Hermann Burger (Author of Tractatus Logico-Suicidalis)

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Hermann Burger

Born

in Menziken, Switzerland

July 10, 1942

Died

February 28, 1989

Genre

Literature & Fiction

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Hermann Burger was born in 1942 in Burg, Canton of Aargau; his father worked for an insurance company. He enrolled at the ETH Zurich in 1962 and began studying architecture, but switched to German literature and art history in 1964. The publication of the poetry collection "Rauchsignale" ("Smoke Signals") in 1967 marked the beginning of his literary career, followed by the prose collection Bork in 1970. For the next couple of years Burger focused on his career in literary studies, writing his thesis on Paul Celan and his habilitation treatise on contemporary Swiss literature. He taught at universities in Zurich, Bern and Fribourg and worked as a literary editor for the Aargauer Tagblatt. His academic experience is reflected in the loosely a Hermann Burger was born in 1942 in Burg, Canton of Aargau; his father worked for an insurance company. He enrolled at the ETH Zurich in 1962 and began studying architecture, but switched to German literature and art history in 1964. The publication of the poetry collection "Rauchsignale" ("Smoke Signals") in 1967 marked the beginning of his literary career, followed by the prose collection Bork in 1970. For the next couple of years Burger focused on his career in literary studies, writing his thesis on Paul Celan and his habilitation treatise on contemporary Swiss literature. He taught at universities in Zurich, Bern and Fribourg and worked as a literary editor for the Aargauer Tagblatt. His academic experience is reflected in the loosely autobiographical novel "Die k眉nstliche Mutter" ("The Artificial Mother") which won him the Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Preis in 1980. It was dedicated to his wife and its first edition has the dedication 鈥濬眉r Anne Marie鈥�.
Burger's first major novel "Schilten. Schulbericht zuhanden der Inspektorenkonferenz" ("Schilten. School Report for the Attention of the Inspectors' Conference") was published in 1976 and made into a movie by Swiss film director Beat Kuert in 1979. It is about a teacher who has to tell the conference of inspectors about the development of his pupils, but speaks about death cult, graveyards and burials in a very detailed way. Archetypes of this novels are Franz Kafka and Thomas Bernhard. Burger mixes reality and fiction, and the more one reads about him, the more one finds out, that Burger writes about himself, his own suffering.
He won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 1985 for his story "Die Wasserfallfinsternis von Badgastein" ("The Waterfall-Eclipse of Badgastein"). 1988, a changing of publishers from S. Fischer to Suhrkamp took place in a spectacular way.
The novel "Brenner" (in two volumes, four were planned), shows a protagonist wrapped in cigar smoke, who tells his life - Burger himself was a cigar smoker and descendant of cigar producers. Volume 1 has exactly 25 capitles, like a cigar box contains 25 cigars. Each capitle's name contains the name of a famous cigar brand. The second capitle announces the author's suicide intention: A red Ferrari is bought, because saving money no longer makes sense. It is about the divorce and the grief about having no contact to his two kids. Burger's last lessor was emeritus historian Jean Rudolf von Salis (= 鈥濲茅r么me von Castelmur-Bondo鈥� in the novel). The last months of Burger's life and a review on his 46 years are described detailed in this roman a clef, he describes all coining persons (under changed names).
Burger's depressive and desperate moods grew with his literary acclaim, leading him to write the "Tractatus logico-suicidalis" (1988), a collection of aphorisms advocating suicide. The 1046 aphorisms are about the sentence 鈥濭egeben ist der Tod, bitte finden Sie die Lebensursache heraus.鈥� (Death is given, please finde the cause of life.) The title remembers Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The book about suicide was viewed by the critics with sarcasm, and the seriousity of his suicide plans were not recognized. On February 28, 1989 he committed suicide in Brunegg by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Not until Burger's death the critics saw similarities to Jean Am茅ry and his book Hand an sich legen (that Burger knew).
Burger's early promoter Marcel Reich-Ranicki, literature critic, wrote March 3, 1989, few days after his death, in an obituary: 鈥濰ermann Burger war ein Artist, der immer aufs Ganze ging, der sich nicht geschont hat. Er war ein Mensch mit einer gro脽en Sehnsucht nach dem Gl眉ck. Die deutsche Literatur hat einen ihrer originellsten Sprachk眉nstler verloren.鈥� (鈥濰ermann Burger was an artist who went the whole hog every time, didn't conserve himself. He was a man with a big longing for happiness. The German literature has lost one of her most inventive language artists.")
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Average rating: 3.91 · 226 ratings · 34 reviews · 33 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Tractatus Logico-Suicidalis: On Killing Oneself by Hermann Burger, Adrian Nathan West (Translator, introduction) 3.95 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 1988 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Schilten. Schulbericht zuhanden der Inspektorenkonferenz 4.19 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 1976 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Brenner 3.82 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 1989 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	L'illettore by Hermann Burger, Anna Ruchat (Translator) 3.38 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 1986 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Diabelli i inne pisma do dyrekcji by Hermann Burger, Jacek St. Buras (Translator) 3.73 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1979 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Diabelli 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Die k眉nstliche Mutter 3.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1982 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	贰谤锄盲丑濒耻苍驳别苍 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1994 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Die allm盲hliche Verfertigung der Idee beim Schreiben 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1986	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Brenner, Band 2 (Kapitel 1-7). Menzenmang it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1989	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Hermann Burger…

