Das Unerwartete: Auf den Spuren Wolfgang Hildesheimers durch Poschiavo

"The unexpected! In The Puschlav you will come across it, not only in nature, but also in the villages, especially in Poschiavo, the central place whose peculiarities mock any preparation. You immediately get used to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it is a monument, you are prepared for it. But the experience of the unexpected, the strange, the unique, even eccentric, especially when it is animated by people and animated by life, never becomes routine. Every new sight is a re-enactment of the first experience."

Wolfgang Hildesheimer expresses himself with these words in his text "Experience of the Unexpected" (Merian 14/8 1961). In the autumn of 1956, Hildesheimer, who suffers from the »appalling Bavarian climate«, discovered Poschiavo for himself: »Poschiavo! It has the right altitude, the right climate, the right people." After initial difficulties, as the Federal Aliens Police rejected the request for residence, Wolfgang Hildesheimer and his wife Silvia were able to settle in Poschiavo in 1957 as a figure of the »spiritual life« - after an intercession of the writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt:

"Here it is delightful, wonderful weather, magnificent air, apartment furnished except for hallway and guest room, ... Veltliner wine flows in abundance, melons, Bel Paese, and of course I have not yet come to work because of all the furnishings. This in keywords our condition."

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

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

Wolfgang Hildesheimer lived in Poschiavo for over 30 years:

"We have been living there for a long time and are at home there. We have never lived in one place as long as in Poschiavo."

Quote in Manfred Durzak, Conversations about the novel. Formbestimmung und Analyse, Frankfurt am Main 1976, p. 295.

In the Augustinian convent on the church square behind the church of San Vittore Mauro, 22 collages by Wolfgang Hildesheimer are permanently exhibited.

The exhibition can be visited from Monday to Friday, 10:00-12:00 or 15:00-17:00. Admission is free, but you have to register by phone at T +41 79 741 05 70.