Rudolf von Tavel
Otto Friedrich Rudolf von Tavel (born December 21, 1866 in Bern ; † October 18, 1934 there ) was a Swiss journalist and writer .
Life
Rudolf von Tavel was the youngest of six children of an old Bernese patrician family - his father Alexander von Tavel (1827-1900) was the Grand Council and burger town clerk, his mother Julia Katharina Mathilde (1834-1913) was born a von Wattenwyl - at Bern Spitalgasse to the world . He spent his childhood and youth in the bourgeois- conservative circles of the city of Bern. After passing his Matura , he studied law and camera science in Lausanne, Leipzig, Berlin and received his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1891 . He then worked as an editor for the Berner Tagblatt until 1916 , and between 1896 and 1905 as the executive secretary of the Swiss Swiss Mobiliarversicherung . On May 10, 1894, he married Adele Stettler (1874–1966); the marriage remained childless.
In addition to his work, he was committed to the common good : in the Swiss Army , he obtained the degree of battalion commander and founded an aid agency for prisoners of war. During the First World War he worked closely with Hermann Hesse in the POW welfare department . Tavel signed on behalf of Hesse as editor of the Sunday messenger for the German prisoners of war . From 1902 to 1912 he was a member of the Bern city parliament for the Conservative Democratic Party. From 1903 to 1927 he was a member of the extended committee of the Evangelical Society of the Canton of Bern , was an employee of the Swiss Evangelical Church Federation and several non-profit organizations.
From 1920 he lived as a freelance writer on his country estate on the outskirts of Bern. In 1934 he died of a stroke on the way back from a stay in Vaud with his wife on the train.
He wrote his books mainly in the Bernese dialect; they are still among the most widely read dialect works in German-speaking Switzerland. His estate is kept in the Bern Burger Library. His grave is in the Schosshaldenfriedhof in Bern . In 2003, the Rudolf von Tavel Foundation was established in Bern.
Literary work
After pursuing various literary plans as a schoolboy, Rudolf von Tavel began writing German-language plays as a twenty-three year old student in Berlin under the influence of Gustav Freytag's drama technique . However, it was not successful, and the dramas, filled with idealistic pathos, are now considered epigonal . In 1901 he left the dramatic wrong track and published with Jä gäll, that's how it works! the first Bern German novel in literary history. The contemporaries were enthusiastic, and the Bund feuilleton editor Joseph Victor Widmann celebrated the debut as the most beautiful gem of dialect literature .
Von Tavel subsequently created 13 further historical dialect novels and a volume of short stories. The publications often followed one another very closely. He also tried two novels and several short stories in High German. The main social framework of his work forms the Bernese patriciate, so that Werner Günther could rightly say in 1963 that with a distance of fifty years in the Bernese lands, the Gotthelfian transfiguration of a class was repeated on another level .
Von Tavel was committed to Christianity. His stories therefore testify to a pronounced sense of responsibility, because he is convinced that all art should serve to glorify God, to whom it was given to people, even if the religious does not find direct expression in it . In his stories he shows sympathy for religious revival movements like the Anabaptists at various points . His fictional characters are mostly average individuals with a good mix of idealism and practical understanding.
In their crises, they go through a process of maturation that not infrequently leads to renunciation and renunciation. In doing so, they usually stay in the place where they belong, or after a wrong path that is recognized as such, they return there purified. In the novel Gueti Gspane, for example, the central idea is the contrast between the brutal striving for external success and the quiet work according to the principle of selfless fulfillment of duty. The last book Ds Schwärt vo Loupe - draft remained - was about the tension between the free development of the individual and the demands of society.
His literary creative power and the clarity of his representations are positively appreciated by the critics. His biographer Hugo Marti said: His entire work must be heard, not read, if it is to have an effect on us in its [...] power. The main language of his stories is the "upscale" town Bern German , a dying sociolect , to which von Tavel has set a monument with his sense of linguistic nuances and a rich vocabulary.
With his historical novels, he belongs to a conservative group of Bernese artists, including Otto von Greyerz , the Bern German researcher Emanuel Friedli , his fellow poet Simon Gfeller and the painter Rudolf Münger . His books were widespread far beyond his death and beyond the canton of Bern and shaped the image of Old Bern. During the period of spiritual national defense , his work was partly ideologically appropriated, but later - in the course of the 1968 movement - it was often criticized as "ideal world literature" with all of the older dialect literature.
