Ruth Waldstetter

Ruth Waldstetter (born November 12, 1882 in Basel , † March 26, 1952 in Arlesheim ) is the pseudonym of the Swiss writer and journalist Martha Behrens-Geering . Waldstetter published poems, stories, novels and dramas and was one of the very few Swiss authors of her time whose plays were performed on renowned theaters.

life and work

Ruth Waldstetter graduated from schools in Basel (training as a teacher), followed by language studies in Basel, Great Britain and Germany. The first novel ( Die Wahl ) was published by S. Fischer, Berlin in 1910 and made Waldstetter known as a writer. In 1915 she married the poet and bookseller Eduard Behrens and moved to Bern, where numerous other works were created. Among them were the successful, multiple published novel Eine Seele and two dramas, which were performed at the Stadttheater Bern in 1917 . In 1922 she divorced her husband and worked in Paris as a correspondent for the Basler National-Zeitung , where she also worked as a theater critic after her return to Switzerland from 1923 . As a result, other works were created, mostly short stories, as well as the novel Das Schicksalsjahr (1949). Waldstetter was involved in the board of the PEN Club and from 1933 to 1941 also on the board of the Swiss Writers' Association . She repeatedly advocated the cause of women, for example in 1920 she published thoughts on women's suffrage and gave a lecture on women in German-Swiss literature at the second Swiss congress for women's interests in Bern in 1921 . Ruth Waldstetter died impoverished in Arlesheim in 1952.

The confrontation of young people, especially women, with the corset of bourgeois conventions and expectations has repeatedly been the subject of her works. It can already be heard in the small collection of lyric poems that Waldstetter published at the age of about 18, at that time still under her real name Martha Geering. A large part of the narrative work is also dedicated to this topic. The actors are mostly well-off citizens, even if they are often threatened with economic decline. Their freedom is restricted by both economic constraints and social ties. In the first novel, Die Wahl , for example, the protagonist decides against his deeper needs and despite doubts in favor of marrying his youthful lover, because the women's wealth that he brings in enables him to join the deceased father's company, which is poorly run by his uncle participate and thus help determine the course of business. Inevitably, however, “the married couple's coexistence becomes an agonizing imprisonment” when he begins to indulge his inclinations and develop social commitment that his wife and her family have no understanding for.

In the second novel, Eine Seele , it is the young protagonist Charlotte Hoch, who purposefully and consistently, but at the same time also considerate and prudent, pursues her interests: She struggles with what seems to be the fate of women in her class:

"Embroider a little, bake a little, jingle a little - and then finally take the first best man who may have no idea what worries us and yet is like a high guiding star above us!"

Instead, she would like to take up a degree in order to give her life meaning with appropriate work, but first comes across the resistance of her mother, which she can finally overcome thanks to the advocacy of her well-meaning people. With all the socially critical potential that is inherent in such constellations, Waldstetter lacks an aggressive, combative tone. (This is especially true for a text like the magazine article Thoughts on Women's Suffrage .) Waldstetter's main interest in this novel is not so much the socially critical, but rather the psychological-existential, the deeply felt primordial human being: “also In addition, the mental disposition of this Charlotte Hoch leads far beyond the fact that the development novel is finished in the achievement of a professional exploitation of life. It is not a question of becoming a nurse, but of a soul, they say. "

Two shorter stories that deal with traumatic borderline experiences of the war are also about deeply felt: In The Unnecessary Man we read the correspondence between a war disabled who only survived thanks to the devoted care of a nurse, but who will remain tied to the bed - which is why he describes himself as a "useless person" - and this same nurse. It is from the gratitude that the patient shows her that she gains the strength for her stressful work in the war hospital. And in The Called One, the existential dimension of war experiences is shown: At the end of the war, a soldier becomes aware that the extreme situations have made a different person out of him. Contrary to the expectations of the environment, which is hoping for a resumption of the promising artistic career, he knows that he has to do something different, more essential. He is not yet sure what that is exactly; and before he has to decide, he dies when he is used as a medic in street fighting.

