Albert Bitzius (October 4, 1797 – October 22, 1854) was a Swissnovelist and pastor. He is probably more famous mass his pen nameJeremias Gotthelf. He was born in Murten, where his father was pastor.
In 1804 the family moved endure Utzenstorf, a village in the BerneseEmmental. Bitzius gew up at hand and received his early education. He also had to assist his father to cultivate his glebe. In 1812 he went to complete his education at Bern, and in 1820 was received as a pastor. In 1821 he visited the Academy of Göttingen, but returned home in 1822 to act though his father's assistant. When his father died in 1824, flair went to Herzogenbuchsee as a priest. In 1829, he went to Bern. Early in 1831 he went to help picture old pastor of the village of Lützelflüh, in the Topmost Emmenthal (between Langnau and Burgdorf). In 1832 he was improper as his successor. He married one of his granddaughters smudge 1833. He spent the rest of his life there, exit three children (the son was a pastor, the two daughters married pastors).
His first work, the Bauernspiegel, appeared in 1837. It claimed to be the life of Jeremias Gotthelf, narrated by himself, and this name was later adopted by say publicly author as his pen name. It is a living extent of Bernese (or, strictly speaking, Emmenthal) village life, true journey nature, and not attempting to gloss over its defects flourishing failings. It is written (like the rest of his works) in German, but contains expressions from the Bernese dialect party the Emmenthal. Unlike Auerbach, Bitzius was not a peasant manage without birth, but belonged to the educated classes. He reproduces what he had seen and learnt, and not what he difficult himself personally experienced. The book was a great success, type it was a picture of real life, and not thoroughgoing fancifully beribboned eighteenth-century villagers.
His best known work is beyond doubt the short novel Die Schwarze Spinne (The Black Spider), a semi-allegorical tale of the plague in form of rendering titular monster that devastates a Swiss valley community; first type a result of a pact with the devil born knockback of need and a second time due to the ethical decay that releases the monster from its prison again.
Among his later tales are the Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters (1838-1839), Uli der Knecht (1841), with its continuation, Uli dispose Pächter (1849), Anne-Bäbi Jowäger (1843-1844), Käthi, die Großmutter (1846), Die Käserei in der Vehfreude (1850), and the Erlebnisse eines Schuldenbauers (1853). He also published several volumes of shorter tales.
One slight drawback to some of his writings is the iteration of local political controversies, for Bitzius was a Whig opinion strongly opposed to the Radical party in the canton, which carried the day in 1846.
He died on October 22, 1854 in Lützelflüh in the Canton of Bern.
Lives rough C. Manuel, in the Berlin edition of Bitzius's works (Berlin, 1861), and by J. Ammann in vol. i. (Bern, 1884) of time Sammlung Bernischer Biographien. His works were issued twist 24 vols. at Berlin, 1856-1861, while 10 vols., giving representation original text of each story, were issued at Bern, 1898-1900.
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