Albert J. Welti


Albert Jakob Welti was a Swiss writer and painter.

Life

Welti was born in Zürich-Höngg. As a son of the famous painter Albert Welti, Albert Jakob Welti was also to be educated as an artist. He studied at the academies of arts in Düsseldorf, Munich, London, and Madrid. He lost both parents in his young days: first his mother died in 1911 in Munich, then his father in 1912 in Bern. A heavy typhus fever on the Balearic Islands in the early 1920s brought the turning point from painting to writing.
Having returned to Switzerland, he chose Chêne-Bougeries near Geneva as his place of work. Maroto und sein König, a historic play, came into being, then Servet in Genf. At the in Zürich, the dialect drama Steibruch was premiered extremely successfully and later also made into a film. Only at the age of 50, Albert J. Welti's first novel was released: Wenn Puritaner jung sind ; then followed the second novel Martha und die Niemandssöhne, which played in the politically and socially stirred Geneva. He continued the critical questioning of the Swiss present with a number of extensive and unconventional novels.
In a large number of essays and speeches, Welti took a stand on cultural, literary, and political questions of his time. All these large and smaller works showed him as a commentator of great intellectual independence. The last work, Bild des Vaters is a sensitive artist's portrait, which finally put him at the same level with his father. Besides other novels and plays, this author also wrote several stories and radio plays, in which the dialect often got a chance.
Albert J. Welti received a number of honors and prizes for single works by the Schweizerische Schillerstiftung and in 1954 a prize for his complete dramatic works. From 1933 to 1965 he was in the board of the Gesellschaft Schweizerischer Dramatiker, from 1946 to 1951 he was the president of this society.
Welti died in Amriswil. The literary remains of Welti are located in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.

Works

A selection of the most important works of Albert J. Welti:
  1. Drama
  2. * Zerfall
  3. * Maroto und sein König
  4. * Der Vertrag mit dem Teufel
  5. * Servet in Genf
  6. * Blaubart
  7. * Das Friedenskind
  8. * Mordnacht
  9. * Steibruch
  10. * Summerfahrt
  11. * Inserat 82793
  12. * Aberglauben
  13. * Prinz Georg und die würgende Demut
  14. * Es Defizit oder: Di missverschtanden Abchürzig
  15. * Ramon Lull
  16. * Sie aber hat’s nicht leicht gehabt
  17. * Hiob der Sieger
  18. * Züriputsch
  19. Festspiel
  20. * Distelschnauz
  21. * Huusreuki
  22. * Hie Schaffhausen!
  23. * Ragazer Brunnenspiel
  24. * Helfende Kräfte
  25. * Der Pass
  26. * Hans Büezer und die Musen
  27. * Schaffhauser Bundesspiel.
  28. Prose
  29. * Wenn Puritaner jung sind
  30. * Die Heilige von Tenedo
  31. * Martha und die Niemandssöhne
  32. * Die kühle Jungfrau Hannyvonne
  33. * Der Dolch der Lucretia
  34. * Bild des Vaters
  35. Radio plays
  36. * Ludwig XIV. oder Büro SOS
  37. * Steibruch
  38. * Die Wolfsmilchwirtschaft
  39. * Mordnacht
  40. * Servet in Genf
  41. * Das Haus zum wechselnden Mond

    Literature