Ruth Bietenhard

Ruth Bietenhard , b. Lehmann (born January 11, 1920 in Bern , † February 19, 2015 in Thun ) was a Swiss journalist , author and teacher . She became known as the editor of the Bern German Dictionary and for her translation of the Bible into Bern German .

Life

Bietenhard was the daughter of a Bernese notary. She attended the Muristalden seminar school (Muristalden campus ), the new girls' school and the free high school in Bern , which she graduated with an A-Matura in 1938. After studying Romance studies in Bern, Geneva and Paris , she obtained a grammar school teacher diploma in Bern in 1945 in French , Italian and Latin and did her doctorate in Romance studies in 1949 with the dissertation Le sémantisme des mots expressifs en Suisse Romande .

In 1969, her great-uncle Otto von Greyerz gave her his linguistic legacy of around 5,000 words in Bern German , from which she published the Bern German Dictionary in 1976 . She later wrote technical articles and until 2003 had a column on language and dialect for the newspaper Der Bund . At the Thun seminar she gave French lessons from 1977 to 1980, elsewhere she taught Bern German and wrote other books. Together with her husband, she translated the New Testament into the Bernese dialect from 1980 to 1984 , and parts of the Old Testament from 1990 to 1994 , in which her eldest son, the Hebraist Benedikt Bietenhard, also participated.

Private

In 1946 she married the theologian Hans Bietenhard . They moved to Steffisburg and had six children together. Until 1969 she actively supported her husband in building the Sonnenfeld-Schwäbis parish, which was directly adjacent to the city of Thun, and was also the church council and parish president in Steffisburg. As the children got older, so did their professional activity. As a vivacious and conservative woman, she belonged politically to the SVP , although she was at the same time cosmopolitan and interested in feminist theology .

Honors

• Burger medal from the city of Bern.
• In 1993 she received an honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty of the University of Bern .
• Since 1994 she and her husband have been honorary citizens of Steffisburg.

Works

• Bern German Dictionary (based on the work of Otto von Greyerz, first edition 1976), 9th edition, 2008, ISBN 978-3-305-00255-9
• Oberländer Mundarten (1991) ISBN 3-85777-129-1
• Ds Nöie Teschtamänt Bärndütsch (together with her husband) (1984) ISBN 3-85570-086-9
• Ds Alte Teschtament bärndütsch (together with her husband and son Benedikt) (1990) ISBN 3-85570-111-3
• Words wander through the century (1999) ISBN 3-305-00256-5

Web links

• Publications by and about Ruth Bietenhard in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Literature by and about Ruth Bietenhard in the catalog of the German National Library
• Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Bietenhard, Ruth. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Website Bietenhard
• “Gschyd, gschickt und gwaglet” , obituary for Ruth Bietenhard in the Bund, 25 February 2015.
• The voice of the “Berndeutsch Popess” has fallen silent: Linguist Ruth Bietenhard died at the age of 95 in Steffisburg , obituary for Ruth Bietenhard in the Berner Zeitung , February 24, 2015.
• Estate of Ruth Bietenhard, AGoF 638 since 2015 in the finding aids of the Gosteli Foundation, archive on the history of the Swiss women's movement

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Gschyd, Gschickt and gwaglet" , obituary of Ruth Bietenhard in federal, February 25, 2015.
2. ^ Estate of Ruth Bietenhard, AGoF 638
3. ^ Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Bietenhard, Ruth. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
4. ↑ The voice of the “Berndeutsch Popess” has fallen silent: Linguist Ruth Bietenhard died at the age of 95 in Steffisburg , obituary for Ruth Bietenhard in the Berner Zeitung , February 24, 2015.