Friedrich Glauser (4 February 1896 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

– 8 December 1938 in

Nervi Nervi is a former fishing village 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Portofino on the Riviera di Levante, now a seaside resort in Liguria, in northwest Italy. Once an independent ''comune'', it is now a ''quartiere'' of Genoa. Nervi is 4 miles ( ...

) was a German-language

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

writer.

Biography

Glauser was a

morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...

and

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

addict for most of his life. In his first novel ''Gourrama'', written between 1928 and 1930, he treated his own experiences at the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...

. The evening before his wedding day, he suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

caused by

cerebral infarction Cerebral infarction, also known as an ischemic stroke, is the pathologic process that results in an area of necrotic tissue in the brain (cerebral infarct). In mid to high income countries, a stroke is the main reason for disability among peo ...

, and died two days later. A year after his death, the 1939 film ''Thumbprint'' was released featuring Glauser's character Sergeant Studer, which became a commercial success. Friedrich Glauser's literary estate is archived in the

Swiss Literary Archives The Swiss Literary Archives (SLA – ''Schweizerische Literaturarchiv'') in Bern collects literary estates in all four national languages of Switzerland (German, French, Italian and Romansh language). It is part of the Swiss National Library op ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

. Since 1987, the annual has been one of the best-known German-language crime writing awards.

Stories

The Sergeant Studer detective novels are set in the Switzerland and Europe of the 1930s, and make frequent reference to current European history, such as the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

hyperinflation and the banking scams and scandals that marked that period. Today's readers may be surprised that no attention is given to a prominent politician of that era,

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. The novels were written in standard German with a sprinkling of

Helvetism Helvetisms (Neo-Latin ''Helvetia'' "Switzerland" and ''-ism'') are features distinctive of Swiss Standard German, that distinguish it from Standard German. The most frequent Helvetisms are in vocabulary and pronunciation, but there are also some ...

s. The translations by Bitter Lemon Press make note of shifts in language register. Jakob Studer is a sergeant in the constabulary of the

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

. He is old for his rank, having had to start over again in a new police force after being fired from his original force. The firing is mentioned in each novel as being politically motivated, because Studer refused to back off from a full investigation of a banking scandal in which he eventually caught the real criminals, well-connected top people in the banking industry, rather than making do with a few minor players. Other minor characters, notably his cheerful wife and a local attorney with whom Studer plays billiards, play small roles within the books, sometimes helping to solve the mysteries. ''The Spoke'' opens at the wedding between Sgt. Jakob Studer's daughter and a young police constable, held at a small hotel run by an old schoolmate of Studer. Before the evening is over, another hotel guest (not a member of the wedding party) has been murdered. The unusual weapon chosen, a sharpened bicycle spoke, leads Studer and the local police to suspect the town's bicycle repairman, a gentle but mentally slow man who was severely abused during childhood. ''Fever'' is set roughly a year after ''The Spoke''. Sgt. Studer's daughter has just given birth to a baby boy, and Studer, on assignment in Paris, receives the news from his wife, who has gone to help the young couple with their first child. Studer goes out for celebratory drinks with several of the French gendarmerie with whom he has been working. At the pub, a rather strange White Father joins the group and tells a story of a "clairvoyant corporal" in a

battalion to which the priest has been assigned who has "predicted" the murder of two Swiss women. Upon his return to Switzerland, Studer learns of the two women's deaths and begins an investigation that will take him back through France to Algeria to find the killer. ''The Chinaman'' does not contain any clues as to where it fits within the timeline of the other stories. On 18 July (year unspecified), Studer meets an elderly retiree who has returned to the small village where he was born, near Bern, after decades spent working in various parts of Asia. The retiree tells Studer that he is sure he will be murdered very soon. Four months later, on 18 November, the retiree's prediction comes true, shortly after a seemingly unrelated, apparently natural death. After a cooperating witness is murdered, Studer must race to find the murderer before more people are killed.

Bibliography

*''Gourrama'', Zürich 1940 *''Der Tee der drei alten Damen'', Zürich 1940 *''Beichte in der Nacht'', Zürich 1945 *''Dada, Ascona und andere Erinnerungen'', Zürich 1976 *''Morphium und autobiographische Texte'', Zürich 1980 *''Briefe'' (2 volumes, ed. Bernhard Echte), Zürich 1988/91 *''Das erzählerische Werk'' (4 volumes, ed. Bernhard Echte), Zürich 1992–93

Jakob Studer mysteries

*''Wachtmeister Studer'', Zürich 1936; English translation: ''Thumbprint'', 2004 *''Matto regiert'', Zürich 1936; English translation: '' In Matto's Realm'', 2005 *''Die Fieberkurve'', Zürich 1938; English translation: ''

Fever Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...

'', 2006 *''Der Chinese'', Zürich 1939; English translation: '' The Chinaman'', 2007 *''Krock & Co.'' (aka ''Die Speiche''), Zürich 1941; English translation: '' The Spoke'', 2008

Filmography

*''

Constable Studer ''Constable Studer'' () is a 1939 Swiss crime film directed by Leopold Lindtberg and starring Heinrich Gretler, Adolf Manz and Anne-Marie Blanc.Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema''. Bergha ...

'', 1939 *', 1943 *'' Madness Rules'', 1947

References

External links

Literary estate of Friedrich Glauser
in the archive database HelveticArchives of the

Swiss National Library The Swiss National Library (, , , ) is the national library of Switzerland. Part of the Federal Office of Culture, it is charged with collecting, cataloging and conserving information in all fields, disciplines, and media connected with Switzerla ...

Publications by and about Friedrich Glauser
in the catalogue Helveticat of the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glauser, Friedrich 1896 births 1938 deaths Crime fiction writers Swiss crime fiction writers Swiss male novelists Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion 20th-century Swiss novelists 20th-century Swiss male writers