Ernst Frei

Born on January 14, 1918, he grew up on a small mountain homestead in Hemberg in the Toggenburg region of Switzerland. After training in a craft, his technical education was interrupted by more than a thousand days of active military service. He later spent about forty-five years in public service, including work in aviation ground operations and as head of a technical section in the Swiss federal administration.

According to Literapedia Bern, he said that his wish to improve safety and quality of life first found expression in technical publications and cooperative housing work, and later continued in the short stories and novels he wrote after retirement. The same source also identifies him as a member of the Bernese writers' association.

His published work includes Erlebter Aktivdienst, a book drawing on his memories of the years 1939 to 1945, when he experienced the fears and dangers of war as a young man in active service and as a member of the air force. An older work associated with the name Ernst Frei, Lips Tullian und seine Raubgenossen, is available through Project Gutenberg from an 1854 edition, but the available sources here do not clearly confirm whether it was written by this same Ernst Frei or by another author with the same name.