Art stele Max Frisch

Max Frisch's literary career did not begin very promisingly. In 1934, after his first book manuscripts had been written, he was overcome by doubts about his talent. He burned everything he had written up to that point. Had these doubts not been dispelled, later famous works such as "Homo Faber" and "Biedermann and the Arsonists" would not exist today. But, as we all know, history took a fortunate turn. In his hometown of Zurich, the son of an architect initially began studying German literature, which he was forced to abandon prematurely for financial reasons after his father's death. Four years later, he made another attempt, this time studying architecture and subsequently opening his own architectural practice in Zurich. He also wrote plays, thematically primarily devoted to the post-war period. In 1949, Max Frisch traveled to Sylt at the invitation of publisher Peter Suhrkamp and spent several weeks in his house in Kampen. Half a century later, his son Peter Frisch recalls: "It was our first trip to Germany, and then to the sea! I still remember our first visits to the nudist beach – my parents wore swimsuits because they didn't dare sit there naked in front of us children." Max Frisch enjoyed his stimulating time on Sylt. "Finally, a study, the kind you'd dream of," he noted in his diary. "Outside, the wind whistles and rain patters against the panes, clouds race across the shore. You're left with the feeling of being at the edge of the world." The island deeply impressed the writer: "Twilight lasts until midnight, until it almost imperceptibly transforms into moonlight. You don't want to sleep yet, the plovers are still swarming over the heath. The smell of salt, seaweed, hay. The pools of the Wadden Sea glimmer like broken glass under the moon." Frisch wrote to his friend Friedrich Dürrenmatt: "Here, between dunes and endless water, it is wonderful. Unfortunately, I have already caught a cold. Otherwise, it is what I was looking for: a completely different world." Five years after his stay on Sylt, Max Frisch achieved his literary breakthrough with the novel "Stiller." He closed his architectural practice and lived from then on as a freelance writer in Zurich, but also temporarily in Berlin, Rome, and New York. At the end of his life, which culminated in a long battle with cancer, Max Frisch could look back on numerous honors - in addition to the Literature Prize of the City of Jerusalem and the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, five universities had awarded the distinguished playwright honorary doctorates.