Das Unerwartete: Auf den Spuren Wolfgang Hildesheimers durch Poschiavo

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

With these words, Wolfgang Hildesheimer expresses himself 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 Immigration Police rejected the application for residency, Wolfgang Hildesheimer and his wife Silvia were able to settle in Poschiavo in 1957 - after an intercession of the writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt - as a figure of "intellectual life":

"It's wonderful here, wonderful weather, wonderful air, apartment furnished down to the hallway and guest room, ... Valtellina wine flows in abundance, melons, Bel Paese, and of course I haven't come to work yet because of all the furnishings. This in a nutshell: our condition."

So Hildesheimer wrote 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 lived there for a long time and are at home there. We have never lived in a place as long as in Poschiavo."

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

On a tour, you can visit places that are important to his life and work. The route is available at the tourist office or via the "Outdooractive" app (search term "Hildesheimer").

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 in advance by calling T +41 79 741 05 70.