Theophil Spoerri (10 June 1890, in

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city l ...

– 24 December 1974, in Caux), was a Swiss writer and academic.

Family

Theophil Spoerri was the son of a Methodist Preacher called Jakob Gottlieb Spoerri and of his wife Maria Eugenie Thiele/Spoerri. He had a cousin, also named Theophil Spörri (1887 – 1955) who was a prominent Swiss Methodist theologian and with whom he is sometimes confused. He had a nephew, from his mother's side of the family, called Daniel Isaac Feinstein. When the boy was 11 his father was arrested and killed. Daniel was then adopted by his uncle, Theophil Spoerri and changed his name to Daniel Spoerri.

Daniel Spoerri Daniel Spoerri (born 27 March 1930) is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania. Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by in ...

subsequently gained prominence as an artist.

Professional biography

Spoerri studied at

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He obtained his doctorate at Bern in 1916. His dissertation was published in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 1918 under the Italian-language title “Il dialetto della Valsesia” (''”The dialect of

Valsesia Valsesia ( pms, Valsesia; Walser German: ''Tseschrutol''; it, Valle della Sesia) is a group of valleys in the north-east of Piedmont in the Province of Vercelli, Italy; the principal valley is that of the river Sesia. The major towns located h ...

”''). Between 1912 and 1922 he worked as a high school teacher in Bern. Between 1922 and 1956 he was an Associate Professor of Romance Philology at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

where his students included the future novelist

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant featur ...

. In respect of university administration he was made

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

in 1932, and university

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

between 1948 and 1950. Between 1942 and 1951, together with his colleague Professor Emil Staiger, he produced a quarterly publication entitled “Trivium. Schweizerische Vierteljahresschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Stilkritik” (''”Trivium: Swiss quarterly journal for literary knowledge and criticism“'') Spoerri held an honorary doctorate from the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...

(1950). He published several essays on

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

, and was a holder of the Golden Dante-Medal (

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

1962). Spoerri's religious upbringing gave him a powerful religious, social and political commitment. In 1940 he joined with others to form an anti-Nazi organisation called the

Gotthard League The Gotthard League was a Swiss civil society movement formed in 1940 with the aim to combat defeatism and Nazi propaganda at a time when the Swiss were surrounded by triumphant and obviously aggressive Axis powers armies. Context In 1940, confront ...

, becoming its first president. He was also a member of the Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft ''(New Helvetic Society)'' and of the

Oxford Group The Oxford Group was a Christian organization (first known as ''First Century Christian Fellowship'') founded by the American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. Fur ...

along with the

Moral Re-Armament Moral Re-Armament (MRA) was an international moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group. Buchman headed MRA for 23 years until his death in 1961. In 2001, the movement was renamed I ...

movement that grew out of it. The strong religious element in his make-up was also apparent in his academic research work which covered writers such as Blaise Pascal,

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

, Ludovico Ariosto und

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

Works

* Renaissance und Barock bei Ariost und Tasso. Versuch einer Anwendung Wölfflin'scher Kunstbetrachtung, Bern 1922 * Von der dreifachen Wurzel der Poesie, Zürich/Leipzig 1925 * Die drei Wege des Erkennens in Wissenschaft, Dichtung und Offenbarung, Berlin 1926 * Französische Metrik, München 1929 * Die Götter des Abendlandes : Eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Heidentum in der Kultur unserer Zeit, Berlin 1930 * Einführung in die Göttliche Komödie, Zürich 1946 * Grundkräfte der europäischen Geschichte : Wie die Welt von Grund auf anders werden könnte, Hamburg 1951 * Die Struktur der Existenz : Einführung in die Kunst der Interpretation, Zürich 1951 * Der Weg zur Form : Dasein und Verwirklichung des Menschen im Spiegel der europäischen Dichtung, Hamburg 1954 * Der verborgene Pascal. Eine Einführung in das Denken Pascals als Philosophie für den Menschen von morgen, Hamburg 1955 * Kleines Präludium zur Poesie : vom Geheimnis des Schönen und von den Grenzen der Poesie, Hamburg 1957 * Dante und die europäische Literatur : Das Bild des Menschen in der Struktur der Sprache, Stuttgart 1963 * Dynamik aus der Stille. Die Aktualität Frank Buchmans, Luzern/Wuppertal 1971

Reading list (mostly in German)

* Überlieferung und Gestaltung : Festgabe für Theophil Spoerri zum 60. Geburtstag am 10. Juni 1950, Zürich 1950 * Das Trecento : Italien im 14. Jahrhundert. onHans Conrad Peyer, Konrad Huber, Reto R. Bezzola, Peter Meyer, Walter Rüegg,

Kurt von Fischer Kurt von Fischer (25 April 1913 – 27 November 2003) was a Swiss musicologist and classical pianist. Life Fischer wurde was born on 25 April 1913 in Bern as the son of the mycologist Eduard Fischer. Fischer studied piano at the University of th ...

(Ringvorlesung, gehalten an der Philosophischen Fakultät I der Universität Zürich im Wintersemester 1959/60. Theophil Spoerri zum 70. Geburtstag), Zürich 1961 * Theophil Spoerri persönlich. Lettres à sa famille et ses amis, hrsg. von Pierre Spoerri, 1975 * Pierre Spoerri

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Viet ...

Mein Vater und sein Jüngster. Theophil Spoerri in seiner Zeit, Stäfa 2002 - * Christian Baertschi in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz s.v.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spoerri, Theophil Swiss writers in German 20th-century Swiss writers 1890 births 1974 deaths People from La Chaux-de-Fonds