Carl Spitteler und sein Netzwerk

One hundred years ago, on December 29, 1924, Carl Spitteler passed away in Lucerne. With a wealth of new archival material recently becoming available, it is timely to take a fresh look at the Swiss Nobel Prize-winning author. Based on selected reproduced documents, previously unknown insights are shed not only on Spitteler's life and work but also on his networks.

Since 1908, Jonas Fränkel was Carl Spitteler's closest collaborator. In the spring of 2021, his estate was transferred to the Swiss Literary Archive, which includes a vast library as well as 96 linear meters of documents. An important part consists of materials that Spitteler had entrusted to Fränkel, his designated biographer. This cryptic estate of Spitteler is almost as extensive as the portion of the estate that Spitteler's daughters donated to the Confederation in 1933.

Fourteen authors have conducted a total of twenty exploratory investigations into the significantly expanded Spitteler estate: Jael Bollag, Lorenz Degen, Stefan Graber, Philipp Hegel, Rea Köppel, Fredi Lerch, Stefanie Leuenberger, Dominik Müller, Joanna Nowotny, Dominik Riedo, Fabienne Suter, Wulfhard Stahl, Peter Utz, and Magnus Wieland.

New questions arise alongside the old ones: Why did Spitteler write the way he did? How did he relate to modernity as a contemporary? In what social and cultural networks did he operate? Who was this Carl Spitteler?.