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The Gruppe Olten (Olten Group) was a club of Swiss writers who convened at Olten's “Bahnhofbuffet“ (Swiss expression for a railway station restaurant) located in the canton of Solothurn in the Swiss plateau
Swiss plateau

The Swiss plateau constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface....
. It was founded in the aforementioned railway station restaurant and existed from 1970 to 2002.

The group counted 22 famous former members of the Swiss writer’s club (Schweizerischer Schriftstellerverein, or SSV
SSV

SSV is the shortened name of the band SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW, formed by The Sisters of Mercy singer Andrew Eldritch in 1997, as a way to get out of the Sisters' contract with Warner Music Group....
).






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The Gruppe Olten (Olten Group) was a club of Swiss writers who convened at Olten's “Bahnhofbuffet“ (Swiss expression for a railway station restaurant) located in the canton of Solothurn in the Swiss plateau
Swiss plateau

The Swiss plateau constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface....
. It was founded in the aforementioned railway station restaurant and existed from 1970 to 2002.

The group counted 22 famous former members of the Swiss writer’s club (Schweizerischer Schriftstellerverein, or SSV
SSV

SSV is the shortened name of the band SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW, formed by The Sisters of Mercy singer Andrew Eldritch in 1997, as a way to get out of the Sisters' contract with Warner Music Group....
). Big names like Max Frisch
Max Frisch

Max Frisch was a Switzerland architect, playwright and novelist, regarded as highly representative of German literature after World War II. In his creative works Frisch paid particular attention to issues relating to problems of human identity , individuality, responsibility, morality and political commitment....
, Adolf Muschg
Adolf Muschg

Adolf Muschg is a writer and literature professor from Switzerland. Muschg was a member of the Gruppe Olten....
, Peter Bichsel
Peter Bichsel

Peter Bichsel is a popular Swiss-German writer and journalist representing modern German language literature. He was a member of the Gruppe Olten....
 and Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Friedrich D?rrenmatt was a Switzerland German literature and theater. He was a proponent of epic theater whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II....
 had left the SSV (which was considered to be unprogressive) and became members of the Gruppe Olten.

One of the reasons that led to the separation was that the SSV president Maurice Zermatten
Maurice Zermatten

Maurice Zermatten was a French language-speaking Switzerland writer.He was born in St-Martin, a small village situated in the Val d'H?rens, in the canton of Valais....
 had translated into French the official anti-communist “Civil Defense Book”, which commanded citizens to observe and distrust each other and that was distributed among all Swiss households during the Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
.

For the founding members of the group, writing was inseparably associated with political commitment. They specified the goal to “build a democratic-socialist society” in their bylaws. That goal was discarded in 2000, causing the departure of Mariella Mehr
Mariella Mehr

Mariella Mehr is a Swiss writer.Mariella Mehr was born a member of the nomadic Yeniche people. She was a victim of the Hilfswerk f?r die Kinder der Landstrasse , which separated Yeniche children from their parents....
. The remaining part of the article read: "It [the Olten Group] supports nationwide and international political attempts that involve the fair distribution of goods, democratizing economy and public institutions, saving the world from military and civil destruction, and the realization of human rights
Human rights

Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedom to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of speech, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, i...
.

On 12 October 2002 the Olten Group disbanded in Bern, as did the Swiss writer’s club SSV (in the meantime renamed "Schweizerischer Schriftstellerinnen- und Schriftstellerverband"). A new club, named "Authors of Switzerland" (Autorinnen und Autoren der Schweiz), was founded in their stead.

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