Swiss mirror

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The Swiss Mirror is a political novel by Meinrad Inglin that was published in Leipzig in 1938 . It deals with the fate of Switzerland around the First World War and is the literary monument of national self-assertion in an extreme crisis situation, as it began to emerge again, similar to when it was written in the 1930s. The Swiss mirror can rightly be seen as Inglin's main work.

Content and meaning of the novel

The Swiss Mirror is a broad-based, extensive novel that depicts the fate of Switzerland from 1912 to 1918. For Switzerland, the period of the First World War was not only a phase of external threats, but also of internal tensions, which were lived out with a rare intensity. The core theme of the novel is the representation of these tensions and the return to those values ​​that can reduce these tensions. The plot begins with the major army maneuvers ( imperial maneuvers ) visited by the German Kaiser in autumn 1912 and includes all significant historical events up to the general strike in November 1918 . These include the mobilization of the army and the general election, the border service with its exertions, the colonel affair and the Grimm-Hoffmann affair . The saturation of the bourgeoisie in the pre-war years is just as much an issue as the revolutionary activities at the end of the world war; the unselfish and self-sacrificing assistance to the war invalids, in which people from all walks of life participated, as well as the ruthless machinations of the war profiteers.

The most important actors are the members of the family of the liberal National Council and Brigade Commander Ammann from Zurich, as well as the other relatives, who are cleverly chosen so that the most diverse strata, groups and parts of the country are represented. The eldest son Severin, with his conservative and pro-German views, is not only in opposition to his brother Paul, who represents socialist concerns, he is also in opposition to his uncle Junod, who represents the Welsche side. The vehemence with which the positions are represented temporarily leads to a family rift that corresponds to the internal state of the entire country. So "the real" hero "of the book [...] is not a single figure, but - as in the man without qualities - a state; the state of emergency and siege in Switzerland, the inconclusive but rousing adventure of armed neutrality protection, at its core: the silent drama of neutrality itself. "

Most of the historical facts were available to Inglin from personal experience, but they have also been corroborated and supplemented by extensive research. Extensive chronic passages are closely interwoven with the fictional narrative: “Inglin wants to be precise in terms of documentation without simply writing a history book. Historical material and sealing enter into a fruitful tension between epic and love. "Blend in seamlessly work The novel can therefore also as key novel to be read.

The basic conflicts in Switzerland presented here, which have become increasingly accentuated over time and under the external pressure of the war, are mainly:

  • The language-regional conflict between the German- and the French-speaking part of the country, with the corresponding sympathies for the respective warring parties, which reached its first climax right at the beginning of the war in the election of the army commander in chief.
  • The social tensions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, which were intensified during the war by food shortages and rising prices and fueled by the revolutionary events in the surrounding countries, but above all in Russia, and which erupted in a nationwide general strike in 1918, which with the help of the Army is crushed.
  • Associated with this is the upheaval in the political system, where the Liberal Party's monopoly on power is shaken by the strengthening of other forces, including those who see themselves as bourgeois, which on the one hand leads to the establishment of the farmers ', trade and citizens' party (initially in a few cantons), while on the other national-conservative circles are working on the creation of vigilante groups.

In addition, there are the psychological problems in the army of a non-belligerent state, but surrounded by belligerent powers, when the alarm situation reigns over and over again for a long period of time under constant tension and extreme danger, but the alarm is canceled each time because the expected attacks do not materialize. In this grueling situation, the cafard spreads and threatens to question the usefulness of the military deployment.

On the personal level there is also the loss of supposedly firmly established values ​​of marriage and family and the dwindling of elementary decency between neighbors and citizens. Quarrels between spouses, between brothers, between father and son and between by-laws are spreading and can only be tackled in a makeshift manner. War profiteers replace the old elites and maliciously display their newly acquired wealth. The monotony of everyday life in the army degenerates into wild alcohol excesses.

