Carl Spitteler: Narrator, Poet, Speaker

Carl Spitteler (1845 -1924) was a forward thinker: an atheist who studied theology. His lifeblood, however, was his love of poetry. He fought against his shy nature to make his famous incendiary speech in 1914 against the advocates of the war and in favour of

Swiss neutrality – because first and foremost he was a poet who shunned the public eye. Spitteler is the only Swiss writer by birth to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and it was for a work which is still topical today. Once a pupil of Jacob Burckhardt, Spitteler was a poet, epicist, columnist, literary critic, composer and draughtsman – and he was principled. On the basis of a cross-section of his multi-faceted work, the editors Stefanie Leuenberger, Philipp Theisohn and Peter von Matt give readers access to the ideas and influence of this outstanding man, in a depiction as a contentious, rational individualist

– a milestone of Swiss modernity with a relevance that lasts to the present day.