Jeremias Gotthelf
Encyclopedia
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
novelist, best known by his pen name of Jeremias Gotthelf, was born at Murten
Murten
Murten is a municipality in the See district of the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.It is located on the southern shores of Lake Morat. Morat is situated between Bern and Lausanne and is the capital of the Lake District of the canton of Fribourg....
, where his father was pastor.
In 1804 the home was moved to Utzenstorf, a village in the Bernese
Canton of Berne
The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...
Emmental
Emmental
For the cheese made in the region, see Emmental .The Emmental is a region in west central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the Emme and Ilfis rivers. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming...
. Here young Bitzius grew up, receiving his early education and consorting with the boys of the village, as well as helping his father to cultivate his glebe
Glebe
Glebe Glebe Glebe (also known as Church furlong or parson's closes is an area of land within a manor and parish used to support a parish priest.-Medieval origins:...
. In 1812 he went to complete his education at Bern, and in 1820 was received as a pastor. In 1821 he visited the University of Göttingen, but returned home in 1822 to act as his father's assistant. On his father's death (1824) he went in the same capacity to Herzogenbuchsee
Herzogenbuchsee
Herzogenbuchsee is a municipality in the Oberaargau administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.The population is 6,646 , counting the villages in the Oberaargau. The traditional name was Buchsi.- History :...
, and later to Bern (1829). Early in 1831 he went as assistant to the aged pastor of the village of Lützelflüh
Lützelflüh
Lützelflüh is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the Swiss canton of Bern.-Geography:Lützelflüh has an area, , of . Of this area, or 65.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 24.7% is forested...
, in the Upper Emmental (between Langnau
Langnau im Emmental
-Sport:Langnau is the home of the SCL Tigers, who plays in the Swiss National League A. They play their home games at the Ilfis Stadium.- External links :* * *...
and Burgdorf), being soon elected his successor (1832) and marrying one of his granddaughters (1833). He spent the rest of his life there, leaving three children (the son was a pastor, the two daughters married pastors).
His first work, the Bauernspiegel, appeared in 1837. It purported to be the life of Jeremias Gotthelf, narrated by himself, and this name was later adopted by the author as his pen name. It is a living picture of Bernese (or, strictly speaking, Emmental) village life, true to nature, and not attempting to gloss over its defects and failings. It is written (like the rest of his works) in German, but contains expressions from the Bernese dialect of the Emmental, though it must be remembered that Bitzius was not (like Auerbach
Berthold Auerbach
Berthold Auerbach was a German-Jewish poet and author. He was the founder of the German “tendency novel,” in which fiction is used as a means of influencing public opinion on social, political, moral, and religious questions.-Biography:Moses Baruch Auerbach was born in Nordstetten in the Kingdom...
) a peasant by birth, but belonged to the educated classes, so that he reproduces what he had seen and learnt, and not what he had himself personally experienced. The book was a great success, as it was a picture of real life, and not of fancifully beribboned eighteenth-century villagers.
His best known work is without doubt the short novel The Black Spider
The Black Spider
The Black Spider is a novella by the Swiss writer Jeremias Gotthelf written in 1842. Set in an idyllic frame story, old legends are worked into a Christian-humanist allegory about ideas of good and evil. Though the novel is initially divided, what is originally the internal story, later spills over...
(Die schwarze Spinne), a semi-allegorical tale of the plague in form of the titular monster that devastates a Swiss valley community; first as a result of a pact with the devil born out of need and a second time due to the moral decay that releases the monster from its prison again.
Among his later tales are the Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters (1838-1839), Uli der Knecht (1841), with its continuation, Uli der Pächter (1849), Anne-Bäbi Jowäger (1843-1844), Käthi, die Großmutter (1846), Die Käserei in der Vehfreude (1850), and the Erlebnisse eines Schuldenbauers (1853). He also published several volumes of shorter tales. During the 1840s, he steadfastly opposed radicalism and secularism and placed a conservative emphasis on piety and ecclesiastical authority.
He died on October 22, 1854 in Lützelflüh
Lützelflüh
Lützelflüh is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the Swiss canton of Bern.-Geography:Lützelflüh has an area, , of . Of this area, or 65.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 24.7% is forested...
in Canton of Bern.
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean novelist and poet. In 1999 he won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Los detectives salvajes , and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, which was described by board member Marcela Valdes...
Gotthelf is mentioned as the subject of the novel Bitzius:
(...) and in Bitzius, a novel less than one hundred pages long, similar in some ways to Mitzi's Treasure, (...) and that told the story of the life of Albert Bitzius, pastor of Lützelflüh, in the canton of Bern, an author of sermons as well as a writer under the pseudonym Jeremias Gotthelf.
Lives by C. Manuel, in the Berlin edition of Bitzius's works (Berlin, 1861), and by J. Ammann in vol. i. (Bern, 1884) of time Sammlung Bernischer Biographien. His works were issued in 24 vols. at Berlin, 1856-1861, while 10 vols., giving the original text of each story, were issued at Bern, 1898-1900.
Gotthelf’s novels in film
- Uli der Knecht (1954)
- Uli der Pächter 1955)
- Die Käserei in der Vehfreude (1958)
- Anne Bäbi Jowäger - I. Teil: Wie Jakobli zu einer Frau kommt (1960)
- Anne Bäbi Jowäger - II. Teil: Jakobli und Meyeli (1962
- Geld und Geist (1964)
All six films have been directed by the Swiss film director Franz Schnyder
Franz Schnyder
Franz Schnyder was a Swiss film director and screenwriter. He directed 15 films between 1941 and 1968. His film Der 10...