Quotes by Hermann Burger (?)

“Na lekcjach geometrii musieli艣my pisa膰 na zako艅czenie dowiedzionego twierdzenia "c.b.d.u.": co by艂o do udowodnienia. W naszym fachu "c.b.d.u." znaczy: co by艂o do upozorowania. Dowod贸w nie przedstawia si臋偶adnych.”
― Hermann Burger

tags: dowodzenie, 诲辞飞贸诲, pozorowanie, pozory

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“Tak, nadobna pani Muzyka posiada r贸wnie偶艂ono nocne, kt贸re wydaje na 艣wiat idiot贸w, hotentot贸w muzycznych. Czy pan wie, Panie Dyrektorze, co to jest suterena symfonii? Pana ci艣nienie polifoniczne nigdy jeszcze nie rozp艂aszczy艂o na murze ogniochronnym, nigdy dzie艂o sztuki nie przemaszerowa艂o przez Pana na wylot. Pan znajduje si臋 zawsze na rz臋si艣cie o艣wietlonym froncie, po艣r贸d taftowych kreacji i wypomadowanych koneser贸w. 呕aden kompozytor nie wkomponowa艂 pomocnika orkiestry do swego dzie艂a. Ca艂a muzyka europejska powsta艂a z pomini臋ciem nas, Schramm贸w. Teatr jest pod tym wzgl臋dem bardziej post臋powy. Istniej膮 sztuki, w kt贸rych pracownik techniczny, przebiega na ukos przez scen臋 z mundurem na ramieniu, zaplanowany przez re偶ysera, odfajkowany przez suflerk臋, odprowadzony przez sto偶ek reflektora, bywa, 偶e nagrodzony oklaskami przy otwartej kurtynie. Ale co mnie obchodz膮 pomocnicy teatralni, czuj臋 si臋 z powo艂ania pomocnikiem orkiestry, chc臋 aportowa膰 nie rekwizyty, lecz muzykalia. I to wy艂膮cznie muzykalia, nigdy sam膮 muzyk臋! Z chwil膮, gdy gigantyczny akt spo艂eczny kolektywnej produkcji i konsumpcji d藕wi臋ku dobiega ko艅ca, staj臋 si臋 ludzkim odpadkiem, pozostawionym na zapleczu jarmarcznej budy absolutnego beztalencia. Kiedy zap艂odnienie cia艂a spo艂ecznego przez cia艂o muzyczne sfinalizuje si臋 ju偶 w postaci zrazu orgiastycznego, a potem stopniowo cichn膮cego aplauzu, pozostaje mi zebra膰 siebie na szufelk臋. Jest to najbardziej pomocniczo-orkiestralna z wszystkich czynno艣ci pomocnika orkiestry, Panie Dyrektorze. Dewiza Urfera brzmia艂a: d藕wi臋cz膮ce muzykalia, d藕wi臋cz膮ce krzes艂a, d藕wi臋cz膮cy pulpit dyrygenta. Wszystko, co tylko wzi膮艂 do r臋ki, stawa艂o si臋 samowyzwalaczem d藕wi臋ku. Ile偶 to razy, siedz膮c w jakim艣 ciemnym