Epochenübergreifende Verständigung. In Memoriam Peter Rusterholz (1934–2025)
CROSS-EPOCHAL UNDERSTANDING. IN MEMORIAM PETER RUSTERHOLZ (1934–2025)

Summary/Abstract: Peter Rusterholz, who passed away in of this year, had a significant influence on German studies over the last sixty years and, as a man of dialogue across methodological and disciplinary boundaries, worked to promote understanding between the past and the present, research and teaching, science and literature, both at the University of Kassel (1973-1980) and the University of Bern (1980-2000. Fully versed in German-language literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, he published a large number of studies of varying lengths. He earned his doctorate in older German studies under Max Wehrli with a thesis on the metaphor of play in 17th-century drama and studied intensively the work of Emil Staiger, the other leading figure in the field at the University of Zurich in the 1950s and 1960s. Following in the footsteps of both, he made theoretical reflection on the development of historical hermeneutics his life’s work and presented his conclusions in several standard texts. From the mid-1970s onwards, he focused on the connection between hermeneutics and semiotics, and on this basis, from the mid-1980s onwards, he also followed with critical attention the contributions of poststructuralism and deconstructionism to the debate on interpretation. As president of the Collegium generale of the University of Bern from 1989 to 2009, he paved the way for scientific dialogue between the various disciplines, while also promoting that of the university with literature from 1981 to 2011 with readings by authors from across the German-speaking world. As an emeritus professor, he continued to work on two major projects alongside these activities and a large number of publications: with Andreas Solbach on the publication of the first Swiss literary history (2007), which traces the development of all four Swiss literatures from the Middle Ages to 2000, and, as head of the ‘Dürrenmatt Research Group’, on the examination of Dürrenmatt’s enormous archival estate, the new edition of his complete works and the edition of his materials documenting the genesis and gradual development of the manuscripts of his works (Stoffe), thereby renewing the methodological approach to this work, which allows for an update of both the scientific and literary-critical understanding for the creation of this globally significant writer. The article provides information about the various achievements of Peter Rusterholz and offers a list of his most important publications.

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