Gruppe Olten
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The Gruppe Olten (Olten Group) was a community of Swiss writers, that met in a so-called “Bahnhofbuffet“ (helvetism for a railway station’s restaurant.) located in the Kanton Solothurn (middle of Switzerland). It was founded in the aforementioned railway station restaurant and existed from 1970 to 2002.
The group counted 22 famous members of the Swiss writer’s club (Schweizerischer Schriftstellerverein, or SSV). There were big names like Max Frisch, Adolf Muschg, Peter Bichsel and Friedrich Dürrenmatt, that had left the SSV (that was found merely unprogressive) and became members of the Gruppe Olten
One of the reasons that led to the separation, was that the SSV’s president Maurice Zermatten, had made the French translation of the official anti-communist “Civil Defense Book”, that commanded the citizens to observe and distrust each other and that was spread among all Swiss households during the Cold War.
For the founding members of the group, writing was inseparably associated with political engagement. They specified the goal to “build a democratic-socialist society” in their bylaws. That goal was discarded in 2000, causing the departure of Mariella Mehr. The remaing part of the article read: "It [the Olten Group] supports nationwide and international political attempts that involve the fair distrubition of goods, democratizing economy and public institutions, saving world from military a civil destruction, and the realistation of human rights.
On the 12th October 2002 the Olten Group disbanded in Bern, as did the Swiss writer’s club SSV (in the meantime renamed "Schweizerischer Schriftstellerinnen- und Schriftstellerverband"). A new club, named "Authors of Switzerland" (Autorinnen und Autoren der Schweiz), was founded.