k膮cie podscenia, rz臋poli艂 na nodze krzes艂a, wsp贸艂wykonuj膮c ca艂e ponad jego g艂ow膮 inscenizowane dzie艂o! B艂膮d, b艂膮d i jeszcze raz b艂膮d! Urfer d膮偶y艂 do kongenialno艣ci, ja d膮偶臋 do kontragenialno艣ci. Kiedy aplauz szaleje po sali, w przepychu 艣wiecznik贸w budz膮cej si臋 stopniowo z oszo艂omienia doskona艂o艣ci膮, kiedy Detmar von Hohenlohe miotany burz膮 oklask贸w wpada raz po raz w p贸艂kole swych filharmonik贸w, kiedy kandelabrowe bywalczynie foyer przechylaj膮 si臋 z samob贸jcz膮 rozkosz膮 przez zamszowe balustrady, posy艂aj膮 poca艂unki i pobrz臋kuj膮 naszyjnikami, w贸wczas pomocnik orkiestry kl臋czy na ziemi swego kr贸lestwa i bije czo艂em w mur, jakby w ten spos贸b mog艂 przebi膰 g艂ow膮艣cian臋, kt贸ra odgradza go od wszelkiej sztuki. To r贸wnie偶 jest wyst臋p, Panie Dyrektorze, on r贸wnie偶 wymaga ofiar. M贸wi si臋, 偶e ka偶dy pomocnik orkiestry marzy o tym, aby raz w 偶yciu, po szczeg贸lnie udanym popisie, po koncercie superlatyw贸w, dyrygent kiwni臋ciem r臋ki wezwa艂 go na scen臋, oczywi艣cie dopiero przy cichn膮cych brawach, kiedy ju偶 otwarto drzwi sali, ale jednak do wn臋trza muszli, i skomentowa艂 jego pojawienie si臋 ja艂mu偶niczym gestem maestra: prosz臋, tak偶e ta beczka piwa z metr贸wk膮 w kieszeni nogawki przyczyni艂a si臋 na zapleczu do tego, 偶e ten wiecz贸r przerodzi艂 si臋 w triumf. Ostrzegam komisj臋 nominacyjn膮, 偶eby nigdy nie domaga艂a si臋 obecno艣ci pomocnika orkiestry na scenie, poniewa偶 podest nie wytrzyma艂by nacisku jego cia艂a. Od utoczonych z moich 偶y艂 symfonii sta艂em si臋 ci臋偶ki jak o艂贸w, tote偶 niczym s艂o艅 rozdepta艂bym kant贸wk臋 w drzazgi. Jak偶e to? Akurat pomocnika orkiestry mia艂aby nie unie艣膰 konstrukcja, za kt贸r膮 jest odpowiedzialny? A czy sze艣膰dziesi臋ciu wykonawc贸w muzyki to 偶aden ci臋偶ar? Artysta nic nie wa偶y, ca艂ego siebie przelewa w sw贸j instrument. Cz艂onk贸w zespo艂u nazywa si臋 pod艂ug ich narz臋dzi muzycznych: fagot si臋 sp贸藕ni艂, harfa strajkuje, blacha si臋 buntuje. Pomocnik orkiestry, gdyby potrafi艂 si臋 pozbiera膰, 偶eby podej艣膰 ku rampie, brn膮艂by przez trzeszcz膮cy stos drewna opa艂owego. [鈥”
― Hermann Burger, Diabelli i inne pisma do dyrekcji

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