The parents Elisa and Adolf met in the up-and-coming town of Biel at the end of the 19th century. Elisa Marti (1839-1894) is born into a family of farmers in the Emmental valley in Bern. Her father dies before she is born; she and her two siblings Verena 'Fanny' and Johann grow up as half-orphans. The family is registered in Biel from 1861: Their daughter Fanny marries the wealthy ironmonger Johann David Rummel. From this point on, Elisa helps her sister with the household, and Fanny is present at Hermann's christening as a witness. Adolf Walser (1833-1914), son of the radical-democratic theologian and publicist Johann Ulrich Walser from Teufen in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, learns the bookbinding trade in Paris and other places and settles in Biel in 1864, where he opens a shop with a workshop for stationery and frames.
Elisa and Adolf marry in 1868 at the age of twenty-nine and thirty-five respectively and have eight children: Adolf Emil (1869-1884) dies at the age of fifteen; Hermann (1870-1919) becomes a professor of geography; Oscar (1872-1959) lives in Basel and near Lugano as an procurator; Ernst (1873-1916), secondary school teacher, is interned in the Waldau psychiatric clinic near Bern from 1898; Elisa 'Lisa' (1875-1944), primary school teacher, works in Bellelay in the Swiss Jura; Karl (1877-1943) becomes a successful stage designer and artist in Berlin; Robert (1878-1956), after years in Berlin lives as a writer in Biel and Bern; Fanny (1882-1972), dental technician in Bern, lives for some time in Latvia.
Due to their father's bookbinding business and their mother's ambitions, the Walser family has an affinity for culture and education and sees itself as an aspiring member of Biel's bourgeoisie. Most of the siblings have a creative disposition and an affinity for literature, music and art; they all take piano lessons. A friend of Lisa's describes the household as loving but reserved; Lisa always has to play the piano for visitors.
However, the father's business declines steadily and he has to change the locality repeatedly, broadening the range to a general store. The family leaves the spacious house on Nidaugasse in 1885. While Hermann and Ernst are able to attend secondary school with the help of scholarships, the younger siblings complete an apprenticeship. The low point is reached when Adolf Walser has to obtain a certificate of good repute from the city of Biel in 1889, in which the city “warmly recommends both him and his adult children for possible employment” to potential employers.
Illustration: The medallion (64.5 x 52.5 cm) of the Walser family, which is kept in the Robert Walser Archive of the Robert Walser Centre, must have been made between 1878 and 1882, as Fanny, the youngest, is missing from the picture. Above Adolf Jr (centre), Hermann (right) and Oscar (left), in the centre, flanking Lisa, the parents Elisa and Adolf, below Karl (left), Robert (centre) and Ernst. The floral ornaments are made of human hair, in keeping with the customs of the time.
From: Hermann Walser, Geograf. Herausgegeben von Reto Sorg und Jeannine Wintzer. Schriften des Robert Walser-Zentrums 6, Bern 2022, p. 11-15
