Stefan Keller (historian)

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Stefan Keller (born February 18, 1958 in Birwinken , Canton Thurgau ) is a Swiss writer , journalist and historian .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1976, Stefan Keller studied German , history and philosophy at the University of Konstanz and at the Free University of Berlin . In 1982 he completed his studies with a thesis on contemporary poetry ( Magister Artium ). From 1983 to 1984 he taught. At the same time he began to publish as a freelance writer. From 1984 he was editor and producer at the socio-historical and literary Drumlin-Verlag in Weingarten (Germany). He had formative friendships with the left Arbon journalist couple Ernst and Gerda Rodel-Neuwirth as well as with Niklaus Meienberg . Stefan Keller has been the editor of the weekly newspaper (WOZ) in Zurich since 1988 . In 1997, the University of Basel subsequently awarded him a doctorate for his second book, Grüninger's Fall . In 2010, Keller married the Zurich author Annette Hug , with whom he had been friends for many years.

In 1998 Stefan Keller became Vice President of the newly established " Paul Grüninger Foundation" in St. Gallen. From 2001 to 2013 he was on the board of trustees of the cultural foundation of the canton of Thurgau and from 2005 to 2013 he was president of the “Press and Electronic Media” sector of the media union comedia , later Syndicom . He has been a member of the board of the Swiss copyright organization ProLitteris since 2006, and was elected President in June 2018. Since 2013 he has also been a board member of the Swiss Social Archives and since 2017 on the administrative board of Rotpunktverlag . From 2012 to 2015 he and his wife managed the event program of the literary house Bodmanhaus in Gottlieben TG.

In 1990 and 1994, Stefan Keller received the Zurich Journalism Prize . Also in 1990 he was awarded the Carinthian Journalism Prize. He received a foundation fee from the “ Hans Habe Foundation” in 1998, as well as work grants from the canton of Thurgau, the canton of Zurich and Pro Helvetia .

His first books Maria Theresia Wilhelm, disappeared without a trace (1991), about the psychiatric persecution of a mountain farming family, and Grüninger's case (1993), about police captain Paul Grüninger , who rescued several hundred, perhaps several thousand Jewish refugees in 1938/1839, received international attention Successes.

Die Zeit der Fabriken (2001), Keller's third major historical report from Eastern Switzerland, tells the story of the Saurer truck factory and its workers, the exemplary history of the “red” town of Arbon on Lake Constance in the 20th century.

Keller's fourth book The Return (2003) reports on the Jewish refugee Joseph Spring, who was extradited to the Gestapo by Swiss border guards in 1943 at the age of sixteen , survived Auschwitz and returned 55 years later to demand justice from the Swiss authorities. A restitution suit by Joseph Springs against the Swiss Confederation was rejected by the Swiss Federal Court on January 21, 2000 .

In 2016, the fifth book written by Keller was published, Captions. 66 true stories . Based on old postcards, documents and photographs from family albums, stories from the everyday life of “little people” are told: Usually, Keller takes a historical picture that interests him or that he stumbled upon in an antiquarian bookshop and reconstructs its contents to tell him. The book is based on a column in the St. Gallen cultural magazine Saiten and an image-text series in the WOZ .

Works

"The Return: Joseph Springs Story"

The Berlin youth Joseph Sprung was chased through half of Europe by the National Socialists. He lived with false papers in Brussels, Montpellier and Bordeaux and worked undetected as an interpreter. He survived invasions and railway disasters, but has never kissed a girl when he fell into the hands of the Swiss border authorities in November 1943. At the age of sixteen, the fugitive was handed over to the Gestapo by the Swiss border guards and denounced as a Jew .

He was transferred to Auschwitz via the Drancy collection camp near Paris. Sixty years later Joseph Sprung returned to Switzerland. Today his name is Joseph Spring, lives in Australia and demands the justice that is due to him. He charged the Swiss government with complicity in genocide . In a sensational process, the Swiss Federal Court decided in 2000: The extradition of a Jewish youth to the National Socialists can no longer be judged in court. Joseph Spring had asked for at least a symbolic reparation. In November 2003 he traveled back to Switzerland to tell his story: the story of a survivor who sued an entire country, went to court to demand justice, lost it and still had the last word.

"The time of the factories"

The worker Emil Baumann was already dead when his former superior Hippolyt Saurer died unexpectedly . The whole of Arbon mourned the truck manufacturer Saurer. Almost all of Arbon had mourned Baumann at that time, for whose death, according to the workers, the conditions in Saurer's factory were responsible. Emil Baumann died shortly after an argument with his boss Saurer. It is 1935 when it all began with two deaths. The young lathe operator Emil Baumann dies by suicide because his master bullies him and because he cannot cope with the new working conditions. Immediately the team went on strike. Then the entrepreneur and engineer Hippolyt Saurer dies.

