Biography of Max FrischFor German version: click hereMax Frisch: BiographyMax Frisch was born in 1911 in Zurich, Switzerland, as son of an architect. After the Cantonal real gymnasium in Zurich he studied Germanistics at the University of Zurich between 1930-33. He then stopped his study for financial reasons.From 1931 on he worked as newspaper correspondent and a student of architecture, while developing his literary career. He wrote reports on trips through Germany (1935) and Tschechoslowakia for the "Neue Züricher Zeitung." Frisch was then an architect by profession and a writer by avocation. Frisch is considered as a great writer who expressed the vexations and fears of all contemporaries. Frisch has been for some fifteen years one of the leading writers in Europe. The new German theater would be not possible without Frisch and Dürrenmatt. Frisch's literary style, as exemplified in The Chinese Wall, is apparently borrowed from Brecht and Thornton Wilder. Frisch was recognized by an award from the Swiss Schiller Foundation in 1940, a Drama Prize from the Emil-Welti-Foundation in 1945, a Wilhelm-Raabe-Prize in 1954, etc. for his literary excellence. After 1945, he was often politically active, although his activities were not free from self-doubt. Frisch lived his last years reserved in Berzona, Tessin, suffering from painful cancer. On April 4, 1991 Frisch died "peacefully in his apartment" in Zurich, as his son Peter reported. His novels include Stiller (1954), a satire on the Swiss way of life, Homo Faber (1957), and Bluebeard (1983). His plays, modern morality pieces, include Nun singen sie wieder (1945, Now They Sing Again), Andorra (1962), and Triptych. Literature on Frisch includes a.o. "Dürrenmatt und Frisch" by H. Meyer in 1963, "Max Frischs Homo Faber" by H. Geulen in 1965, "Max Frisch" by H. Karasek in 1966. |