In this sharp crisis situation, at the end of the novel two principles bring reassurance and possible pacification: First, a return to the common history, to common values ​​and traditions, and to the fact that Switzerland is rich in its inconsistency and diversity lies. And secondly, trust in a virtue that is understood as Swiss, namely the virtue of not driving conflicts to extremes, but rather seeking a compromise in good time. This "timely termination of the battle" prevents the impending civil war even in the event of a general strike and paves the way for a democratically legitimized reorganization of the political system.

In terms of genre, the Swiss mirror is most likely to be assigned to the political novel because of its clear intentional effect; At the same time, with the broad portrayal of Swiss society, it also bears features of the social or contemporary novel.

people

The novel is supported by many fictional characters and is also intertwined with characters from the story. There are interactions between the fictional and historical characters, which means that the story of the novel is anchored in a charming way in the historical framework.

Fictional people

At the center of the novel are the members of Alfred Ammann's family. No storyline that does not have at least one of them as a carrier, no scene that is not portrayed from the perspective of one of these people. The Ammann family lives in Zurich. But there are also other scenes, mainly due to military border operations in the Jura and Ticino; and Ammann's National Council mandate also brings Bern into focus.

Alfred Ammann

Alfred Ammann, usually referred to as "Ammann" in the novel itself, while other people are usually referred to by their first names, comes from a farming family. His brother Robert still runs the farm they grew up on. But Alfred moved to the city, was successful in the army and in politics. At the beginning of the novel he seems to be at the height of his career, is a national councilor, brigadier and lawyer. He and his family live in a stately mansion in Zurich. He is a staunch supporter of a liberal democracy . His attitude is tolerant and humane. Ammann is the model of the bourgeois Swiss, as it was widespread well into the second half of the 20th century. His actions, however, seem short-sighted, inconsistent, rather overly cautious and petty and lead to one failure after another. He cannot enforce his basic political stance. His sons Severin and Paul become politically active outside the center, Fred seems indifferent to all of what Ammann sees as a danger to Swiss direct democracy, which in his opinion depends on commitment, tolerance and balance. He jeopardizes the manorial family seat without need and he loses his military command. So in the end he has to draw a disappointing life balance, only tempered by the victory of tolerance at the end of the general strike. The crisis in Switzerland is reflected in the crisis in the life of Alfred Ammann.

Barbara Ammann

Barbara, Ammann's wife, is a resolute and prudent housewife whose work goes far beyond the purely domestic and who, if necessary, can offer her husband resistance if she is convinced of something. During the war, she is heavily involved in looking after the war victims who are temporarily welcomed and received in Switzerland, and she organizes money collections for humanitarian purposes. She's also the one who tries to keep the family together as well as possible and to settle disputes. Initially, she has no understanding for her daughter Gertrud's marital problems, which she tries to suppress. She is all the more shocked by the loss of supposedly firmly established values.

Severin Ammann

Ammann's eldest son is the editor of the newspaper “Ostschweizer”, a newspaper of the editorial committee to which his father belongs, as a liberal paper that, under the influence of Severin, is increasingly taking on national conservative and German-friendly traits. While Ammann always tries to balance things out, the longer Severin develops the more polarizing tendencies and becomes a radical opponent of the French position, which leads to a rift with the French branch of the family (Junod). Severin's uncompromising manner puts Ammann in a delicate position, who as a member of the editorial committee is identified with the content of the newspaper. As a result, Severin is removed from his position as editor, but without a fixed appointment, so that he can de facto continue to work. In the dispute over the general strike, he does not trust the government and the army with the assertiveness that he believes is necessary and tries to build up a vigilante group.

Paul Ammann

Ammann's second son, a philologist with a doctorate, is considered to be extremely intelligent, but for a long time has not been able to choose a career and finds his position in society with difficulty. As a typical intellectual, he always experiences himself at an analytical distance from his surroundings, to which he lacks direct access. He does not take up a teaching position mediated by his uncle Junod. Instead, he tries to design the features section as a journalist for “Ostschweizer”, but in his position as an editorial volunteer he cannot implement his ideas. Joint exertions in military service bring him closer to his comrades from the working class. He begins to get involved for socialism and for peace, which alienates him more and more from the attitude determined by his brother Severin on the editorial board, and he leaves his job with a scandal: he publishes a propaganda article in a social democratic newspaper, what Ammann also experienced it as an affront. Alienated from his parents' house, he turned all the more decisively to his proletarian friends, in whose milieu he always remained a stranger and, as a citizen's son, was viewed with suspicion by many. During the revolutionary activities of the general strike, he cannot approve of the actions of some of the comrades and distances himself from them. After the strike management called off the strike, he tried not to make the "breaking off the battle" appear to his friends as a defeat, but to make it bearable as an act of common sense.

