Literary retreat

Valle Onsernone at 7 a.m. - a lone mail truck is making its way through the valley. The morning dew clings to the grass, and fog hangs around the surrounding mountain peaks.

The middle of the valley houses a tiny village called Berzona, so far spared from being bombarded by tourists. But artists have been drawn to the spot again and again, perhaps thanks to its unique character and remoteness.

Swiss author and playwright Max Frisch spent time in the village, and a small plaque on the cemetery wall pays tribute to the honorary citizen. Frisch is famed for his wide-ranging writings, which broach questions of personal identity and integrity in novel ways.

The big three

In his journals, Frisch noted many details about the valley - his house at the edge of town and the neighbors. Fellow authors Alfred Andersch and Golo Mann - son of German writer Thomas Mann - made their home there as well.

The idyllic town is also portrayed in Frisch's novella "Man in the Holocene." Today, you'll see the occasional visitor there with a copy of the book in hand, looking for the turquoise blue swimming pool that belonged to the Frisch family or for the pass that the story's protagonist uses to travel to a neighboring valley.

Marta Regazzoni lives in Berzona and knew Andersch, Frisch and Mann personally. Regazzoni operates a little store selling just the necessities: millk, salt, baking soda, onions and wine. She met the three writers there often as they picked up things for breakfast or snacks for a hike.

But the storekeeper can only shake her head about the men heading up to the steep alpine paths for some seclusion and stillness. Now in her 80s, the mountains have meant hard work and trouble to her throughout her life.

Creative spirit

Berzona's spare mountain landscape has long attracted romantics, revolutionaries, wanderers and asylum-seekers. At the beginning of the last century, artists were the ones especially drawn to the pristine Swiss village.

Prior to the Second World War, the painter and sculptor Max Ernst and author Kurt Tucholsky found refuge in the village. Once they were joined by writers Ernst Toller and Elias Canetti, a small, German-speaking colony of intellectuals had formed. The local residents recall them as an inward-looking collective, focused on their personal well-being.



Golo Mann worked in Berzona on his groundbreaking biography about the army commander Wallenstein, whom Schiller made into a dramatic hero in his play of the same name. The historian loved to sit high in the mountains away from the cluster of stone houses and the cries of children at the little piazza.

"Each of the three developed their own relationship to the place," said Annette Korolnik-Andersch, an artist and daughter of the author Alfred Andersch. As Thomas Mann's son, Golo occupied a special place in Berzona, she added, "because even there, they knew who Thomas Mann was."

A 'mountain nest'

Alfred and Gisela Andersch, on the other hand, settled into an old soap factory in the middle of the village that they turned into a modern house - to the chagrin of Berzona's residents.

"We can't do anything about it," wrote Andersch at the time. "We've got to make due with being associated with terms like millionaire and tax evader."

Disappointed by the conservative climate in Germany under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Andersch moved with his family to Switzerland in 1958, writing, "The landscape and setting are completely unique. The mountain nest is called Berzona."

Storekeeper Marta Regazzoni said she hasn't read many of the books written by her famous customers - after all, she barely has time to read. She did make it through Frisch's "Man in the Holocene," noting with a laugh that she didn't understand too much of it.

But, she added, that's all ancient history now: "Tutte storie passate."

Author: Michael Marek / gsw
Editor: Kate Bowen