Hugo Loetscher

Hugo Loetscher (born December 22 1929 in Zürich) is a Swiss writer. "Der Immune" (literally: "The immune Man") probably is Loetscher’s most important work.

Hugo Loetscher knew Friedrich Dürrenmatt and the painter Varlin(Willy Guggenheim), the three were good friends and in close collaboration (Varlin e.g. painted Dürrenmatt and Loetscher), but Loetscher – in Switzerland and abroad - didn’t become as famous as Dürrenmatt.

Loetscher sometimes visited the “Café Maroc” in Zürich (nicknamed: “Maröckli”), a coffee bar, where writers and youth (also around 1968;year of protests and riots) met. (Fritz Zorn, the author of Mars (Fritz Zorn) shortly mentions this place, that he, who ever kept out of mischief, never visited.)

Life

Loetscher grew up in Zürich. After obtaining the diploma for university entrance, he studied philosophy, sociology and literature at Zürich’s and Sorbonne’s universities. 1956 he obtained the philosophy doctor’s title with a work called "Die politische Philosophie in Frankreich nach 1945" (the political philosophy in France after 1945”) in Zürich.

Afterwards, he was literature reviewer for the newspaper "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" and the "Weltwoche". From 1958 to 1962 he was a member of the editorial department of the monthly culture magazine "Du", from 1964 until 1969 he acted as one of the feuilleton editors of the "Weltwoche". Since then, he’s a free writer.

Since the 60ties, Loetscher travelled in South Europe and later in Southeast Asia and periodically to Latin America – especially Brazil. He also had stays as a guest lecturerand poetic lecturer, since the 80ties e.g. 79/80 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, 1981 at the University of Fribourg, 81/82 at the City University of New York and in 88 at the University of Munich.

Performances

Hugo Loetscher’s works often base on his travelling experiences, but also on other autobiographical experiences. Besides Reports this writer also wrote novels, essays, fables and theatre plays and is a publisher on different sectors (e.g. photography)

Loetscher is a member of the club of Swiss writers (Schweizerischer Schriftstellerverband), whose president he was from 1986 to 1989. He also was corresponding member of the German academy for language and poetics (Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung) in Darmstadt.

The Dürrenmatt affair

After Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s death, legal action was taken against Loetscher by Dürrenmatt’s widow Charlotte Kerr (played “Lydia van Dyke” in “Raumpatroullie”/ “Space Patrol“; marriage in 1984). The lawsuit’s reason: Loetscher wrote a text about Dürrenmatt’s abdication (published in a book 13 years after Dürrenmatt's death), in which Kerr has seen violated her “personal rights”.She criticised details like the folded hands of the laid out corpse or a Stephen King-bookon Dürrenmatt's bedside-table, and herself had to be stilted (“gestützt”) in church . The description of the funeral had hurt her in her dignity, she stated, Loetscher – supposedly - was mistaken, his memory was wrong. Dürrenmatt had e.g. been Atheist, he wouldn’t have folded his hands, and she never had to be stilted in her life. Loetscher explained, there that had been a drawing, that showed Dürrenmatt with hands folded. Kerr supposedly had asked for it and burnt it. He accentuated, that he had been a friend of Dürrenmatt for many years. “Not the last seven years!” Kerr answered. The judges exculpated Loetscher.

Awards and honorings

* 1964 Charles Veillon-price
* 1966 Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Preis
* 1972 Literature price of the city of Zürich
* 1985 Schiller-price of the cantonal bank of Zurich
* 1992 Big Schiller-price of the Swiss Schiller foundation
* 1994 Cruzeiro do Sul for his merits for Brazilian culture

Works

* "Abwässer", Zürich 1963
* "Die Kranzflechterin", Zürich 1964
* "Noah", Zürich 1967
* "Zehn Jahre Fidel Castro", Zürich 1969
* "Der Immune", Darmstadt u. a. 1975 (2005/06 in the Book series "Schweizer Bibliothek").
* "Die Entdeckung der Schweiz und anderes", Zürich 1976
* "Kulinaritäten", Bern 1976 (with Alice Vollenweider)
* "Die Schiene öffnet ein Tal", Luzern 1979 (with Fritz Hauser)
* "Wunderwelt", Darmstadt u. a. 1979
* "Herbst in der Grossen Orange", Zürich 1982
* "How many languages does man need?", New York 1982
* "Der Waschküchenschlüssel und andere Helvetica", Zürich 1983
* "Das Hugo-Loetscher-Lesebuch", Zürich 1984
* "Die Papiere des Immunen", Zürich 1986
* "Vom Erzählen erzählen", Zürich 1988
* "Die Fliege und die Suppe und 33 andere Tiere in 33 anderen Situationen", Zürich 1989
* "Der predigende Hahn", Zürich 1992
* "Der Blick der Malerin", Zürich 1995 (with Peter Killer and Caroline Kesser)
* "Saison", Zürich 1995
* "Die Augen des Mandarin", Zürich 1999
* "Äs tischört und plutschins", Zürich 2000
* "Durchs Bild zur Welt gekommen", Zürich 2001
* "Der Buckel", Zürich 2002
* "Lesen statt klettern", Zürich 2003
* "Es war einmal die Welt", Zürich 2004

Publications as a publisher

* "Durchs Bild zur Welt gekommen", Zürich 2001 (with Peter Pfrunder)
* Hans Falk: "Circus zum Thema", Zürich 1981 (with Fritz Billeter)
* "Für den Tag schreiben", Zürich 1999
* Manuel Gasser: "Welt vor Augen", Frankfurt am Main 1964
* "Photographie in der Schweiz von 1840 bis heute", Teufen 1974
* Adrien Turel: "Bilanz eines erfolglosen Lebens", Frauenfeld 1976
* Varlin: "Varlin", Zürich 1969
* "Zürich - Aspekte eines Kantons", Zürich 1972 (with Daniel Bodmer, Sylvia Staub and Heinz Wolfensberger)

Translations

* Ayi Kwei Armah: "Die Schönen sind noch nicht geboren", Olten u. a. 1971
* Le Corbusier: "Von der Poesie des Bauens", Zürich 1957
* José Guadelupe Posada: "Posada", Zürich 1979
* Walter Sorell: "Europas kleiner Riese", München 1972 (with Franz Z. Küttel)
* António Vieira: "Die Predigt des Heiligen Antonius an die Fische", Zürich 1966

Literature

* Romey Sabalius: "Die Romane Hugo Loetschers im Spannungsfeld von Fremde und Vertrautheit", New York u. a.: Lang 1995. (= Studies in modern German literature; 72) ISBN 0-8204-2670-9
* Jeroen Dewulf: "Hugo Loetscher und die «portugiesischsprachige Welt»", Bern u. a.: Lang 1999. (= Europäische Hochschulschriften; Reihe 1, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur; 1734) ISBN 3-906763-78-1
* Jeroen Dewulf: "In alle Richtungen gehen. Reden und Aufsätze über Hugo Loetscher", Zürich: Diogenes 2005. ISBN 3-257-06466-7
* Jeroen Dewulf: "Brasilien mit Brüchen. Schweizer unter dem Kreuz des Südens", Zürich: NZZ Verlag 2007. ISBN 978-3-03823-349-7

External links

* http://www.lesen.ch/autor/autor.cfm?ID=52ch
*HDS|12082
*PND|118573918
* http://crazybiswadip.blogspot.com/2007/10/power-balance-for-peace.html Interviewer Biswadip Mitra