Das Unerwartete: Auf den Spuren Wolfgang Hildesheimers durch Poschiavo

"The unexpected! In Valposchiavo you will come across not only in nature, but also in the villages with their architectural singularities, especially in Poschiavo, the capital, whose peculiarity makes a mockery of all expectations. You get used to the leaning tower of Pisa immediately, it is a monument, you are prepared. But the experience of the unexpected, strange, unique, or even eccentric, especially if animated by man and permeated with life, never becomes routine. Each new glimpse is a reconstruction of the first experience."

With these words Wolfgang Hildesheimer in the article "The experience of the unexpected" describes the peculiarity of Poschiavo (Merian 14/8 1961).

In autumn 1956 Hildesheimer, who could not stand the "terrible Bavarian climate", discovered Poschiavo for himself: "Poschiavo! It has the right altitude, the right climate, the right people." Having overcome the first difficulties due to the denial of a residence permit by the Federal Foreigners' Police, in 1957 Hildesheimer was able – thanks to the intercession of the writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt – to settle in Poschiavo with his wife Silvia, as the protagonist of intellectual life:

"Here it is magnificent, wonderful weather, fantastic air, the apartment is furnished, except the entrance and the guest room,... Valtellina wine flows in abundance, melons, Bel Paese, and clearly, by dint of furnishing, I have not yet had time to work. These, briefly, are our conditions."

So wrote Hildesheimer in a letter to Toni and Hans Werner Richter in August 1957.

In 1982 the Municipality of Poschiavo awarded the couple honorary citizenship. Wolfgang Hildesheimer died in Poschiavo on 21 August 1991; in November 2014 his wife Silvia, painter.

Hildesheimer lived over 30 years in Poschiavo:

"We have lived there for a long time and feel at home. We have never lived so long in the same place as in Poschiavo."

Quote from Manfred Durzak, Gespräche über den Roman. Formbestimmung und Analyse, Frankfurt am Main 1976, S. 295.

In the Old Monastery behind the churchyard of the Church of San Vittore Mauro are permanently exhibited 22 collages by the German writer and artist Wolfgang Hildesheimer (1916-1991).

The exhibition can be visited from Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 12:00 and from 15:00 to 17:00. Admission is free but on request at T +41 79 741 05 70.