Carl Spitteler Biography and List of Works

Swiss poet, winner of the 1919 Nobel Prize for Literature for his masterpiece, Olympian Spring (final version in 1910). Spitteler evolved his own metrical scheme in the vast and original work in which he "gives shape to the living turmoil of struggling characters that he evokes in order to represent on the level of ideal imagination, human sufferings, hopes, and disillusions, the vicissitudes of different human fortunes in the struggle of the free will against imposed necessity." (from the Nobel presentation) The epic poem depicts the rise of new gods to consciousness and power. In several works Spitteler deals with the antagonism between creativity and the world, exemplified in the character of Prometheus.

Orpheus hörte diese Serenade.
"Herr Kollega", bat er ängstlich, "Gnade!
Nutzlos quälst und quetschest du die Kehle,
Denn die Bosheit bellt dir aus der Seele.
Und mit einem Herzen voll von Haß
Bleibe, Bestie, ferne dem Parnaß.

Zwar auf Tugend mag die Kunst verzichten,
Liederliche sieht man Lieder dichten,
Aber Drachen mit Musik im Rachen -
Liebster, das sind hoffnungslose Sachen.
Aller schönen Künste weit und breit
Grundbedingung ist Gutherzigkeit."
(from 'Die Ballade vom lyrischen Wolf')

Carl Spitteler was born in the town of Liestal, near Basel. The family moved to Bern in 1849, when his father was appointed treasurer of the new Swiss confederation, but the young Spitteler remained in Basel with his aunt. Spitteler started to write poems at the age of seventeen. In Basel he became interested in the Italian Renaissance under the influence of the historian Jakob Burckhard and the philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel. In 1863 Spitteler entered the University of Zurich, where he studied law. Between the years 1865 and 1870 he studied theology in Zurich, Heidelberg, and Basel.

After declining an offer to start a career as a Protestant minister, Spitteler worked for eight years as a tutor for St. Petersburg's Finnish families and visited Finland many times. In 1881 Spitteler's first major work, PROMETHEUS UND EPIMETHEUS was published, an epic verse, which he had conceived while a student in Heidelberg. It contrasts ideals with dogmas, personified by two mythological figures. Prometheus is an individualist who opposes King Epimethus, an up keeper of conventional values. The book was published under the pseudonym Carl Felix Tandem and did not gain much attention, except when Spitteler was later accused of having borrowed themes from Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra. Nietzsche had recommended him to the editor of the Munich periodical Kunswart in 1887. Spittler later defended himself against the accusations in MEINE BEZIEHUNGEN ZU NIETZSHE (1908). Carl Jung, who created his introvert/extrovert distinction in his treatises Psychological Types, later elaborated upon Spitteler's dichotomy between Prometheus and Epimetheus. He sent a copy of his book to the author. Spitteler did not respond immediately but later referred to the work and said it meant nothing.

In the 1880s Spitteler worked as a teacher and journalist, and published poetry, including EXTRAMUNDANA (1883) and SCHMETTERLINGE (1889). In 1883 he married Marie op der Hoff, who was his pupil in Neuveville. When his wife's parents died in 1892, leaving a sizable inheritance, the family moved to Lucerne, where Spitteler devoted himself entirely to writing. His breakthrough work, the epic verse OLYMPISCHER FRÜHLING, appeared in several instalments between 1900 and 1905. It was revisited in 1910. Olympischer Frühling is a combination of mythology, fantasy, and religion, written in iambic hexameter. Spitteler examines universal concerns about life and colourfully describes gods as they fight for power. The work was immediately acclaimed as a masterpiece and compared to Milton's achievements. In 1906 his novel IMAGO was published. It focuses on a conflict between an uncompromising creative mind and middle-class restrictions. Spitteler's treatment of the concept of the imago influenced the psychoanalytical understanding of the human mind. In MEINE FRÜHESTEN ERLEBNISSE (1914) Spitteler returns to his childhood.

Kannst du ein wohl gemeintes Wort vertragen?
    Ich muss, vergib.
Ich will dir's einmal deutch und deutlich sagen:
    Wer hat dich lieb?
(from 'Auf der Milch-und Honingwiese')

At the beginning of World War I Spitteler advocated eloquently the view that Switzerland should not take sides intellectually with Germany or France. He received the Nobel Prize at the age of 75. Due to illness he was not able to attend the ceremony. Romain Rolland proclaimed him, "our Homer, the greatest German poet since Goethe". Spitteler died on December 28, 1924 in Lucerne. Spitteler's last work was PROMETHEUS DER BUILDER (1924), a new and rhymed version of his first work.

For further reading: Encyclopaedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, vol. 4, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1998); World Authors 1900-1950 (vol. 4), ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); Nobel Prize Winners, ed. by T. Wasson (1987); Carl Spitteler by W. Stauffacher (1973); Spitteler's "Olympischer Frühling" und seie epische Form by O. Trommel (1965); The Tyranny of Greece over Germany by E.M. Butler (1935); Spittelers Weg und Werk by R. Faesi (1933)

PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS, (1881)