Literature from the Netherlands and Flanders in Switzerland after 1945

Since 1945, a lot of attention was also paid to children's and youth literature in Switzerland. Works by Margriet Heymans, Koen Fossy, Lidia Postma, Tonke Dragt, among others, were translated, but it was Paul Biegel, Godfried Bomans, Anny Matti and Max Velthuijs who were the most successful. However, this does not mean that Swiss publishers did not set their own accents.

In 1964, the anthology Zwischen Augen und Atem - Niederländische Lyrik seit 1945 [Between Eyes and Breath - Dutch Poetry since 1945] appeared in St. Gallen. With this publication the Austrian Heinrich Schneeweiss became one of the first translators in the German language area to present the poetry of the Vijftigers (Hans Andreus, Remco Campert, Jan Elburg, Gerrit Kouwenaar, Lucebert and others). (#Avantgarde)

At the time, the Dutch poetry of these young authors was virtually unknown abroad. Sybren Polet, one of the most important authors of experimental literature in the Dutch language area, explicitly bemoans this in the epilogue to the publication:

In Switzerland, many a 'filet piece' from the Dutch language area was published. In 1949, poems by Herwig Hensen were published by Speer in Zürich; in 1947, the only translation of Lode Zielens in the German language area ('Mutter, warum leben wir' (published by the Büchergilde Gutenberg) and in 1993 the first translation of Nescio in the German language, to name but three examples.

A 'crown jewel' among the translated authors was certainly Johan Huizinga. Huizinga had his debut in Germany in 1924 with Herbst des Mittelalters: Studien über Lebens- und Geistesformen des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts in Frankreich und in den Niederlanden [Autumn of the Middle Ages: Studies on the Lifestyles and Spiritual Forms of the 14th and 15th Century in France and the Netherlands]. Four years later, Basel published Erasmus . With this book (5 editions between 1928 and 1988), the foundation was laid for Switzerland to become Huizinga's new home base in the German-speaking world. From 1935 until well after the Second World War, Huizinga's works in German translation were almost exclusively published by Swiss or by exiled publishers such as Pantheon in Amsterdam.

Between 1928 and 1988, twentyone titles by Huizinga appeared in Switzerland. Huizinga's most successful work was that in which he diagnosed the madness of his time: Im Schatten von Morgen [In the Shadow of Tomorrow]. The first German edition of Im Schatten von Morgen appeared immediately after the publication of the Dutch original in 1935. The translator was the Basel professor of history Werner Kaegi, who also translated Erasmus.

In the 1960s, Swiss publishers were clearly in search. They were still trying to build on the success of Dutch and Flemish regional authors in the German-speaking world from before the Second World War. The publishing house Stocker-Schmid in Zürich, for instance, published new works by Timmermans (Bauernpsalm [Peasant Psalm] (1965); Das Jesuskind in Flandern [The Christ-Child in Flanders] (1966)) in the second half of the 1960s. The family novels of Annie de Moor-Ringnalda and new translations of storytellers such as Johan Fabricius, Jan de Hartog and Johan Elsing were also published in Switzerland with some success.

At the same time, Swiss publishers tried to break new ground. Classics such as Multatuli were presented. In 1965, Manesse in Zürich published Multatuli's Max Havelaar (with a preface by W. Enzinck, whose poems had already been published in German translation by Werner Classen in Zürich in the mid-fifties).

Further noteworthy publications are Die gefahrvolle Reise des Kapitän Bontekoe und andere Logbücher und Schiffsjournale holländischer Seefahrer des 17. Jahrhunderts from 1972, in which the publishing house Erdmann (Tübingen, Basel), that specialised in historical travel stories, published the adventures of Captain Bontekoe in German translation, and the anthology Die Arbeit des Dichters [The Work of Poets] by Willem Roggeman published by Nachtmachine in Basel in 1982.

At the same time, the younger generation was also introduced—albeit with moderate success. At the end of the 1960s, Desh discovered Jan Wolkers for the German public. His Eine Rose von Fleich [A Rose of Flesh] (1969) was well received. In 1984, Nagel & Kimche introduced Jeroen Brouwers in Switzerland with Versunkenes rot [Sunken Red].

At the end of the 1960s, Swiss readers got to know the work of Godfried Bomans and Simon Carmiggelt, and more and more children's and youth literature from the Dutch-speaking world. it was then, that the foundation was laid for the success of Dutch-language children's and youth literature in Switzerland. In the 1970s, the first translations of Miep Diekmann (... und viele Grüße von Wancho [...and Greetings from Wancho] (1967); Lies: Mein Lama [Lies: My Lama] (1967)) appear in Switzerland, and the publishing house Beltz (Weinheim/Basel) discovered the work of Tonke Dragt for the German-speaking world. Her adventure novel Der Brief für den König [The Letter for the King] was reprinted four times between 1977 and 1984.(#Childrens Literature)

Also discovered in Switzerland for the German-speaking readers was the work of Margriet Heymans and the stories about the dwarf Schnüffelen by Anny, Matti and Wim Spekking.

The most important publishers of Dutch-language literature for adults translated into German in Switzerland are Arche (Zürich), Diogenes (Zürich) and Piper (since 2008 Piper (München) owns the publishing house Pendo, which Ernst Richard Piper had already taken over in 1998, and therefore also has a seat in Zürich).

Arche has a very distinguished selection of Dutch-language titles. Arche is the publisher of Remco Campert, the publisher of the only collection of stories by F.B. Hotz, of Einsames Abenteuer [Lonely Adventure] (1988) and Auf Leben und Tod [To Play or Die] (1990) by Anna Blaman (the latter translation was also published by Luchterhand in 1993) and one of the most important publishers of the work of Maarten 't Hart.