+++ News
Karl Walser retrospective in Japan. +++ Vortrag von Patrick Eiden-Offe: Robert Walser – Von Biel nach Berlin und zurück: Prosastückli aus dem Weltstadtgetümmel +++ Übersetzerstammtisch +++ “Robert Walser and his publishers”. …
Permanent exhibition
In her exhibition ›Für die Katz‹, the award-winning artist Lika Nüsslis engages in a playful and imaginative visual dialogue with Robert Walser’s 1000 or so short texts through 69 large-format watercolours.
Current exhibition
In Peter Fischli’s exhibition Wir Ungestalten, his works oscillate between sculpture and tracks, observation and invention, humour and melancholy – created in the moment of discovery, in the wonder at what is easily overlooked.
Literature search
The Robert Walser Archive’s database lists primary as well as secondary literature about Robert Walser; it serves as both the Robert Walser’s bibliography and the Center’s main library catalogue. All resources can be consulted and studied in the reading room of the Robert Walser Centre.
About Robert Walser
Robert Walser (1878–1956) is considered one of the most mysterious writers of his time. Born in Biel, Switzerland, he left school at the age of fourteen to serve an apprenticeship at a local bank. Walser’s early poems were first published in 1898.
The Centre
The Robert Walser Centre is a competence centre for Robert Walser and Carl Seelig. To safeguard, inventory, research and communicate its holdings, it maintains the Robert Walser Archive as well as a research library and a temporary exhibition.
The Archive
The Robert Walser Archive has been collecting, indexing and publishing the author's work for more than 40 years. It has a unique collection of manuscripts, biographical materials and academic literature.
The Society
The Robert Walser Society has set itself the goal of promoting research into and dissemination of Robert Walser's work. It does this out of the conviction that Robert Walser is one of the most interesting German-language authors of the modern age.
Robert Walser-Newsletter
Here you will find exciting information on Robert Walser and exclusive insights into the Robert Walser Centre as well as information on upcoming Robert Walser events. The newsletter is published at least five times a year at irregular intervals (in German).
Friends
For us Robert Walser is a wonderful source of inspiration. We are grateful for the activities of the Robert Walser Center, which is dedicated to the preservation of Walser’s legacy and the dissemination of his work from ever new perspectives.
Publications
The Robert Walser Centre pursues book projects and editions in cooperation with various publishers and partners at home and abroad. Some of these projects are freely accessible online.
Bern edition
The Bern edition, published by Suhrkamp-Verlag, is designed as a reading and study edition. It makes Walser's work accessible in a text-philologically impeccable form, and includes epilogues and commentaries based on the latest research.
Invitation to Robert Walser's birthday!
Robert Walser held restaurants in the highest regard – they were places where people gathered, places to recharge one’s batteries, to observe or to get involved. That is why, on his birthday, 15 April, we meet up with like-minded people in a café, a pub or a restaurant to raise a glass to him.
Critical edition
The Robert Walser Centre and its Berner Ausgabe work closely together with the Kritische Robert Walser-Ausgabe compiled at the Universities of Basel and Zurich and are on friendly terms.
Audio Guide to the Robert Walser Center
A short audio guide to the Robert Walser Center with the most important information about our house, our activities and Robert Walser (only in German).
The grave of Karl and Hedwig Walser
Together with the Schosshalden Cemetery, the Robert Walser Center cares for the grave of the artist Karl Walser, who died in 1943, and his wife Hedwig, who died in 1987.
Our YouTube channel
Here we show contributions that are about Robert Walser and the activities of the Robert Walser Center—organized by playlists.
Robert Walser Prize
Since 2018, the Robert Walser Centre has been a partner of the Robert Walser Prize, the only bilingual literary prize in Switzerland. Every two years, prose debuts in German and French are awarded by the Foundation Robert Walser Biel/Bienne. The next award ceremony will take place in autumn 2026.
Walking with Carl Seelig and Robert Walser
We have mapped a selection from Carl Seelig's book Walks with Walser. An invitation to explore the region around Herisau on the screen as well as by walking!