author
Jeremias Gotthelf
1797–1854
Best known by his pen name Jeremias Gotthelf, this Swiss pastor-novelist turned village life into vivid fiction full of moral struggle, humor, and sharp social observation. His stories of the Bernese countryside helped make him one of Switzerland’s most enduring nineteenth-century writers.
1 Audiobook
Miten Uli-renki tulee onnelliseksi: Romaani
by Jeremias Gotthelf
About the author
Born Albert Bitzius in Murten, Switzerland, in 1797, he grew up in the Bernese Emmental and later studied theology in Bern and Göttingen. He served as a pastor for many years in Lützelflüh, and his close knowledge of rural communities shaped the world of his fiction.
Writing as Jeremias Gotthelf, he published novels and stories that brought everyday country life to the page with unusual energy and realism. His work often praises family, faith, and local tradition, but it also looks hard at poverty, exploitation, and social failings, which gives the books both warmth and bite.
He is especially remembered as a major Swiss writer whose fiction captures the language, customs, and moral tensions of nineteenth-century Bernese life. He died in Lützelflüh in 1854, but his books have remained central to Swiss literary history.