Albin Zollinger

Albin Zollinger (* 24 January 1895 in Zürich; † 7 November 1941 in Zürich) was a Swiss writer.

Life

Albin Zollinger was the son of a precision mechanic and grew up in Rüti, Zürich and Argentina, where his parents unsuccessfully tried to establish a secure existence for the family. He attended the teacher’s seminar in Küsnacht and eventually, after a series of job changes, got a permanent position in Oerlikon, which he held until his death. His first novel was published in 1921.

All of Zollinger's works, his novels, narratives, poems, essays, articles, reviews, and letters, were written alongside his work as a teacher, his military service, his public engagements in the Swiss Writer’s Association, and his work as an editor for “Die Zeit” and later “Nation”, and despite a family crisis and depression (his marriage was divorced after a few years).

His preferred place to write was in the Zürich's cafés, where he travelled from Oerlikon by tram after school. During the 1930s, his little marble table at the Café "Terrasse" achieved some local fame. There he met other Zürich writers, e.g. professor of literature Fritz Ernst, literary reviewer Bernhard Diebold, his friend Traugott Vogel or Rudolf Jakob Humm. Three weeks before his death at the age of 46, Zollinger met the young Max Frisch on the Pfannenstiel. Frisch mentioned the meeting in his diary (“Tagebuch 1946-1949“).

Albin Zollinger is buried in an honorary grave at the “Nordheim” cemetery in Oerlikon. A square in Oerlikon was named after him in 1980. Albin Zollinger’s literary legacy is administrated by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.

List of works

Further reading

External links