Fred Ammann

The youngest of Ammann's sons is still in the middle of his studies and is in the process of swapping law, for which he has no interest or talent, with the natural sciences that most closely correspond to him. Strolling through fields and woods on his uncle Robert's farm and experiencing nature is his favorite activity. He could imagine going back to his rural roots and becoming a farmer. He does his service in the army, during which he is trained as an officer, with naive enthusiasm. In the aggravated situation of the general strike, as an essentially apolitical person, he is helpless against the demands of both the left and the right. He was badly hit when his cousin and military comrade Christian fell ill with the Spanish flu and died while working against the strikers. René Junod, the doctor, tries to give him back his belief in the political system of Switzerland in a detailed nightly conversation by drawing his attention to the richness in the cultural, linguistic and religious diversity and by pointing out to him that not imposed on the people, but the unity he wanted and lived historically in this diversity.

Gertrud Ammann

Ammann's daughter is married to the ambitious and staunch officer Albrecht Hartmann and has two young children. While the marriage seems outwardly intact, Gertrud begins to despair of the cold and callous manner of Hartmann, who does not usually respond to her feelings. She moves out of the shared bedroom. In Albin Pfister, a friend of Paul, she meets a sensitive poet whose poems she addresses, who shares her love for literature and with whom a deeper relationship is beginning to develop. She rents her own apartment, to which she moves with her children and where she also welcomes Albin. And she begins, reluctantly at first, to divorce Hartmann, a difficult and lengthy undertaking, since he cannot be blamed for any obvious misconduct. During a certain time the contact with the parents is broken off because Barbara is appalled by their behavior. When Albin dies of the Spanish flu and Paul tells her about his last days, she realizes that his religious side was closed to her. Mother and daughter are reconciled over the mutual care of Paul - he is also sick with the flu, but surviving. She moves into her parents' house with her children.

Further, structurally important fictional persons, as they enable a comprehensive view of Swiss society, are:

Robert Ammann

Alfred's brother embodies the rural origins of the Ammanns and marks the opposite pole to the bourgeois liberals. He is a protagonist in the founding of a new party, because the liberals do not act consistently enough against the demands of the social democrats and do too little for the interests of the peasants.

Gaston Junod

Ammann's brother-in-law is Professor of Romance Studies at the University of Zurich. He grew up in Lausanne, a Welscher, and thus represents the opposite pole of Severin's friendliness towards German. His provocations lead to a deep rift between him, Junod, and Ammann, who in his opinion does not distance himself clearly enough from Severin. The rift is only overcome on the occasion of the funeral of Klara, his wife - Alfred's sister - at a time when the public conflict between the parts of the country has become less acute with the resignation of Federal Councilor Hoffmann and after the election of Geneva Ador to his successor.

René Junod

Gaston's son is a battalion doctor in the force, in which the most important people are divided. He is not only a medical, but also a social and political diagnostician. Like Paul, he is an observer from an analytical distance; but unlike Paul, he has found his position in society, he judges from a steadfast perspective. As the son of a native of Welsh, but grew up in German-speaking Switzerland, he is best able to bridge the gulf between the different parts of the country. So it is up to him, in the last chapter of the novel, in conversation with Fred, to peel out the foundations for future coexistence in Switzerland and to outline the vision of a reconciled nation.

