Swiss poet, winner of the 1919 Nobel Prize for Literature for his masterpiece, Olympian Spring (final version in 1910). Spitteler even evolved his own metrical scheme in the vast and original work. The epic poem depicted the rise of new gods to consciousness and power. In several works Spitteler dealt with the antagonism between creativity and the world, exemplified in the character of Prometheus.

Orpheus hörte diese Serenade.
"Herr Kollega«, bat er ängstlich, »Gnade!
Nutzlos quälst und quetschest du die Kehle,
Denn die Bosheit bellt dir aus der Seele.
Und mit einem Herzen voll von Haß
Bleibe, Bestie, ferne dem Parnaß.

Zwar auf Tugend mag die Kunst verzichten,
Liederliche sieht man Lieder dichten,
Aber Drachen mit Musik im Rachen –
Liebster, das sind hoffnungslose Sachen.
Aller schönen Künste weit und breit
Grundbedingung ist Gutherzigkeit."
(from 'Die Ballade vom lyrischen Wolf')

Carl Spitteler was born in the town of Liestal, near Basel. The family moved to Bern in 1849, when his father was appointed treasurer of the new Swiss confederation. However, the young Spitteler remained in Basel with his aunt. Spitteler started to write poems at the age of seventeen. Under the influence of the historian Jakob Burckhard, who was his teacher at the Basel Pädagogium, and the philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel, he became interested in the Italian Renaissance. In 1863 Spitteler entered the University of Zürich, where he studied law. Between the years 1865 and 1870 he studied theology in Zürich, Heidelberg, and Basel.

After declining an offer to start a career as a Protestant minister, Spitteler worked eight years as a tutor in St. Petersburg's Finnish families and visited Finland many times. In 1881 appeared Spitteler's first major work, PROMETHEUS UND EPIMETHEUS, an epic verse, which he had started while a student in Heidelberg. It contrasted ideals with dogmas, personified by two mythological figures. Prometheus is an individualist who opposes King Epimethus, an upkeeper of conventional values. The book was published under the pseudonym Carl Felix Tandem and did not gain much attention, except when Spitteler was later accused of having borrowed themes from Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra. Nietzsche had recommended him to the editor of the Munich periodical Kunswart in 1887. Spitteler was well acquainted with Nietzsche's ideas, and published in 1888 in the Berner Bund a review of Nietzsche's work. In MEINE BEZIEHUNGEN ZU NIETZSHE (1908) Spitteler later defended himself against accusations.

Spitteler's dichotomy between Prometheus and Epimetheus was picked up by Carl Jung, who created in his book Psychological Types his introvert/extrovert distinction. Especially Spilleter's Prometheus and Epimethus inspired Jung. The Swiss psychiatrist also sent a copy of his book to the author. Spitteler did not respond immediately but later referred to the book during a lecture and said that his Prometheus and Epimethus meant nothing, "that he might just as well have sung, 'Spring is come, tra-la-la-la'". (Jung in Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1963) Jung returned again to Spitteler's reaction in Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933), stating that "poets are human beings, and that what a poet has to say about his work is often far from being the most illuminating word on the subject."

In the 1880s Spitteler worked as a teacher and journalist, and published poetry, including EXTRAMUNDANA (1883) and SCHMETTERLINGE (1889). In 1883 he married Marie op der Hoff, who was his pupil in Neuveville. When his wife's parents died and left in 1892 a sizable inheritance, the family moved to Lucerne, where Spitteler devoted himself entirely to writing. His breakthrough work, the epic verse OLYMPISCHER FRÜHLING, appeared in several installments between 1900 and 1905, and was revisited in 1910. Olympian Spring examined universal concerns about life. It is a combination of mythology, fantasy, and religion, written in iambic hexameter. Spitteler described colorfully mythical figures as they fight for power and basically transformed the "waxing and waning of the gods into a myth of the seasons." (Carl Jung) The work was immediately acclaimed as a masterpiece and compared to Milton's achievements. In 1906 appeared his novel IMAGO. The love story, which examined the power of the unconscious, focused on a conflict between an uncompromising creative mind and middle-class restrictions. Imago had a success among psychoanalysts. It has been said, that Spitteler's treatment of the concept of the imago influenced the psychoanalytical understanding of human mind. Spitteler himself once said, "Dreams cannot be told; they dissolve when the rational mind tries to grasp them in words."

Kannst du ein wohl gemeintes Wort vertragen?
--Ich muss, vergib.
Ich will dir's einmal deutch und deutlich sagen:
--Wer hat dich lieb?
(from 'Auf der Milch-und Honingwiese')

In MEINE FRÜHESTEN ERLEBNISSE (1914) Spitteler returned to his childhood. At the beginning of World War I, Spitteler urged his fellow Swiss Germans to be less pro-German, and advocated the view that Switzerland should not take sides intellectually with Germany or France. He received the Nobel Prize at the age of 75. Due to illness he was not able to attend the ceremony. Romain Rolland proclaimed him in a tribute "our Homer, the greatest German poet since Goethe". Spitteler died on December 28, 1924, in Lucerne. Spitteler's last work was PROMETHEUS DER BUILDER (1924), a new and rhymed version of his first work.

For further reading: Totalitat Des Mangels: Carl Spitteler Und Die Geburt Des Modernen Epos Aus Der Anschauung by Philipp Theisohn (2001); Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, vol. 4, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1998); World Authors 1900-1950, vol. 4, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); Nobel Prize Winners, ed. by T. Wasson (1987); Carl Spitteler by W. Stauffacher (1973); Spitteler's "Olympischer Frühling" und seie epische Form by O. Trommel (1965); The Tyranny of Greece over Germany by E.M. Butler (1935); Spittelers Weg und Werk by R. Faesi (1933)

Selected works:

* PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS, 1881 (under the pseudonym Carl Felix Tandem)
* EXTRAMUNDANA, 1883 (under the pseudonym Carl Felix Tandem)
* EI OLE, 1887
* SCHMETTERLINGE, 1889 - Butterflies
* DER PARLAMENTÄR, 1889
* DAS BOMBARDEMANT VON ÅBO, 1889
* FRIEDLI DER KOLDERI, 1891
* GUSTAV, 1892
* LITERARISCHE GLEICHNISSE, 1892 - Literary Parables
* DER EHRGEIZIGE, 1892
* SPAZIERFAHRTEN IN FINNLAND, 1892
* JUMALA. EIN FINNISCHES MÄRCHEN, 1893
* BALLADEN, 1896
* DER GOTTHRD, 1897
* CONRAD DER LEUTNANT, 1898
* LACHENDE WAHRHEITEN, 1898 - Laughing Truths
* DER OLYMPISCHE FRÜHLING, 1900-05 - The Olympic Spring - revisited in 1910
* MEINE BEZIEHUNGEN ZU NIETZSCHE, 1904
* GRAS- UND GLOCKENLIEDER, 1906 - Grass and Bell Songs
* IMAGO, 1906
* GLOCKENLIEDER, 1906
* GEROLD UND HANSLI: DIE MÄDCHENFEINDE, 1907 - Two Little Misogynists
* MEINE BEZIEHUNGEN ZU NIETZSCHE, 1908
* MEINE FRÜHESTEN ERLEBNISSE, 1914 - My Earliest Experiences
* REDE ÜBER GOTTFRIED KELLER, 1919
* The Little Misogynist, 1923
* DAS ENTSCHEIDENDE JAHR, 1925
* Selected Poems, 1927
* BRIEFE VON ADOLF FREY UND CARL SPITTELER, 1933
* GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1948-1958 (11 vols.)
* KRITISCHE SCHRIFTEN, 1965

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