Enciclopedia Cattolica

GOTTHELF, JEREMIAS

Volume VI · p. 587 · 1951

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

GOTTHELF, Jeremias. — Pseudonym of Albert Bitzius. Swiss novelist, b. at Murten (Fribourg) on 4 Oct. 1797, d. at Lützelflüh (Berne) on 22 Oct. 1854.

A Protestant pastor, he sought to uplift his people through his pen, revealing himself as a poet, though devoid of artistic ambition or aesthetic aims. He became the creator of a kind of realistic epic, with characters of rare vividness, which places him among the great writers in short fiction (masterly, e.g., Elsi, die seltsame Magd, 1843). Among his numerous novels may be recalled: Bauernspiegel oder Lebensgeschichte des J. G. (from which he took his pseudonym), 1837; Leiden u. Freuden eines Schulmeisters (1838), Die Armenmott (1840), Sylvestertraum (1842) and the masterpiece: Uli der Knecht (1841), followed by Uli der Pächter (1849).

Bibl.: Works: Gesammelte Schriften, 24 vols., Berlin 1855–1868, critical ed. by F. Hunziker in 26 vols., ibid. 1811–25; anthology ed. by J. Mumbauer, Fribourg 1925. Studies: F. Rudolf, Die Welt des Schönen bei J. G., Berne 1906; G. Tobler, J. G. u. die Schule, ibid. 1907; A. Bartels, J. G. Leben u. Schaffen, Leipzig 1908; O. Hunziker, J. G., Frauenfeld 1927; W. Muschg, G. Die Geheimnisse des Erzählers, Munich 1931; W. Gunther, Der ewige G., Erlenbach 1934; K. Guggiöberg, J. G. Christentum und Leben, Zurich 1939; W. Muschg, G. Persönlichkeit: Erinnerungen von Zeitgenossen, Basle 1944.