Mixed Thoughts about Switzerland

Gottfried Keller

Newcomb Livraria Press

About this eBook

A new 2023 translation into American English of Gottfried Keller's handwritten article "Mixed Thoughts about Switzerland". Keller wrote this article in Munich for a handwritten pub newspaper in 1841, before he turned to poetry. He was studying in Munich at the time, and had joined a Swiss student fraternity and met with them once a week at the "Wagnerbräu" pub for a pub crawl, during which he read a weekly paper that he was both the main contributor to and editor of. The only pieces of this that survived were those that he kept in one of his study books. This is the only full article that survived. Here he dialogues about the nation as an expression of political self-determination and will-formation - not as a power structure defined in terms of a nation.

About the author

One of Nietzsche's favorite living poets (the only real Swiss poet in his opinion, Keller was a major Swiss poet and writer, Keller is best known for his novel "Green Henry" (German: "Der grüne Heinrich"). His work is representative of the Realist movement, which sought to depict life and society as they were. Keller's stories often reflect the conflict between individual creative drives and the constraints of society. His novel "The People of Seldwyla" was one of Nietzsche's favorite.