Rosalia Wenger

Rosalia Wenger (born June 5, 1906 in Basel , † December 5, 1989 in Bern ; married Rosalia Grützner-Wenger ) was a Swiss author .

Life

Rosalia Wenger was born in Basel as the illegitimate daughter of the maid Rosina Wenger. Her father was the German political refugee Albin Lessing, who, however, emigrated to the USA shortly after the birth of his daughter. She grew up with her grandparents on the Lischern farm near Schwarzenburg in the canton of Bern. The grandmother was her surrogate mother because the mother had insufficient financial means.

At the age of eleven, Rosalia Wenger was hired as a truck driver in Schwarzenburg . As a young adult, she held nine different positions as a maid and worker across Switzerland before she did an apprenticeship as a straightener and laundress in Bern and worked as such in Bern. In 1932 she married Werner Grützner, a worker with whom she had two daughters. The marriage was repeatedly on the verge of divorce, as she treated her husband like a maid at times and forbade her to visit and travel for years.

In 1960 she was encouraged by her son-in-law to narrate her time as a contract child, worker, maid and unhappy wife. After the death of her husband, Rosalia Wenger joined the Bernese women's liberation movement (FBB). In 1978 her autobiography Rosalia G. was published , which immediately became a widely read work. For this she received the Book Prize of the City of Bern in 1979 . Further incidents from her life that did not find a place in the first book appeared in 1982 under the title Why did you not fight back .

Rosalia Wenger died in 1989. A place was named after her in 2004 at the Wankdorf S-Bahn station in Bern .

Works

• Rosalia G. a life. 15th edition, Zytglogge, Gümligen, BE 1988, ISBN 3-7296-0081-8 [all editions with the same ISBN].
• Why didn't you fight back: records. 3rd edition, Zytglogge, Gümligen, BE 1987. ISBN 3-7296-0158-X [all editions with the same ISBN].

"Rosalia G." (1978)

Content: Rosalia grows up as an illegitimate child with her grandparents. After the grandmother's death, the lovely childhood is over. The eleven-year-old girl is hired by the poor authority and now has to work like a maid. She feels misunderstood and left alone. After the confirmation , Rosalia does not dare to announce her longing for an office apprenticeship to the poor authority. She takes on a maid job in a laundry smoothing shop in Bern. Fourteen-hour working days are the rule. However, Rosalia wants nothing more than education and books. After several other jobs in French-speaking Switzerland and Bern, she took on a job in a bakery in Brugg to be closer to her new boyfriend. The marriage does not take place and Rosalia returns to Bern as a maid. She can finally do an apprenticeship as a straightener. She marries a worker even though she feels it is not the right man for her. Nevertheless, she is proud of her own apartment. But her husband soon becomes unemployed and the first problems arise. Rosalia works again in a laundry and also in a stationery. Two daughters are born in quick succession. Her choleric and unpredictable husband humiliates her more and more. She often thinks of divorce. - After her husband's death, her two understanding daughters help her to join the women's liberation movement and to attend courses at the adult education center . She reads books and begins to write down her life. She realizes how much she has let herself be pushed into roles all her life and has always put her own wishes on the back burner.

Acknowledgment: Rosalia Wenger's autobiography was widely received by critics and audiences. Her courage to portray her own difficult life was emphasized. The book saw fifteen editions during the author's lifetime. The book title Rosalia G. stands for Rosalia Grützner, but she preferred to publish the autobiography under her maiden name Rosalia Wenger.

«The day before yesterday was literature from the aristocracy [...] Yesterday the writers dealt with the upper middle class, with a belittled petty bourgeoisie [...] Today, finally, those people are also portrayed who make up the majority of us, who have been the longest Time not noticed - those who, with underpaid work under the toughest conditions, enabled the high living of all others: workers, small farmers and - women [...] Anyone who has read Rosalia G. will in future keep an eye out for the Röslis our time, will understand why women should show solidarity with women. " - Doris Morf , writer and politician.

"Why didn't you fight back" (1982)

Readings of her first book and other unpublished scenes that could not be published in Rosalia G. due to lack of space met with a positive response. Rosalia Wenger decided to describe the characters of her fellow human beings more precisely in a new book and to go into the details of her previous life as a worker. The disadvantages as a contract child and woman become even clearer. Printed reader reactions to Rosalia G. and diary entries illuminate Rosalia Wenger's last years.

Web links

• Publications by and about Rosalia Wenger in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Rosalia Wenger's estate in the HelveticArchives archive database of the Swiss National Library