He choked on his own blood after a tonsil operation . Based on the death of these two men, Stefan Keller tells the story of a small town in eastern Switzerland, its conflicts, triumphs and defeats. The city of Arbon on the Swiss shores of Lake Constance is ruled by the “Reds” (the Social Democrats, the Left). The factory Adolph Saurer AG was and is still legendary for its (military) trucks. Arbon is an example for many places in Switzerland: The time of the factories is also a story of Swiss industry and the labor movement. Starting with the motorized carriages of the Wilhelminian era through to the Saurer gassing trucks of the National Socialists, from the big strikes after 1918 to the shedding of almost all jobs in the 1990s and from the resistance of an editor against censors in World War II to the union's "defensive struggle" against foreign colleagues.

"Grüninger's Case"

A historical report about the St. Gallen police captain Paul Grüninger , who in the 1930s, following his conscience and not following the law, saved the lives of numerous Jews. The facts: In 1938/1939 Grüninger saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of Austrian, Jewish refugees by providing them with false papers and thus allowing them to enter Switzerland legally. He was suspended from his service for violating official duties and forging documents. He suffered heavy penalties for his behavior and was sentenced to prison. The book wants to make it clear that it is not Grüninger who has to be in the dock today, but the inhumane refugee policy of the Swiss government during the time of National Socialism . The book was filmed in 1997 based on a script by Stefan Keller and directed by Richard Dindo with Keller's expert advice.

"Maria Theresia Wilhelm, disappeared without a trace"

In the mid-1930s, Maria Theresia Wilhelm met the Swiss mountain farmer and gamekeeper Ulrich Gantenbein as a guest worker, who subsequently left his first wife. The marriage between Wilhelm and Gantenbein suffered from official regulations from the start. Gantenbein is admitted to the psychiatric clinic soon after the marriage.

His wife is hardly tolerated by the neighbors. She too finally comes to a psychiatric clinic and experiences therapy methods that are inhuman from today's perspective. Their seven children are torn apart, placed in orphanages and hired out . Finally Maria Theresia Wilhelm was released in June 1960. On the way to buy shoes, she disappears without a trace.

The book was dramatized for the theater and served as a template for the film "Das Deckelbad".

Books

As an author

  • Maria Theresia Wilhelm, disappeared without a trace. Story of a persecution. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 1991.
    • French translation: Absence prolongée. Lausanne 1993.
  • Grüninger's case. Stories of escape and help. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 1993; New edition 2014
    • French translation: Délit d'humanité. Lausanne 1994.
  • The time of the factories. Of workers and a red city. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2001.
    • French translation: Le Temps des fabriques. Lausanne 2003.
  • The return. Joseph Springs story. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2003.
  • Captions. 66 true stories. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2016.

As editor

  • Life, love, suffering in the office. Stories from the clean working world. Zurich 1991 (Ed. Together with Marianne Fehr and Jan Morgenthaler )
  • On the value of work. Swiss trade unions - history and stories. Zurich 2006 (Ed. Together with Valérie Boillat, Bernard Degen , Elisabeth Joris , Albert Tanner and Rolf Zimmermann)
    • French translation: La valeur du travail. Lausanne 2006.
  • One hundred years Volkshaus Zurich. together with Urs Kälin and Rebekka Wyler, Baden 2010.
  • Forward to enjoyment. From workers 'holidays and workers' hotels. Zurich 2014.

Public work grants

  • 1991: Lottery fund of the Canton of St. Gallen (for “Grüninger's case”).
  • 1998: Cultural Foundation of the Canton of Thurgau (for “The time of the factories”).
  • 1999: Pro Helvetia Culture Foundation and Culture Promotion Commission of the Canton of Zurich (for “The Return”).
  • 2005: Funding from the Canton of Thurgau.
  • 2008/2009: London Scholarship from the Landis & Gyr Foundation, Zug.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ syndicom.ch
  2. ↑ Erich Hackl: Quiet. Stefan Keller's protocol of an extermination. Zeit Online, September 12, 1991, accessed July 24, 2015 .
  3. ^ Theres Wenzinger: Family tragedy . Tagblatt Online, May 1, 2007, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 24, 2015 .
  4. ↑ A. Kneubühler: Why was nobody looking for Maria? 20 Minuten, July 24, 2015, accessed July 24, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Keller, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer, journalist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Birwinken