Bosshart

Ammann's other brother-in-law, Barbara's brother, is also his military superior. Ammann always feels uncomfortable in dealings with Bosshart, because unlike him, who also wants to remain humane as an officer, Bosshart tends to be absolutely strict and disciplined and treat his subordinates from above. He promoted Hartmann's career, even against the will of Ammann, whose subordinate - and son-in-law - is Hartmann. And he advocates the election of Ulrich Wille as Commander-in-Chief, also against Ammann's opinion. He asserts that this crucial choice should not be about political considerations, but only military capabilities should be decisive. In this context he denies the legitimacy of a democratic election. Conversely, he proves that he can also argue with confidence in Switzerland's political institutions when he is asked by Severin whether he would take over the leadership of the civil defense-like "national defense front" propagated by Severin to end the general strike. He rejects this with reference to the tolerant democratic state, which is the smartest thing the people have been able to create over the centuries. In addition, he trusts in the "timely termination of the battle", that is, the termination of the general strike.

Albin Pfister

Paul's friend and lover Gertrude lives in modest circumstances. He is a poet by calling and his modest production does not give him any financial leeway. With all his love, he sometimes feels an inhibition towards Gertrud, since it is foreseeable that he will never be able to offer her the social life that she - as he assumes - expects and to which, in his opinion, she is entitled. In conversations with Paul, Fred and Gertrud, he repeatedly complained about the lack of awareness of the divine primordial ground of existence, for example in socialism and Marxism; and although he is internally on the side of the poor and disadvantaged, this prevents him from joining such a movement. Under the pressure of military service, for which he is too sensitive, he loses his will to live. He turns away from people inwardly and turns to God. He also turns away from Gertrud, but without casting a shadow over her love. Eventually he dies of the Spanish flu.

People of contemporary history

The characters of contemporary history who set the course for the historical events often only play subordinate roles in the actual novel. Nevertheless, they can have important hinge functions for the plot. The most important are:

Wilhelm II

The German Kaiser visited Switzerland in autumn 1912 and viewed a major army maneuver. Switzerland gave him an enthusiastic reception. This episode, known as the prelude, marks the beginning of the novel. It allows us to show the pro-German mood in certain parts of Switzerland, its susceptibility to monarchical splendor and shed light on the close ties between the future general Ulrich Wille and the German emperor.

Arthur Hoffmann

In 1914, Federal Councilor Arthur Hoffmann was also President of the Federal Republic and headed the Foreign Ministry. He is the determining figure in the election of the army commander in chief. He succeeds, against initially strong resistance and majorities, in getting the election of Ulrich Wille, who is regarded as one-sidedly pro-German, through parliament. This accentuates the language-regional conflict in Switzerland. In 1917 Hoffmann tried, together with National Councilor Robert Grimm, to broker a separate peace between Germany and Russia. When this became known, Switzerland was accused of breaking neutrality and Hoffmann had to resign from the government.

Ulrich Wille

Ulrich Wille has shaped the Swiss army for years and advocated strict discipline. Many perceive his influence as "Prussian" - and thus as non-Swiss. He also has personal relationships with Germany and the Kaiser. That is why his election as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, requested by the Federal Council, is more than controversial and, above all, a provocation for the French part of the country. Nevertheless, it can be enforced. Under his influence, officers like Bosshart and Hartmann can develop, and so the drill is intensified, which Fred gets to feel in the officers' school.

Edouard Secretan

Secretan , a former senior officer, is a member of the National Council and editor-in-chief of the Gazette de Lausanne . In the election of the commander in chief, he opposes his will, but is defeated. In the conflict between German and Welsch, he is the agitator on the Welsch side and thus Severin's opponent. In a debate on the National Council, he attacks Ammann and draws his attention to his responsibility for the editorial content of “Eastern Switzerland”. As a result, Ammann tried to get Severin under better control at a meeting of the editorial committee.

Origin and role models

The first plans for a novel that describes the experiences of the occupation of the border go back to the time of the First World War. Inglin must have considered these ideas to be a commission for a long time; but execution could only begin after he had reread Tolstoy's War and Peace . "Suddenly the shape must have been in front of his eyes". The actual paperwork then took six and a half years, from 1931 to 1938. War and peace were important in some respects for the work on the Swiss mirror : coping with a plots rich in figures in general (although significantly reduced compared to the original ), the change from military and civilian scenarios , the design of waiting, the extremely slow development in the military. Inglin himself has placed himself in the tradition of realistic storytelling, which for him is defined and shaped by Tolstoy , Flaubert and Thomas Mann and which in any case has nothing to do with a “copy of the real”. He strives for “closeness to reality”, “highest probability and liveliness”. With Thomas Mann, it is above all the novel Buddenbrooks , which, as a family and social novel , has a direct relationship with the Swiss mirror.

