Max Frisch
born May 15, 1911, Zürich, Switz.
died April 4, 1991, Zürich
Swiss dramatist and novelist, noted
for his depictions of the moral dilemmas
of 20th-century life.
In 1933 Frisch withdrew from the
University of Zürich, where he had
studied German literature, and became a
newspaper correspondent. After touring
southern and eastern Europe from 1934 to
1936, he returned to Zürich, where he
studied architecture. Frisch worked as
an architect after service in the Swiss
army during World War II. He abandoned
architecture in 1955 to devote himself
full-time to writing.
Frisch’s play Santa Cruz (1947)
established the central theme found
throughout his subsequent works: the
predicament of the complicated,
skeptical individual in modern society.
One of Frisch’s earliest dramas is the
morality play Nun singen sie wieder
(1946; Now They Sing Again), in which
Surrealistic tableaux reveal the effects
caused by hostages being assassinated by
German Nazis. His other historical
melodramas include Die chinesische Mauer
(1947; The Chinese Wall) and the bleak
Als der Krieg zu Ende war (1949; When
the War Was Over). Reality and dream are
used to depict the terrorist fantasies
of a responsible government prosecutor
in Graf Öderland (1951; Count
Oederland), while Don Juan oder die
Liebe zur Geometrie (1953; Don Juan, or
The Love of Geometry) is a
reinterpretation of the legend of the
famous lover of that name. In his
powerful parable play Biedermann und die
Brandstifter (1958; The Firebugs, also
published as The Fire Raisers),
arsonists insinuate themselves into the
house of the weak-willed, complacent
Biedermann, who allows them to destroy
his home and his world rather than
confront them. Frisch’s later plays
include Andorra (1961), with its theme
of collective guilt, and Biografie
(published 1967; Biography), which deals
with social relationships and their
limitations.
Frisch’s early novels Stiller (1954;
I’m Not Stiller), Homo Faber (1957), and
Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964; A
Wilderness of Mirrors) portray aspects
of modern intellectual life and examine
the theme of identity. His
autobiographical works include two
noteworthy diaries, Tagebuch 1946–1949
(1950; Sketchbook 1946–1949) and
Tagebuch 1966–1971 (1972; Sketchbook
1966–1971). His later novels include
Montauk: Eine Erzählung (1975), Der
Mensch erscheint im Holozän (1979; Man
in the Holocene), and Blaubart (1982;
Bluebeard).
