Jakob Schaffner

Jakob Schaffner (14 November 1875 – 23 September 1944) was a leading Swiss novelist who became a supporter of Nazism.

Emergence as a writer Born on 14 November 1875 in Basel, both his father and his mother, a native of the State of Baden, died when he was young, leaving him to be reared in an orphanage. His early experiences inspired his most celebrated novel Johannes (sometimes known as Roman einer Jugend), which was published in 1922 and was a semi-autobiographical story of life in an orphanage. In his very early days Schaffner was sympathetic to communism but he would switch at an early age to nationalism.

In 1912, Schaffner moved to Charlottenburg, near Berlin, Germany, after marrying a German woman and was driven by his German ethnic identity.

Far right activity He later returned to Switzerland and from 1936 to 1938 was active on behalf of the National Front, leaving the movement along with Rolf Henne and Hans Oehler. Schaffner had initially been a sceptic about Nazism but soon became a strong supporter of Adolf Hitler, feeling that he could spearhead a renovation of Europe. He rarely returned to Switzerland, except for a meeting with cabinet minister Marcel Pilet-Golaz in 1940 alongside and Max Leo Keller, two leading members of the recently established Swiss Nazi movement, the National Movement of Switzerland.

Schaffner was killed in 1944 during an air raid on Strasbourg and was buried in his hometown Buus in September 1944. Having formerly been widely regarded as a writer, his reputation in German-speaking literary circles was damaged significantly after the war due to his support for Nazism.

Literary works

Irrfahrten (Wanderings) 1905 Die Laterne und andere Novellen (The Lantern and other novellas) 1907 Konrad Pilater 1910, a story of a rather whimsical journeyman shoemaker, embodying scenes of Schaffner's boyhood as a shoemaker Der Bote Gottes (The Messenger of God) 1911 Die goldene Fratze (The Golden Fratze – a German term for a distorted or ugly face or grimace) 1912 Die Irrfahrten des Jonathan Bregger (The Wanderings of Jonathan Bregger) 1912, a new edition of Irrfahrten of 1905 "The Iron Idol,” an English translation of one of his stories, appears in Kuno Francke, ed., German Classics, v. 19, New York, 1914 Die Weisheit der Liebe (The Wisdom of Love) 1919 Konrad Pilater (new version) 1922 Johannes 1922 Brüder (Brothers) 1925 Das grosse Erlebnis (The Grand Experience) 1926 Die Jünglingszeit des Johannes Schattenhold (The Young Manhood of Johannes Schattenhold) 1930 (sequel to Johannes) Eine deutsche Wanderschaft (A German Journey) 1933 (third Johannes book) Offenbarung in deutscher Landschaft. Eine Sommerfahrt (Revealing in German Landscape – A Summer Journey) 1934 Berge, Ströme und Städte. Eine schweizerische Heimatschau (Mountains, Rivers and Cities – A Swiss Homeland Show) 1938 Kampf und Reise (Struggle and Journey) 1939 (final part of Johannes tetralogy)