For the special family constellation of the Ammanns, however, a novel by another Swiss writer was decisive: A Caller in the Desert by Jakob Bosshart . In both works there is a family rooted in the country, on a farm; one son still runs the farm, his brother has moved to town and made a career. There are also other similarities, including a “shooting festival and a speech that delivers its own immanent criticism” and “the bourgeois son who is disappointed by the left and who is looking for a better world”.

Admission and discussion

The Swiss mirror was immediately recognized as an extraordinary literary achievement when it was published. In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , for example, Carl Helbling evoked - incidentally, in an otherwise thoroughly ambivalent review - a “second volume by Martin Salander ”, which we “owed a whole generation of poets”. Karl Schmid pointed out that the Swiss mirror represented something new for German- Swiss literature, in which the “neat psychological novel” by Maria Waser or “ Ernst Zahn's novel-like novel located in the Alps ” was predominant. And Albin Zollinger even said: "The world will take note of this poetry and associate it with the enduring forms of eternal humanity." This, of course, was exaggerated, as Adolf Muschg has already established. The enthusiastic reactions were by no means limited to Switzerland. The book is also being noticed in Germany and even in the USA. The reviewer for the New York Times writes : "‹Schweizerspiegel› is perhaps more typically Swiss than any other book of recent years."

If you consider the time circumstances when it was first published in 1938, it immediately becomes clear why the work received special attention: At a time of external threat from aggressive fascist and National Socialist neighboring countries, the great story of the successful national self-assertion was very welcome. The manuscript of the novel was exhibited at the national exhibition in 1939 , and in Inglin's army unit the reading of the swearing-in scene was part of the program of a “patriotic ceremony”. And so Reinhardt Stumm was able to say: " The Swiss mirror became a bastion in the spiritual fortification system of the national defense, a novel was made compulsory."

Of course, there were also critical voices for whom the image of Switzerland was painted too gloomy: In his review, Carl Helbling was able to navigate between his own positive attitude and a dictum by Fritz Ernst , who “felt the Swiss image of the novel was' gray 'and the' Heartbeats' missed. " Beatrice von Matt states:" Even people like Fritz Ernst were so filled with the idea of ​​spiritual national defense at the time that they were no longer able to read without bias. "In fact, in terms of language, one can miss colors. Ulrich Frei states: " With its sparse colors and its richness of gradations, the Swiss mirror is not like a painting, but a relief" and it moves the style close to New Objectivity, just like Beatrice von Matt. The emphatically factual approach is due on the one hand to the fact that detailed chronical descriptions had to be built in, on the other hand it corresponds to the structure and aim of the novel, which can only consist in the fact that calm and peaceful coexistence prevail against hot-blooded upsurges and careless rebellions.

Interestingly, frontist circles also took a liking to the work. Rolf Henne , for example, praises the design of the general manager Bosshart as a "war gurgel". Since Bosshart, with his refusal to deal with Severin and his concept of the "timely termination of the battle", will be the savior of free, liberal democracy, it can only be a misunderstanding. Nevertheless, a "discomfort" remains, as Paul Werner Hubatka notes, and he identifies the underlying reasons in the subsequent closeness of many senior officers to pro-German and frontist circles, officers who appear in the Swiss mirror partly personally, partly as models for fictional characters. Emil Sonderegger , for example, the commander of the troops in order to break up the general strike in Zurich, published a program for a fascist reorganization of Switzerland in the 1930s, in which even the worst anti-Semitism was not lacking. From this point of view, Inglin's designation of Sonderegger as “a man of a straightforward and extremely determined manner” was actually no longer permissible at the time the Swiss mirror was being written .