The early dramas deal with social problems of the time: the artist's responsibility towards his work, which is in conflict with his responsibility to his neighbors ( the artist ), and the assertion of a wife's own opinion without being allowed to marry endanger when the husband is of a decidedly different opinion ( family ). The later birth of Merlin takes place in a «poetic-legendary world of legend» and describes the struggle between a secret wisdom understood as Celtic, which amalgamated elements of Christian mysticism, on the one hand, and the advancing, dogmatic official church Christianity on the other: "This shows the two poles von Waldstetter's writing: criticism and rebellion on the one hand, resignation, internalization, spiritualization on the other. Also characteristic is the abrupt change from one side to the other, from resistance to retreat, which the reader can hardly understand, from resistance to retreat - a fragile juxtaposition of socially-related criticism and the longing for spiritual harmony. " Waldstetter's magnum opus is at the same time the sum of her work: the novel Das Schicksalsjahr . Many themes and motifs from earlier works are taken up and brought together here: the woman between work and family, the responsibility of the artist, the meaning of suffering and a religiousness far removed from any dogmatics, which allows people to feel "brotherhood in divine origin". In addition to and in a certain sense before religion, it is above all music in this work that is able to express the essence of existence. Pierre, the pastor, once said in a conversation with the composer Paul, his brother, that music is “the language that lifts everything into the sphere of validity. Unlike our stammering! "

Awards

• Several works by Waldstetter have been awarded by the Swiss Schiller Foundation, such as Die Wahl in 1911 , The House “Zum Großes Kefig” in 1914 and The Silver Bell in 1938 . In 1942 Waldstetter received an honorary gift. There were seven more contributions between 1917 and 1935 that were not linked to a single work.
• Honorary award from the Basel State Literature Credit (for the novel Das Schicksalsjahr ) 1950.

Works (selection)

Literary works

• Lyric poems. 4 pages, without publisher information, without year (presumably 1899).
• The vote. Novel. S. Fischer, Berlin 1910.
• The house "To the big Kefig". Narrative. Gebr. Paetel, Berlin 1913.
• The fruit of upbringing. Narrative. Bern 1916. Digitized
• Petty bourgeoisie. Narrative. Zurich 1916. Digitized
• An eulogy. Zurich 1916. Digitized
• A soul. Novel. A. Francke, Bern 1917.
• Suffer. Stories. Huber, Frauenfeld 1917
• The artist. Dramolet. / Family. Play in three acts. A. Francke, Bern 1919. (First performance: May 17, 1919 at the Stadttheater Bern)
• The useless man. Stories. A. Francke, Bern 1921.
• From loneliness. Verses. Geering, Basel 1921.
• Ascent. Three stories. Association for the Dissemination of Good Writings, Basel 1923
• So life is. Stories. CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1930
• Merlin's birth. Dramatic poetry in three pictures (based on a Breton legend). Music by Jan Stüten. Verlag von Rudolf Geering, Basel 1934. (World premiere: February 17, 1935 at the Stadttheater Basel)
• Robert and Alix. A scene. In: Basler Dichterbuch , 1935. Ed. By the State Commission for the Promotion of Local Literature. Schwabe, Basel 1935, pp. 127–140. (First performance: February 15, 1942 at the Stadttheater Basel)
• The silver bell. Stories. A. Francke, Bern 1937.
• Nüchterdinger stories. With drawings by Fritz Krummenacher. In: Neue Schweizer Bibliothek , Volume 71. Schweizer Druck- und Verlagshaus, Zurich [1944], pp. 3-83.
• The fateful year. Novel. Huber, Frauenfeld 1949.

