Swiss Review 5/2019

Swiss Review / September 2019 / No.5 16 cal Klettgau dialect, they suggested he write in the vernac- ular instead. “De Tischtelfink”, his first-ever book written in dialect, was a homage to his prematurely deceased father. For years, Bächtoldwas unable to get it printed, until his luck changed in 1939. Ironically, it was the left-leaning publishing house, Büchergilde Gutenberg, that saved the day, keen to cham- pion local cultural heritage at a time when “geistige Landesverteidigung”, the intellectual defence of the nation, was of significant importance. Further autobiographical works in dialect followed – “De Hannili Peter” (childhood), “Wält uhni Liecht” (when the doctors operated on his eye), “De Studänt Räbme” (at school in Schaffhausen) and “De an- der Wäg” (the Zurich years and his decision to begin writ- ing in dialect). Yet Bächtold surpassed all this in 1950when he recounted the story of his Russian adventures from1913 to 1918 in a novel entitled “Pjotr Ivanowitsch” (Pyotr Ivano- vich). This extensive two-volume work contains autobio- graphical elements, but also includes a breathless if com- pletely fictitious love story. Nonetheless, “Pjotr Ivanowitsch” is remarkable for its authentic portrayal of the Russian countryside andRussian society – and for the fact that Bäch- told goes as far as lending new words, sentence construc- tions and forms of dialogue to his dialect in order tomimic the Russian language. Some of the characters even have for- eign accents or speech impediments that are easy to make out above their otherwise impeccable Klettgau dialect. No nostalgia for America “De Silberstaab”, published in 1953, covers Bächtold’s time in the USA, but it lacks the intensity and warmth of “Pjotr Ivanowitsch” – no wonder, given how starkly the author comparedAmericawithRussia: “America is remarkable but forgettable. I can take or leave it. Russia is the country I fell in love with. And you never forget something you love.” By the time he died in 1981 at the age of 90, Albert Bäch- told had produced a total of 14 books in Klettgau dialect – all of which can still be ordered from the Schaffhaus- en-based Meier Buchverlag publishing house, despite the fact that hardly anyone outside Bächtold’s home cantonhas heard of them. Apparently, a sizeable property in Meilen that Bächtold had owned came to light after the author’s death. It could only be sold on condition that all Bächtold’s works continue to be reprinted and published for 500 years. CHARLES LINSMAYER Every job could have been filled twice – so oversub- scribed was the teaching profession when 22-year-old Al- bert Bächtold gave up his own job as a primary school teacher in 1913. After two years at a school inMerishausen, Bächtold accepted an invitation from a Swiss expatriate to work as private tutor for the noble estate of Baranovi- chi near Kyiv. During his stay, he would live through the most dramatic period inmodern Russian history: the fall of the Tsar, the failure of the Kerensky republic, the re- turn of Lenin, and the subsequent revolution. Far from motivating him to keep the red flag flying, this experi- ence turned him into an opponent of all things Marxist and communist. After returning to Switzerland in Octo- ber 1918 on a train laid on by Lenin for him and other Swiss expatriates, Bächtold began fighting for the inter- ests of Russian exiles. He eventually travelled to the United States to raise money for them – giving speeches, visiting the notorious Sing Sing prison, and having a chance encounter with a business that sold portable cin- ema projectors. Fascinated by these self-styled “pocket cine- mas”, Bächtold promptly began working as the firm’s Swiss rep- resentative. He quickly earned a fortune, drove the most expen- sive car around, and married his second wife – the most beautiful of all the models from the Zurich fashion house Grieder. Bächtold was living the dream – until the Great Depression arrived in 1929. Suddenly alone and with no money left, he tried to make ends meet working as a journalist. Inspired by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, he also began writ- ing novels, the first of which was “Der grosse Tag”. One evening, he read out an excerpt at Rudolf Jakob Humm’s literary circle, where the reaction was muted, to put it mildly. However, the scholars took such a liking to how he had ren- dered one of the chapters in his lo- The Klettgau Russian Swiss author Albert Bächtold lived in Russia during the 1917 Revolution – then chose to recount this experience in his local dialect. “One of our most valuable cultural assets, ladies and gentlemen, is dying a slow death before our very eyes – and no one seems bothered. We all appear to have time, money and energy for everything apart from our own mother tongue.” (Translated excerpt from Bächtold’s speech on receiving the Lake Constance Literature Prize in 1966) Literature