Ludwig Hohl’s “The Strange Turn” in words and sound
Published: Wednesday, Apr 10th 2024, 09:41
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The Swiss National Library invites you to a literary soirée. On the program: Ludwig Hohl's drinking novella "Die seltsame Wendung", read by actor Robert Hunger-Bühler and set to music by percussionist Julian Sartorius.
The Swiss author Ludwig Hohl (1904-1980) only achieved a certain fame late in his dazzling life, but it hardly shone beyond the literary institutions. Max Frisch, Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Kurt Marti appreciated him; and Peter Bichsel said that Hohl had fallen into the "fatal situation of being an insider tip".
Hohl's best-known book is "Bergfahrt". It tells of a hike into the mountains that leads inexorably to destruction. Hohl began writing both "Bergfahrt" and the novella "Die seltsame Wendung" early on, in the late 1920s. While the former was actually published in the 1970s, the latter remained unpublished in a mutilated rough version from 1932. The book was only published from the estate at the end of last year, in the run-up to Hohl's 120th birthday on April 9.
The story is set in Paris, in Montparnasse. With intimate intensity, it follows a painter who wavers unsteadily between work and drunkenness. On the surface, it is the story of a drunkard's fate that "was familiar to the author from his own experience", writes the Swiss Literary Archives (SLA) about the Literary Soirée. The institution preserves Hohl's estate.
In a downward spiral, the text circles around an empty center. According to the SLA, it is "a delirium that has become a word". At the Literary Soirée, actor and director Robert Hunger-Bühler will now read from it, giving "Die seltsame Wendung" its first ever hearing. The reading will be accompanied musically by sound artist and improvisational musician Julian Sartorius.
Ludwig Hohl, on the other hand, had fled his Protestant parental home at the age of 18. In October 1924, he left for Paris with a childhood friend, where he lived in rather precarious circumstances. After living in Vienna and The Hague, he returned to Switzerland in 1937 and settled in Geneva. Here he worked and lived from 1954 to 1975 in the legendary cellar apartment in the Jonction quarter. He died in 1980 after a long illness.
©Keystone/SDA
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