He is one of the most important writers of post-war German literature. He was one of the most important names who wrote theater in German after Bertolt Brecht. He is better known in today's popular culture for his toxic love affair with poet Ingeborg Bachmann.
SUMMARY: He was born in Zurich on May 15, 1911. While studying German Literature in the same city, he started journalism in 1933 and made trips throughout Europe. After studying architecture in Zurich between 1936 and 1940, he was sent to the border when the war broke out. Frisch, who started writing in these years, pursued writing and architecture together for a while but later left architecture. The Swiss author, who has also been to America, Mexico, Russia, Japan, and Israel, is also famous for his plays and diaries. He was one of the most important names writing in the German language in post-Brecht theater. Max Frisch, who won the Georg Büchner Prize in 1958 as well as other awards, died in Zurich on April 4, 1991.
Max Frisch was born in Zurich on May 15, 1911. His father was an architect and Max was the second son of the family. He had to abandon his German Literature studies at the University of Zurich in 1930 due to financial reasons after his father's death. He started journalism and worked as a reporter in the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung".
He studied architecture in Zurich between 1936 and 1940 and graduated in 1941; When the war broke out, he was sent to the border. Frisch continued his writing career, which he started while he was still in high school, during World War II. After serving in the Swiss Army during World War II, he pursued writing and architecture together for a while but left architecture in 1955 to devote himself entirely to writing.
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 feature of his post-war output. Frisch was one of the founders of Gruppe Olten. He was awarded the 1965 Jerusalem Prize, the 1973 Grand Schiller Prize, and the 1986 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
His first important work that made a splash was "Stiller" (1954). The Swiss writer, who has also been to America, Mexico, Russia, Japan, and Israel, is also famous for his theater plays and diaries. He is one of the most important names writing in German in the post-Brecht theater. In his works, he explored the themes of identity problems, alienation, and moral dilemmas of modern society.
His novel Homo Faber was published in 1957. Biedermann and the Arsonists, which was staged for the first time in 1958, brought Frisch to the status of a world-class playwright. Andorra, which deals with the motifs of identity and racism, is Frisch's most popular play.
Frisch complained that his dramas were inadequately understood or misunderstood, and he worked on new dramaturgy possibilities in his plays. Count Öderland is one of them. In 1964, he published his novel Let My Name Be Gantenbein, which deals with the problem of identity and relations between genders.
In Frisch's works, the identity crisis is accompanied by the individual's alienation from himself and the moral hypocrisy of bourgeois society; In his mature works, the theme of aging and death is added to these. Max Frisch is one of the most important names of post-Brecht theatre.
Death
Max Frisch died in Zurich, Switzerland, on April 4, 1991, at the age of 80. According to his will, his body was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the fire by his friends.
Architecture adventure
In 1942, he won the first award "Freibades Letzigraben" in an architectural competition in Zurich and opened his own architectural office. The outdoor swimming pool “Freibades Letzigraben”, known as Max-Frisch-Bad, which he built between 1947 and 1949, remains Max Frisch's single largest architectural structure and is today protected as a cultural monument.
In 1955, he closed his architectural office and decided to live only as a writer.
Max Frisch met Bertolt Brecht and Friedrich Dürrenmatt in 1947. In 1951, he went to the United States for a year with a Rockefeller Scholarship.
Private life
Max Frisch married architect Gertrud Frisch-von Meyenburg on June 30, 1942. They had three children, Ursula Priess-Frisch (1943), Hans Peter Frisch (1944), and Charlotte Frisch (1949). They lived separately since 1954 and divorced in 1959.
After their divorce in 1959, Frisch had a relationship with Ingeborg Bachmann. In 1962, 51-year-old Frisch met 23-year-old student Marianne Oellers, first living together and then married. The partnership lasted until 1979.
Books
1950 -Tagebuch
1954 – Styles
1957 – Homo Faber
1958 – Biedermann Und Die Brandstifter (Biedermann And The Arsonists)
1961 – Andorra (play)
1964 – Mein Name sei Gantenbei (Let my name be Gantenbei)
1972 – Tagebuch
1975 – Montauk