Josef Viktor Widmann, the feuilleton editor of the Bernese daily newspaper Der Bund and the Sonntagsblatt des Bund from 1880 until his death in 1911, is considered the person who discovered Robert Walser. He published a selection of poems by the then 20-year-old Walser on on 8 May 1898 titled Lyrische Erstlinge. From that point onwards, he accompanied and supported his protégé by regularly reviewing his works, drawing attention to his scattered publications and repeatedly publishing him in his own journal. Walser repeatedly turned with confidence to his promoter, of whom he cherished ‘a noble memory, a dear and life-giving one’, as he wrote in a 1925 microgram.

Josef Viktor Widmann (1842-1911), born in Nennowitz, today a district of Brno in the Czech Republic, grew up in Liestal, where he was a close friend of the later Nobel Prize winner Carl Spitteler. He studied theology and philosophy in Basel, Heidelberg and Jena. After marrying Sophie Brodbeck, née Ernst, he moved to Bern in 1868, where he was appointed headmaster of the Bernese girls' school. In 1880, he moved to the daily newspaper Der Bund, which he turned into an internationally read and renowned newspaper with his feuilleton. Widmann campaigned for animal and environmental protection, women's suffrage and wrote against colonial crimes and the death penalty.

Widmann, himself a prolific writer with around fifty books to his name, was friends with numerous intellectual personalities of his time, such as Carl Spitteler, Gottfried Keller and Johannes Brahms. He discovered and supported artists such as Robert Walser, Ricarda Huch, Rudolf von Tavel, Bertha Züricher and Ferdinand Hodler. He was painted by the latter several times.

Further literature

- Mr. Feuilleton: Josef Viktor Widmann. Hg. von Lukas Gloor, Rea Köppel, Dominik Müller und Peter Utz. Bern: Robert Walser-Zentrum 2025 (Schriften des Robert Walser-Zentrums, 7).
- Josef Viktor Widmann: »Ein Journalist mit Temperament.« Ausgewählte Feuilletons. Hg. von
Elsbeth Pulver und Rudolf Käser. Bern: Zytglogge 1992.