Max Frischs Balkan 1933
Max Frisch on the Balkans in 1933

Summary/Abstract: As a student in 1933 the later famous Swiss author Max Frisch (1911-1991), then aged 21, for the first time travelled to Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He reported (mostly) for the »Neue Zürcher Zeitung« on the Ice-Hockey World-Championship in Prague. From there he continued what would turn into an eight month trip across many regions of the Balkans. This voyage was of specific importance for the young man and author. Faced with self-doubt and insecurity Frisch was not afraid to declare it (in private to himself and in letters to his mother). He considered this to be a test for his maturity and manhood. From Prague he travelled to Belgrade, later to Dalmatia, Kosovo and Macedonia. He stayed in Sarajevo and via Istanbul finally arrived in Greece. The quality of the accounts of this journey is rather uneven. Obviously, Frisch’s knowledge of the Balkans was limited and the descriptions of people he met are often stereotypical. On the other hand he succeeds in providing us with very sensitive, novel and surprising impressions of the region’s landscapes and nature. As regards the issue of women – a topic he struggled with his entire life – he displays a strange mixture of insecurity and (quasi-)philosophical mellowness. But without doubt, besides many youthful aberrations, a number of texts give a clear hint to Frisch’s literary talent and the power of his language.

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