Nothing is harder than to accept oneself.
The renunciation of recognition will never become possible without a certitude that our life is directed by a suprahuman authority.
The horror of uncreative solitude.....
How much self-knowledge is limited to presenting other people with a more precise and exact description of our weaknesses.
You merely had an affair with me, to be exact, and therefore no right to prevent me from another affair.'
Cause and effect are never divided between two people
You can't make the incomprehensible comprehensible without losing it completely.
It is a sign of non love that is to say a sin, to form a finished image of ones neighbors.
My reality doesn't lie in the part I play, but in the unconscious decision as to what kind of part I assign to myself.
Carrying on with the conversation like a woman when the bill comes...
Max Rudolf Frisch was a
SwissSwitzerland 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....
playwrightA playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and novelist, regarded as highly representative of German-language literature after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In his creative works Frisch paid particular attention to issues relating to problems of human
identityIdentity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
, individuality,
responsibilityMoral responsibility usually refers to the idea that a person has moral obligations in certain situations. Disobeying moral obligations, then, becomes grounds for justified punishment. Deciding what justifies punishment, if anything, is a principle concern of ethics.People who have moral...
, morality and political commitment. His use of
ironyIrony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
is a significant feature of his post-war publications.
Frisch was a member of the
Gruppe OltenThe Gruppe Olten was a club of Swiss writers who convened at Olten's "Bahnhofbuffet" located in the canton of Solothurn in the Swiss plateau...
.
Life
Max Rudolf Frisch was born in 1911 in
ZürichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
; the son of Franz Bruno Frisch (an
architectAn architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
) and Karolina Bettina Frisch (née Wildermuth). After studying at the Realgymnasium in Zurich, he enrolled at the
University of ZurichThe University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
in 1930, but had to abandon his studies in German literature owing to financial problems caused by the death of his father in 1932. Instead, he started working as a
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and
columnistA columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for the
Neue Zürcher ZeitungThe Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a major German language Swiss daily newspaper based in Zurich.One of the oldest newspapers still published, it originally appeared as Zürcher Zeitung, edited by Salomon Gessner, from January 12, 1780, and was renamed to Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1821...
(NZZ), one of the major newspapers in Switzerland. With the NZZ he would entertain a lifelong ambivalent love-hate relationship, for his own views were in stark contrast to the conservative views promulgated by this newspaper. In 1933 he travelled through eastern and south-eastern Europe, and in 1935 he visited
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
for the first time.
From 1936 to 1941 he studied
architectureArchitecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
at the
ETH ZurichThe Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
. His first and still best-known project was in 1942, when he won the invitation of tenders for the construction of a public swimming pool right in the middle of Zurich (the
Letzigraben).
In 1947, he met
Bertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
in Zurich. In 1951, he was awarded a grant by the
Rockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
and spent one year in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. After 1955 he worked exclusively as a freelance writer. His experience of postwar Europe is vividly described in his diary for 1946–1949; it contains the first drafts of later fictional works.
During the 1950s and 1960s Frisch wrote several novels that explored problems of alienation and identity in modern societies. These are
I'm Not Stiller (1954),
Homo FaberHomo Faber is a novel by Max Frisch, first published in Germany in 1957. The first English edition was published in England in 1959. The novel is written as a first-person narrative. The protagonist, Walter Faber, is a successful engineer traveling throughout Europe and the Americas on behalf of...
(1957) and
Wilderness of Mirrors/Gantenbein (1964). In addition, he wrote political dramas, such as
AndorraAndorra is a play written by the Swiss dramatist Max Frisch in 1961. The original text came from a prose sketch Frisch had written in his diary titled Der andorranische Jude . The Andorra in Frisch's play is fictional and not intended to be a representation of the real Andorra located between...
and
The Fire Raisers. He continued to publish extracts from his diaries. These included fragments from contemporary media reports, and paradoxical questionnaires, as well as personal reflections and reportage. He fell in love with a woman called Antonia Quick in 1969.
Max Frisch died of
cancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
on April 4, 1991 in Zurich. Together with
Friedrich DürrenmattFriedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire...