A similar problem lies in the extensive “exclusion of the industrial world of work” and the concept of Fred, Ammann's youngest son, as the carrier of the mediating solution. It can be assumed that in the end he will take over the farm from which the family comes, and which is missing the future farmer after Christian's flu death. Ultimately, this is a backward-looking solution and so Paul Werner Hubatka concludes: "... our author [Inglin] might well have suspected that the solution out of the confusion of the present presented by Fred is not one."

Even if the great project that the Swiss mirror represented for the author may not have succeeded in everything, Inglin has "In a new reflection on the current, endangered and preserved democracy [...] the retreat into archaic or timeless origins [...] resolutely "canceled. The intention to work for the present can be seen most clearly in Severin's figure, which tends to be negative and from which a direct path leads to the frontists. The fact that the novel was published by a German publisher in 1938 is all the more remarkable: “... Staackmann Verlag - unlike Swiss publishers - risked quite a bit in the process. The rejection of every leader myth, the militant plea against militant "solutions" were an undisguised provocation of the regime. "

revision

Like many other works, Inglin has also revised the Swiss mirror. In 1955 a version was shortened by about a quarter. While the main storylines have been preserved, some less important episodes and some minor characters fell victim to the deletions. Stylistically, it was probably an attempt to approximate “classical works”. In terms of content, spicy passages, especially those with sexual references, have been deleted. A lot of cosmopolitanism has also been lost, for example when “the whole bohemian emigre” disappears. While Werner Weber praises the new version ("It is the same mirror; but it is now of the greatest purity, nothing appears elongated or shortened in it, nothing more cloudy. His information is strong, pure, bright."), Is For Adolf Muschg it was “dispensable faintheartedness [...] if he took back everything during the revision in 1955 that seemed to him from a distance - political and erotic.” And according to Beatrice von Matt, the first version is preferable to the second because because, for example, a character like Gertrud has lost a lot of its modernity through the overhaul. Jakob Tanner suspects that Inglin reworked the novel under the influence of the anti-communist intellectual national defense , which was very present in the post-war period , and that the new version was mainly due to the zeitgeist.

Impact history

Under the title “La Suisse dans un miroir”, a French translation by Michel Mamboury was published in 1985 in Lausanne by Editions de l'Aire Ex libris.

In Otto F. Walter's extensive novel Zeit des Fasans , the Swiss mirror is not only mentioned, but also “heavily” praised - and it is read! He was also the model for Time of the Pheasant .

literature

Text output

  • Meinrad Inglin: Schweizerspiegel , Staackmann Verlag, Leipzig 1938, 1066 pages
  • Meinrad Inglin: Swiss mirror , new version, Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1955, 663 pages
  • Meinrad Inglin: Swiss mirror , new version, approved by the author. new edition, Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1965, 731 pages
  • Meinrad Inglin: Schweizerspiegel , in: Work edition in 8 volumes, ed. by Beatrice von Matt, Volume 4, Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1981, 960 pages, ISBN 3-7611-0613-0
  • Meinrad Inglin: Schweizererspiegel , in: Collected works in ten volumes, ed. by Georg Schoeck, volumes 5.1 / 5.2, Ammann Verlag, Zurich 1987, 996 pages, ISBN 3-250-10070-6
  • Meinrad Inglin: Schweizerspiegel , Ullstein, Berlin 1998, 989 pages, ISBN 978-3-548-24426-6
  • Meinrad Inglin: Swiss mirror , in: Collected works in 10 volumes, ed. By Georg Schoeck, new edition, volume 5, Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2014, 899 pages, ISBN 978-3-85791-744-8

