Schweizerlieder

The philosopher, theologian and author Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) was associated with the ‘Sturm und Drang’ movement and nurtured contacts with important authors of the day such as Klopstock and Goethe. His interest in literature was awakened early by his teachers Johann Jakob Bodmer and Johann Jakob Breitinger, and he soon began to compose poetry himself. Lavater’s editorship of the moral weekly magazine Der Erinnerer marked the first high-point in his engagement with social issues, something which had begun back in 1762 when he and his Zürich friends accused the bailiff Grebel of abusing his position and succeeded in having him removed from office. This is also the context of the collection of ‘Swiss Songs’, inspired by Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Gleim, the first edition of which was censored by the Swiss authorities and initially banned from publication in Zürich. The collection of patriotic songs, mostly featuring events and characters from Swiss history, were intended to ‘revive or propagate domestic and civic virtues among the Swiss’. Modern Swiss folk-poetry begins with Lavater’s Schweizerlieder, which achieved even wider influence through Johann Schmidlin’s musical settings. This edition is a reprint of the important fourth edition of the work, the first permitted to appear in Zürich, which included four new songs.