Works (in selection)
Novels and short stories
- «Yeah, that's it». E luschtigi Gschicht uus truuriger Zyt , 1901
- The Houpme Lombach . Bern German Novella , 1903
- Götti and Gotteli. Bern German Novelle , 1906 ( 2nd edition online - Internet Archive )
- The strength of Buebebärg. E Gschicht us de cloudy days from the old bear , 1907 ( online - Internet Archive )
- D'Frou Kätheli and ihri Buebe , 1910
- Gueti Gschpane , 1913
- The thunder. E Liebesgschicht us stille Zyte , 1916
- The sacred flame. A story from the Bernese region , 1917 (high German)
- Heinz Tillmann , 1919 (High German)
- D'Haselmuus. E Gschicht us em the decline of the old bear , 1922
- Unspunne. What happened to the Haselmuus wyter , 1924
- The Lost Song , 1926
- Veteranezyt , 1927
- The Frondeur. Bern German novel from the 17th century , 1929
- Ring i the Chetti. E Läbesgschicht , 1931
- Meischter and Ritter , 1933
stories
- D 'Glogge vo Nüechterswyl. E Gschicht usem Bärnbiet , 1917
- Bernbiet. Old and New Stories , 1918 (High German)
- Simeon and Eisi , 1922
- At the fireplace. Bärndütschi History , 1928
- Cupid's Revenge , 1930
- Swiss at home and outside. Novellas , 1932
- Uf d Liebi chunnt's alone a. With Rudolf von Tavel into the 18th century , 2007 (book of stories, with glossary)
Dramas
- Di gfreutischti Frou. E Komedi i 3 acts , 1923
- Twofold treasures . Peasant Comedy in 2 Acts, 1926
Non-fiction
- The most important changes in the standard of living of the Swiss high mountain residents in the course of the XIX. Century. An economic policy treatise , Diss. Heidelberg 1891 ( online - Internet Archive )
- Theodorich von Lerber. A picture of life , 1911
- Bern, portrayed to its visitors , 1914
- Great work. The creation of the Mühleberg power plant and reservoir , 1921
- Power and glory. Festschrift for the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Diakonissenhaus Bern-Bad Ems and "Jerusalem" Hamburg , 1934
- On the value of tradition , 1935
memorial
On July 16, 1939, a memorial in honor of Rudolf von Tavels was opened on the Leuenberg (part of the Längenberg ).
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Location of the von Tavel memorial in the canton of Bern |
literature
- Konrad Tobler: "Bim Wort gnoh". The dialect writer Rudolf von Tavel. A monograph . Edition Atelier, Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-907430-01-9 .
- Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. From the turn of the century to the end of the First World War. Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52178-9 , p. 166.
- Hugo Marti : Rudolf von Tavel. Life and work . Francke, Bern 1935; 4. A. Cosmos, Muri 1984, ISBN 3-305-00072-4 .
- Monika Rohrer: Bibliography of the publications of Rudolf von Tavel . Francke, Bern 1969
- Michael Stettler : Council of the elderly. Encounters and visits , Bern 1962.
- Michael Stettler : Buebebärg's strength. On Rudolf von Tavel's development and work , in: ders. Neues Bernerlob. Attempts at transmission. Bern, 1967. pp. 177-200.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Feitknecht: Dossier Hermann Hesse , in: Quarto No. 8 (1997).
- ^ Based on Hugo Marti, Rudolf von Tavel , Bern 1984, pp. 128f
- ↑ Werner Günther, Poets of Modern Switzerland , Volume 1, Bern 1963, p. 332
- ↑ Quoted from: Biographical Notes . In: Burgerbibliothek Bern, N [achlass] Rudolf von Tavel 68, p. 7
- ^ Hugo Marti, Rudolf von Tavel , p. 116
- ↑ from Tavel memorial on the Leuenberg. Rudolf von Tavel Foundation, accessed on May 15, 2015 .
Web links
- Rudolf von Tavel in the catalog of the Burgerbibliothek Bern
- Christian Schmid: Rudolf von Tavel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Literature by and about Rudolf von Tavel in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by Rudolf von Tavel in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Rudolf von Tavel Foundation
- Entry in the Bibliomedia Foundation's authors' directory
- Exhibition Rudolf von Tavel in Jegenstorf Castle
- Short portrait of the Olten Heimatschutz Theater
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tavel, Rudolf von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tavel, Otto Friedrich Rudolf von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss journalist and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 21, 1866 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bern |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 18, 1934 |
| Place of death | Bern |