Robert Walser returns to Bern
Bern, 27.04.2009 - The Robert Walser archives were transported to Bern today under tight security in two escorted Securitas vehicles. The Robert Walser Foundation is moving its headquarters from Zurich to Bern where it is opening the Robert Walser Centre in Bern’s old town. The most precious archives are to be kept in the Swiss National Library/Swiss Literary Archives where they will be professionally preserved. A contract on cooperation between the Robert Walser Foundation and the Swiss National Library/Swiss Literary Archives has recently been signed.
The Robert Walser Foundation (RWS) left Zurich today to move to the new Robert Walser Centre in Marktgasse 45 in Bern. The collection – which includes the famous "microscripts" – was transported by Securitas in the early hours of the morning under the strictest secrecy, using two special vehicles and a motorcycle escort. Part of the precious load will be on view in the Robert Walser Centre and the more valuable manuscripts will be kept in the Swiss National Library/Literary Archives (SLA).
The Robert Walser Centre will be set up in the best part of Bern’s old town over the next few months and then officially inaugurated on 18/19 September. It houses the Robert Walser archives, a public exhibition and the world’s most comprehensive specialised library on Robert Walser and Carl Seelig, including a comprehensive collection of first editions, reviews and printed documents. Walser enthusiasts and researchers can come and consult all the manuscripts from Robert Walser’s and Carl Seelig’s estates – in digital form. The originals are on loan to the SLA where they will be preserved and catalogued together with RWS’ other core collections: the dual estate of Hugo Ball and Emmy Ball-Hennings, the partial estate of Friedrich Glauser/Max Müller, the estates of Josef Halperin and Ossip Kalenter and the Steinberg-Verlag Archive.
The close cooperation between the RWS as a private foundation and the SLA federal institute improves the safeguarding, conservation and cataloguing of and access to valuable materials. Joint events, publications and research projects are in the pipeline. The cooperation, which is the first of its kind, enables a link-up with the SLA’s collections such as the estates of Friedrich Glauser, Hermann Hesse, Carl Spitteler, Heinrich Federer and Cécile Lauber. Research can in this way gain new insight into the literary life of the nineteen-twenties to the nineteen-fifties.
The pioneering "Berner Modell", a partnership of several public and private institutions, has made the RWS move to Bern possible. The Confederation is represented in the "Berner Modell" by the Swiss National Library, the SLA and the Federal Office of Culture. Other partners are the RWS, the town and canton of Bern, the Bern Citizens’ Commune, the Cantonal Bank of Bern and the town of Biel/Bienne.
Pictures ... ... can be found under the following link: http://ead.nb.admin.ch/web/mm/walser/index.htm
Captions:
1. Trend-setting: signing the contract between the Robert Walser Foundation and the Swiss National Library/Swiss Literary Archives. From left to right: Irmgard Wirtz Eybl (head of SLA), Reto Sorg (managing director, RWS), Yves Fischer (deputy director, Federal Office of Culture), Marie-Christine Doffey (director NL), Lucas Marco Gisi (head of RWS archives).
2. The Robert Walser archives on their way to Bern.3. The new Robert Walser Centre in the Marktgasse in Bern.
4. The original documents, which include Walser‘s famous “microscripts”, arrive at the Swiss National Library/Literary Archives.Address for enquiries
Reto Sorg, Managing Director, Robert Walser Foundation
tel. +41 79 409 85 25
reto.sorg@robertwalser.ch
Irmgard Wirtz Eybl, Head, Swiss Literary Archives
tel. +41 31 322 89 72
irmgard.wirtz@nb.admin.ch
Links
Publisher
Swiss National Library
http://www.nb.admin.ch
