Guest of the ilb 2001, 2002, 2008
Dieter Bachmann was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1940. He studied literature and philosophy at the University of Zurich and completed his studies with a dissertation on essays and essayism. He subsequently worked as a literary and theatre critic and wrote features for television. From 1970 to 1978 Bachmann edited »Weltwoche«. He then moved to the »Tages-Anzeiger Magazin«, for which he compiled major reports. In 1981 he became a freelance writer and worked for, amongst others, the Zurich Schauspielhaus. In 1988 Bachmann took over as chief editor of »du«, a cultural journal, and gave it an entirely new concept. After ten years he left this post and moved to Tessin to concentrate on his writing. Bachmann has been a member of various cultural committees, including Pro Helvetia, ch-Reihe and the Klagenfurt Jury. Up to now Dieter Bachmann has published the novels »Rab« (1985), »Der kürzere Atem« (1998) and »Grimsels Zeit« (2002). His further publications include, alongside numerous articles in newspapers and magazines, anthologies and non-fiction.
The central figures in Bachmann’s novels are »retreating heroes«, peeved misanthropes who, as a form of rejection of the world, retreat from social life. For example, Schlösser, the main character in »Der kürzere Atem«. He lives in chosen seclusion in Tessin and spends his time noting down observations and thoughts. At first, he becomes absorbed in the study of a scorpion he finds on the floor one morning, until one day he has the opportunity, on his wish to be alone, to have a job. He is taken on as an »ornamental hermit« by an English Lord who, bringing to life an eccentric custom of the 18th century, wants to decorate his garden with the hermit character. Attired with a monk’s habit, Schlösser must demonstrate contemplation for the entertainment of visitors and guests. Trapped between the demands of authentic meditation and tourist attraction, he eventually has to abandon this activity and dedicates himself, in the third part of the novel, to the study of the »glacier man« in the Ötz Valley. The story ends in the present time: »this God-forsaken here and now, which hasn’t the remotest intention of ending«.
»Bachmann’s scorpion observer, ornamental hermit, and dog-hater descends from the realm of literature as an apostle of futility,«, writes Wilfried F. Schoeller in »Die Zeit«. »He is a distant relative of Paul Valéry’s Monsieur Teste. Hues of Beckett’s absurd comedy have tinged him, while Max Frisch could be Schlösser’s godfather.«
In »Grimsels Zeit« Bachmann tells, re-newed under the aspect of loneliness, the history of someone growing up, intertwined with the historical background of the 1940s and 1950s in Germany. Bachmann was director of the cultural institute, Istituto Svizzero in Rome, between 2000 and 2004. He recently published the travel book "Im ganzen Land schön" (2006; t: Beautiful in the whole country). In comprises the accounts of fifteen Swiss writers about their one-day trips through Switzerland.
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