Secondary literature

  • Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976
  • Beatrice von Matt: Afterword . In: Meinrad Inglin, Swiss mirror . Roman, Collected Works in 10 Volumes, ed. v. Georg Schoeck, new edition vol. 5, Zurich 2014, pp. 875–890, ISBN 978-3-85791-744-8
  • Egon Wilhelm: Meinrad Inglin - breadth and limitation. Novel and short story in the work of the Schwyz poet. Diss., Zurich 1957
  • Ilse Leisi: The two versions of Meinrad Inglin's “Swiss Mirror” . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 3, 1972, pp. 49-50
  • Paul Werner Hubatka: Swiss history in the 'Swiss mirror '. Attempt to locate the history of Meinrad Inglin's novel. Diss. Bern 1985 (European University Papers, Series 1, German Language and Literature, Volume 868), ISBN 3-261-04084-X
  • Ulrich Frei: Afterword . In: Meinrad Inglin, Swiss mirror . Roman, Collected Works in 10 Volumes, ed. v. Georg Schoeck, 5.2, Zurich 1987, pp. 975–996, ISBN 3-250-10070-6
  • Adolf Muschg: Was nothing except expenses? Adolf Muschg on Meinrad Inglin: “Schweizerspiegel” (1938). In: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Ed.): Novels from yesterday - read today. Vol. III 1933-1945, Frankfurt am Main 1996, pp 163-170

