Roland Gretler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roland Gretler (born May 30, 1937 in St. Gallen ; † January 22, 2018 ibid) was a Swiss photographer and social researcher. He first worked for industry and advertising and founded his Panoptikum on the history of the labor movement in the early 1970s . He was a recognized photo historian and agitator of 1968 .

Life

Photo from Gretler's collection: A worker and mother with children in Eastern Switzerland (around 1900)

Shortly before graduating from the business school in St. Gallen, Gretler left it to work at the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel. He obtained a diploma as a planter and completed an agricultural internship at the Maggi Kemptthal estate. He was soon drawn to Zurich , where he began an apprenticeship as a photographer with Johannes Meiner. He switched to René Groebli and worked for him as a volunteer and employed photographer. He then headed the photo studio of the advertising agencies Walter Greminger and Rudolf Farner and finally opened his own studio for advertising, industrial and material photography. In the period around 1968 he became politically active. He was friends with Niklaus Meienberg , with whom he also worked.

Gretler's Panoptikum on Social History was in the chancellery school in Zurich until 2019

His interest in social history moved him to build up a collection of visual documents on the history of the labor movement in the early 1970s, named GRETLER's PANOPTIKUM on social history. It was an archive on the Swiss labor movement that was unique in this form and was located in the chancellery schoolhouse in Zurich District 4 . After Gretler's death, the collection was dissolved, all around 100,000 photos and other parts were taken over by the Swiss Social Archives , posters went to the collection of the Zurich University of the Arts , and other objects went to other institutions.

Gretler lived with his wife Anne Gretler-Epprecht in Herisau ., S. also obituary in the NZZ from January 25, 2018. He was the father of two children, namely Roland Gretler-de Menezes (1963–2019) and Sarah Barbara Gretler.

Exhibitions

  • 1986, Zurich, town house, photographers see their city
  • 2013, St. Gallen, Kulturraum am Klosterplatz, Gretler's Panoptikum on social history

Award

  • 2002 Swiss Trade Union Confederation SGB, culture award

literature

  • Züri Woche Verlags AG (Ed.): Zurich, June 20, 1986. Photographers see their city, Zurich 1986.
  • Gretler, Roland; Bachmann, Dieter: Out of dirt, noise and stink, Zurich, image archive & documentation on the history of the labor movement 1987.
  • Gretler, Roland et al .; Swiss Association of Personnel in Public Services VPOD: May 1, Zurich, VPOD 1988.
  • Gretler, Roland; Photoforum Zurich: Reality as Tragedy. Alexej Fjodorow, Pawel Kassin, Sergej Podlesnow: 3 Moscow News photographers. Soviet reportage photography from 1984–1990, Zurich / Lausanne, Photoforum Zurich / Musée de l 'Elysée Lausanne 1990.
  • Gretler, Roland (Ed.): Forward - and don't forget. A historical and folkloric picture book on the 100-year history of May 1st in Switzerland, Zurich, picture archive & documentation on the history of the labor movement in 1990.
  • Giger, HR: HR Giger's biomechanics, Beverly Hills, Galerie Morpheus 1999.
  • Boillat, Valerie, et al. (Ed.): On the value of work. Swiss trade unions - history and stories, Zurich, Rotpunkt Verlag 2006
  • Urs Tremp: Memory of the Labor Movement. Obituary in: NZZ am Sonntag of January 28, 2018, p. 21 ( online version) .
  • Howald, Stefan: Seeing the world through pictures like a magician. The weekly newspaper, February 1, 2018, p. 7.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hansruedi Kugler: Photography as a weapon in the class struggle: Roland Gretler is dead. In: St. Galler Tagblatt from January 25, 2018.
  2. ↑ Roland Gretler: Article by Roland Gretler in the Niklaus Meienberg publication database , accessed on March 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ Caroline Kesser: Roland Gretler. Worker culture for collective soul healing . In: Du, Die Zeitschrift der Kultur, Volume 51 (1991), Issue 8, Pages 76-79, accessed on March 19, 2016.
  4. ^ Alfred Fasnacht: Landesstreik / Generalstreik 1918 - Demands and Achievements ( Memento of March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) using images from Gretler's Panoptikum on Social History. In: - Museumsgesellschaft - Grenchen MGG, January 2000, accessed on March 19, 2016.
  5. ↑ Philippe Reichen: Eternal Struggle for Solidarity ( Memento of April 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: St. Galler Tagblatt, Tagblatt Online, January 31, 2009.
  6. ↑ "Gretlers panopticon": saving the Wunderkammer. June 26, 2019, accessed July 16, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Pfrunder Peter, "GRETLERS PANOPTIKUM. Wunderkammer, power plant, history laboratory - and also a greenhouse », March 28, 2014, in: Woz No. 13/2013,
  8. ↑ Obituary in the NZZ from November 19, 2019.
  9. ↑ https://www.woz.ch/-38a4 ,
  10. ↑ Honor for Roland Gretler, in: New Paths . Volume (year): 97 (2003). Issue 2
  11. ^ Paul Rechsteiner: Obituary Roland Gretler. Is there any point in singing a song? .In: work. Union Newspaper No. 2, February 2, 2018, accessed February 2, 2018.
  12. ^ Canton St. Gallen: Schalmeien, Che and Henkelmänner: Roland Gretler in the cultural area . In: Kanton St. Gallen, February 28, 2013, accessed on March 19, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Gretler, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss photographer and social researcher
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH 22nd January 2018
Place of death St. Gallen