About Max Frisch

The Swiss author and architect Max Frisch (1911–1991) is one of the most important German-speaking authors of the 20th century. His work, which includes novels and plays, has been translated into 47 languages and won many prizes.

Enlarged view: Max Frisch in the year 1966 © Max Frisch Archive, Zurich
Max Frisch in the year 1966 © Max Frisch Archive, Zurich

Worldwide fame and lasting success

Frisch was born on 15 May 1911 in Zurich, where he grew up. After breaking off his degree in German studies and working as a freelance journalist, he completed a degree in architecture at ETH Zurich in 1940. A few years later, during time which he worked as both an architect and author, his novel "I'm Not Stiller" (1954) gave him his breakthrough and he devoted himself to writing full time. "I'm Not Stiller" and two other novels – "Homo Faber" (1957) and "Gantenbein" (1964) – cemented Frisch's global fame. He also enjoyed lasting success as a playwright, his most important plays including "The Fire Raisers" (1958) and "Andorra" (1961). With "Tagebuch 1946–1949" and "Tagebuch 1966–1971", he created a hybrid form of prose, which, besides personal notes, combines fictional stories, contemporary considerations, questionnaires and drafts.

Work and legacy

As a cosmopolitan who called Rome, Berlin and New York home, the author's letters, which are housed at the Max Frisch Archive today, bear testimony to a broad network of relationships. At the same time, Frisch the citizen was actively involved in the political events in his homeland, keeping alive the utopia of a better society in his talks, essays and views.   

In his work, Frisch addressed topics that are of fundamental importance for the self-concept of the modern. Besides the relativity and malleability of one's own identity, this also includes questions regarding the relationship with home and tradition, the limitations of linguistic expression, the struggle for a lively interaction with one’s fellow human beings and their needs, and the challenges and dangers resulting from the technologisation of the world.   

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