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adolf Muschg: Nothing but expenses? Adolf Muschg on Meinrad Inglin: Schweizerspiegel (1938) in: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Ed.), Novels from yesterday - read today , Vol. III 1933–1945, Frankfurt am Main 1996, page 165f
  2. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, page 171
  3. ↑ Jakob Tanner, History of Switzerland in the 20th Century. Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68365-7 , p. 125
  4. ↑ Meinrad Inglin, Schweizerspiegel , in: Collected Works in 10 Volumes, ed. By Georg Schoeck, new edition, volume 5, Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2014, page 844
  5. ↑ Beatrice von Matt in the afterword to Meinrad Inglin, Schweizerspiegel , in: Collected works in 10 volumes, ed. by Georg Schoeck, new edition, volume 5, Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2014, page 887: "But he [Inglin] did not primarily have a book on cultural history in mind, but a political novel about the war in Switzerland and its path to compromise democracy."
  6. ↑ Martin Schaub on the Swiss mirror : "This unique social novel ...". In: Martin Schaub, Otto F. Walters Word Machine , Tagesanzeiger Magazin No. 31, August 6, 1988
  7. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, page 189: "Nevertheless, the« Swiss mirror »is considered to be one of the most outstanding and world-rich chronological novels in Swiss literature."
  8. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, p. 170
  9. ↑ Ibid., P. 167
  10. ↑ Ibid., P. 176
  11. ↑ Meinrad Inglin: On the work on the «Swiss mirror». In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 25, 1964
  12. ↑ Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks. The decline of a family. S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin 1901
  13. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert. Roman, Grethlein & Co. Leipzig - Zurich 1921
  14. ↑ A third brother joins Bosshart, but the family has not heard from for a long time. He lives in the city and is ashamed of himself like a prodigal son. He is unsuccessful and gets by as a worker.
  15. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, p. 177 f.
  16. ↑ Carl Helbling, "Swiss Mirror". The new novel Meinrad Inglins. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , No. 2174, December 8, 1938, noon edition
  17. ^ Karl Schmid, "The Swiss border occupation novel" . In: Ders .: Collected Works and Letters , Volume 1: 1926–1950. Edited by Thomas Sprecher and Judith Niederberger. Zurich [1998], pages 41f
  18. ↑ Albin Zollinger: Meinrad Inglin's “Swiss Mirror” . In: Neue Schweizer Rundschau , New Series, 6th year, issue 10 (February), Zurich, 1939, page 635
  19. ↑ Adolf Muschg: Nothing but expenses? Adolf Muschg on Meinrad Inglin: Schweizerspiegel (1938) in: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (ed.), Novels from yesterday - read today , Vol. III 1933–1945, Frankfurt am Main 1996, page 163
  20. ↑ Quoted from: Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, page 185
  21. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, page 185
  22. ↑ Paul Werner Hubatka, Swiss history in the 'Swiss mirror'. Attempt to locate Meinrad Inglin's novel , Diss.Bern 1985 (Europ. Hochschulschriften, Series 1, German Language and Literature, Volume 868), page 1
  23. ↑ Reinhardt Stumm in the Basler Zeitung, quoted from Niklaus Meienberg , Inglins Spiegelungen , in: ders .: Maybe tomorrow we will be pale and dead: Chronicle of ongoing events, but also those that have continued, Zurich 1989, page 133
  24. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, page 186
  25. ↑ ibid.
  26. ↑ Ulrich Frei, epilogue . In: Meinrad Inglin: Swiss mirror . Roman, Collected Works in 10 Volumes, ed. v. Georg Schoeck, 5.2, Zurich 1987, page 991
  27. ↑ ibid., P. 982
  28. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, page 175
  29. ↑ “The outbreak of war, the mobilization, the general election, the replacement services, the general strike are the highlights; and here Inglin surrenders the poetic pen in order to swap it for the more brittle but more embarrassing drawing of the historian. ”Karl Schmid, Der Schweizerische Grenzbesetzungroman . In: Ders., Collected Works and Letters. Volume 1: 1926-1950. Edited by Thomas Sprecher and Judith Niederberger. Zurich [1998], page 43
  30. ↑ Paul Werner Hubatka, Swiss history in the 'Swiss mirror'. Attempt to locate Meinrad Inglin's novel , Diss.Bern 1985 (Europ. Hochschulschriften, Series 1, German Language and Literature, Volume 868), page 72
  31. ^ Rolf Henne, Self-Presentation of Switzerland. To Meinrad Inglin's “Swiss Mirror” . In: National Issues. Swiss monthly , ed. by Hans Oehler, 5th year (March 1939) issue 12, page 533
  32. ↑ Paul Werner Hubatka, Swiss history in the 'Swiss mirror'. Attempt to locate the history of Meinrad Inglin's novel , Diss.Bern 1985 (Europ. Hochschulschriften, Series 1, German Language and Literature, Volume 868), page 119
  33. ↑ ibid., Pages 121–129
  34. ↑ ibid., P. 126
  35. ↑ ibid., Page 72. Hubatka refers to the fact that this exclusion, together with "his gripping military descriptions and the emphatically bourgeois historical image of the chronicle [...] contributed to the goodwill of the reviewers of conservative and Nazi papers". (ibid.)
  36. ↑ ibid., Page 150
  37. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography. Zurich 1976, page 178
  38. ↑ "As I. pointed out to me, the figure of Severin was created so that the roots of this Swiss fascist movement would be exposed." Ibid., Page 288 (note 88)
  39. ↑ Adolf Muschg: Nothing but expenses? Adolf Muschg on Meinrad Inglin: Schweizerspiegel (1938) in: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (ed.): Novels from yesterday - read today , Vol. III 1933–1945, Frankfurt am Main 1996, page 167
  40. ↑ A detailed comparison of the two versions can be found in: Ilse Leisi, The two versions of Meinrad Inglin's “Schweizerspiegel” . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 3, 1972
  41. ↑ Vesna Kondrič Horvat, article Inglin in Kindler's literary dictionary , ed. by Heinz Ludwig Arnold, 3rd, completely revised edition, Stuttgart 2009, volume 8, page 103
  42. ↑ Beatrice von Matt in the afterword to Meinrad Inglin, Schweizerspiegel , in: Collected works in 10 volumes, ed. by Georg Schoeck, new edition, volume 5, Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2014, page 887
  43. ↑ Werner Weber, Meinrad Inglins "Swiss mirror". To the “New Version 1955” . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , No. 2121, July 28, 1956
  44. ↑ Adolf Muschg: Nothing but expenses? Adolf Muschg on Meinrad Inglin: Schweizerspiegel (1938) in: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Ed.): Novels from yesterday - read today , Vol. III 1933–1945, Frankfurt am Main 1996, page 169
  45. ↑ Beatrice von Matt in the afterword to Meinrad Inglin, Schweizerspiegel , in: Collected works in 10 volumes, ed. by Georg Schoeck, new edition, volume 5, Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2014, page 892
  46. ↑ Jakob Tanner, History of Switzerland in the 20th Century. Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68365-7 , p. 587.
  47. ↑ Otto F. Walter: Time of the pheasant. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1988, p. 352 f.
  48. ^ Martin Schaub : Otto F. Walters word machine. In: Tagesanzeiger Magazin , 31/1988, August 6, 1988, p. 26