, Max Frisch is considered one of the most influential Swiss writers of the 20th century. He was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Marburg, Germany, in 1962,
Bard CollegeBard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
(1980), the City University of
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(1982), the University of
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
(1984), and the TU Berlin (1987). He also won many important German literature prizes: the
Georg-Büchner-PreisThe Georg Büchner Prize is the most important literary prize of Germany. It was created in 1923 in memory of Georg Büchner and was only given to artists who came from or were closely tied to Büchner's home of Hesse...
in 1958, the
Peace Prize of the German Book TradeThe Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international peace prize given yearly at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main, Germany...
(
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels) in 1976, and the
Heinrich-Heine-Preis in 1989. In 1965 he won the
Jerusalem PrizeThe Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial literary award given to writers whose works have dealt with themes of human freedom in society. It is awarded at the Jerusalem International Book Fair, and the recipient usually delivers an address when accepting the award...
for the Freedom of the Individual in Society.
Some of the major themes in his work are the search or loss of an individual's identity;
guiltGuilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that...
and
innocenceInnocence is a term used to indicate a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, sin, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence refers to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime.-Symbolism:...
(the spiritual crisis of the modern world after
NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
proclaimed that "God is dead"); technological omnipotence (the human belief that everything was possible and technology allowed humans to control everything) versus
fateDestiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
(especially in
Homo Faber); and also
SwitzerlandSwitzerland 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....
's idealized self-image as a tolerant democracy based on consensus — criticizing that as illusion and portraying people (and especially the Swiss) as being scared by their own liberty and being preoccupied mainly with controlling every part of their life.
Many of his works make reference to (or, as in
Jonas und sein Veteran, are centered around) political issues of the time.
Novels
- Stiller (1954, I'm Not Stiller)
- Homo Faber
Homo Faber is a novel by Max Frisch, first published in Germany in 1957. The first English edition was published in England in 1959. The novel is written as a first-person narrative. The protagonist, Walter Faber, is a successful engineer traveling throughout Europe and the Americas on behalf of...
(1957)
- Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964, A Wilderness of Mirrors 1982, Gantenbein)
- Dienstbüchlein (1974)
- Montauk
Montauk is a story by Swiss writer Max Frisch. It first appeared in 1975 and takes an exceptional position in Frisch's work. While fictional stories previously served Frisch for exploring the possible behavior of his protagonists,...
(1975)
- Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän (1979, Man in the Holocene
Man in the Holocene is a novella by Swiss author Max Frisch, originally published in German in 1979, and in English in The New Yorker on May 19, 1980 . A distinctive feature of this book’s style is the use of reprinted cutouts which the protagonist, Mr. Geiser, removes from several encyclopedias,...
)
- Blaubart (1982, Bluebeard )
- Wilhelm Tell für die Schule (Novella, 1971, Wilhelm Tell: a School Text, published in Fiction Magazine
Fiction is a literary magazine founded in 1972 by Mark Jay Mirsky, Donald Barthelme, and Max Frisch. It is published by the City College of New York....
1978)
Journals
- Blätter aus dem Brotsack (1939)
- Tagebuch 1946-1949 (1950)
- Tagebuch 1966-1971 (1972)
Dramatic works
- Nun singen sie wieder (1945)
- Santa Cruz (1947)
- Die Chinesische Mauer (1947, The Chinese Wall)
- Als der Krieg zu Ende war (1949, When the War Was Over)
- Graf Öderland (1951)
- Biedermann und die Brandstifter (1953, Firebugs)
- Don Juan oder Die Liebe zur Geometrie (1953)
- Die Grosse Wut des Philipp Hotz (1956)
- Andorra
Andorra is a play written by the Swiss dramatist Max Frisch in 1961. The original text came from a prose sketch Frisch had written in his diary titled Der andorranische Jude . The Andorra in Frisch's play is fictional and not intended to be a representation of the real Andorra located between...
(1961)
- Biografie (1967)
- Tryptichon. Drei szenische Bilder (1978)
- Jonas und sein Veteran (1989)
Further reading
- Butler, Michael (1976) The Novels of Max Frisch (London)
- Butler, Michael (1985) The Plays of Max Frisch (London)
- Butler, Michael (1994) Andorra, Grant and Cutler Study Guide, 2nd edition, London
- Kieser, Rolf, ed. (1989) Max Frisch: Novels, Plays, Essays, The German Library Series, Continuum, New York
External links