Ernst Julius Walser
* 10. June 1873, † 17. November 1916
Teacher
Trained as a secondary school teacher. Six years as an educator and teacher in Naples. A serious head injury forces him to return to Switzerland. Then alternating teaching positions in the canton of Glarus and near Biel. Talented piano player with intellectual inclinations ( study of Nietzsche, plans for a doctorate, submissions for the feuilleton). After disciplinary problems in the military (demotion, arrest), he is interned in the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Waldau near Bern in 1898 due to mental problems; diagnosis: "Dementia Praecox" (schizophrenia), where he lives for 18 years until his death.
Literary traces in Geschwister Tanner (Emil Tanner) (1907); Wanda (1912); “Felix”-Szenen (“Student aus Bern”) (written 1925).
From: Robert Walser-Handbuch, ed. by Lucas Marco Gisi, 2015, p. 16-17