Lectures and essays on politics and literature

• Thoughts on women's suffrage. In: Switzerland, Swiss illustrated magazine. Volume 24, Zurich (1920), pages 98-100. Digitized
• The woman in German-Swiss literature. In: Report on the second Swiss Congress for Women's Interests , Bern, 2. –6. October 1921. Bern 1921, pp. 173–177.
• The woman in parliament. In: Switzerland, Swiss illustrated magazine. Volume 25, Zurich (1921), pp. 150–152. Digitized
• Modern drama. In: Swiss Monthly Issues for Politics and Culture . Volume 1, Issue 2. Verlag der Genossenschaft for the publication of the Swiss Monthly Issues for Politics and Culture, Zurich (April 1921 – March 1922), pp. 79–82. Digitized

literature

• Charles Linsmayer : Ruth Waldstetter. In: Killy Literature Lexicon. Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area. Vol. 12. Edited by Wilhelm Kühlmann. 2nd edition De Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-022038-4 , p. 99.
• Reto Caluori: Ruth Waldstetter. In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 978-3-0340-0715-3 , Volume 3, pp. 2040-2041.
• “A lot of heads, a lot of sense”. Texts by women authors from German-speaking Switzerland 1795–1945. Edited by Sabine Kubli and Doris Stump. eFeF-Verlag, Zurich / Bern / Dortmund 1994, ISBN 3-905493-63-2 . (With a short biography on pages 175–176).
• Marianne Gagnebin: Les femmes et les livres. Ruth Waldstetter. In: Le mouvement féministe: organe officiel des publications de l 'Alliance nationale des sociétés féminines suisses. (Volume 29), Issue 602 and Issue 603. Geneva 1941.

Web links

• Regula Wyss: Ruth Waldstetter. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Literature by Ruth Waldstetter in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lexicon article on Ruth Waldstetter , on the website of Charles Linsmayer
• Ruth Waldstetter at bibliomedia

Individual evidence

1. ^ In: Switzerland, Swiss illustrated magazine, Zurich, Volume 24 (1920), pp. 98-100.
2. ↑ Printed in: Report on the second Swiss Congress for Women's Interests, Bern, October 2 to 6, 1921. Bern, 1921, pp. 173–177.
3. ↑ Cf. Regula Wyss: Waldstetter, Ruth. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
4. ^ Charles Linsmayer: Ruth Waldstetter. In: Killy Literature Lexicon. Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area. Vol. 12. Edited by Wilhelm Kühlmann. 2nd edition De Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-022038-4 , p. 99.
5. ↑ One soul. 3. Edition. Bern 1918, pp. 49-50.
6. ↑ Charlotte, the protagonist from Eine Seele , also tries to take away any aggressive sharpness from her undertaking: «‹ Perhaps you could think [...] I had thoughts about women's rights in my head back then; but I can swear to you I hadn't heard of anything like this at the time. And what I have to fight out and want to bring into harmony is a personal matter that simply concerns me as a person. ›» Ibid. Pp. 48–49.
7. ↑ «The question of the desirability of women's suffrage will therefore ultimately not be: Does the individual woman really gain something through the right to vote? or: Does the individual man lose something through women's suffrage? but rather: Will the increased participation of women bring new forces to cultural life or not? " In: Switzerland, Swiss illustrated magazine, Volume 24. Zurich (1920), p. 99.
8. ↑ Eduard Korrodi : "Eine Seele" by Ruth Waldstetter. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 11, 1917.
9. Jump up ↑ Both stories in the anthology The unneutral man. Stories, Karlsruhe 1921.
10. ↑ Merlin's birth. Dramatic poetry in three pictures (based on a Breton legend). Music by Jan Stüten. Rudolf Geering Publishing House, Basel 1934, preliminary remark.
11. ↑ Claudia Bapst, Ruth Büttikofer, Heidi Lauper: Everything daughters Johanna Spyris? - Swiss women writers from the turn of the century to intellectual national defense in: Elisabeth Ryter et.al. (Ed.): And wrote and wrote like a tiger out of the bush. On women writers in German-speaking Switzerland , Limmat Verlag Zurich, 1994, p. 189.
12. ↑ The fateful year. Novel. Huber, Frauenfeld 1949, p. 190.
13. ↑ The fateful year. Novel. Huber, Frauenfeld 1949, p. 136.
14. ↑ Website of the Swiss Schiller Foundation: Archived copy ( memento of the original dated May 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed October 15, 2017). 
15. ↑ ^{a b c} Reto Caluori: Ruth Waldstetter. In: Andreas Kotte (ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2005, Volume 3, pp. 2040–2041.