  • 1999 to Andrzej Olszewski and his Uraeus publishing house in Gdansk , who encountered great hostility and resistance when publishing books critical of religion and the church in Catholic Poland, and to Jürg Jegge , founder of the “Märtplatz Foundation”, who are young people who are having difficulties getting started accompanied into professional life. (The Board of Trustees at the time did not know anything about the sexual misconduct of Jürg Jegges that became known in 2017.)
  • 2001 to the " Walter Robert Corti Working Group " to preserve the life's work of this philosopher and founder of the Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen and to the Marie Meierhofer Institute for excellent curative education work.
  • In 2005 to the sociologist and church critic Horst Herrmann for his extensive research work on religion in the tradition of the great enlighteners and to Christa Manjrekar for her work with children from the southern Indian slums of Mysore in the Pragathi Vidya Nilaya School.
  • 2007 to Ludger Lütkehaus for his complete educational work and to Anita and Walter M. Schubert for their decades-long contribution to the integration of disabled people into society, in particular for their auxiliary work in Afghanistan for the educational support of war-disabled children.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Poor devils we are all ..." Letters from and to Robert Mächler about God and the world. Bern u. a. 2010. p. 83.
personal data
SURNAME Mächler, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Baden AG
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1996
Place of death Aarau