- 315 -

that he was ashamed by it when in the company of richer men. Perhaps the writer only wished to indicate that Bräker was not avaricious and tried hard to be content with his lot. This view of Bräker as political dissident persisted, however, for a long period (at least until the mid 20th century), as can be seen in the pattern of new editions and translations of his work after his death.

Voellmy also quotes Dr. Ebel, who in the second part of his "Schilderung der Gebirgsvölker der Schweiz", [Descripion of the mountain peoples of Switzerland] published in 1802, includes a mention of Bräker:

"I feel myself obliged to mention here a countryman of the Toggenburg, whose life, written by himself a few years ago, would be read with interest, at least in Switzerland. I made the acquaintance of this poor man, met him on several occasions, and grew heartily fond of him. In my opinion he is a remarkable example of how the essence of a soul sometimes still endures under all imaginable obstacles, is not crushed by the hardest blows of fate, but throughout all difficulties follows its original disposition. Bräker, in his youth a poor herdboy, in manhood a poor muslin-weaver, was drawn by his thirst for knowledge through every stage of ill-judged enthusiasms [Schwärmereien], but at the last worked his way out of all prejudice and deceptions of the imagination, and won for himself the simple truths of a healthy mind. Reading and writing had become a necessity for him. He seized upon every book that chance brought within his reach, and wrote down, as far as was possible, everything that went on in his soul. [He mentions Bräker's diary and some of his dramatic works.] Among his neighbours he goes by the name of a bookworm, and few of them know how to value him at his true worth." [v 2, pp 29-30]

Here one can see how, right from the first after his death, Bräker's learned contemporaries tended to judge him more by his character than by his actual literary achievements, which they would have admired very much less than we do today, mainly because of the distaste of educated people for what would today be called "working class" language and culture. But this piece also shows how he did himself no good by writing too much and exposing himself to undeserved criticism and even ridicule, before reaching the point at which his readers can begin to admire him. If he had truly wished for fame and fortune, he would have done better to make more use of the waste-paper basket!

Since this study of Bräker is intended as biographical rather than literary, I have not attempted any extended literary appreciation or even any bibliographical study of the whole of his writing. There are, however, some aspects which should be mentioned for understanding the way in which Bräker and his work are remembered for the two centuries following his death.

Bräker's legacy: his writings:

Bräker could be satisfied that his most important work, his autobiography, was safely published during his lifetime, also some portions of his diary (though these brought him more in money earned than in literary fame). Acclaimed at first, later his works were shadowed by prejudice, the view that he was not a proper person to write about himself. The days were past when the Pietists proclaimed that all lives and all selves had interest and meaning before God and before other believers, and the few remaining Pietists may have seen Bräker as selling out to the wealthy and learned élite for whom Füssli published. His remaining writing was piled up in the 4000 quarto pages in the library of St. Gallen. Much later, after Bräker's death, some of it was given a more permanent life, for example his criticism of Shakespeare, rescued for posterity first by Ernst Goetzinger in 1877, by W. Muschg in 1942, and then by Bowman's English edition in 1979. The facilities of the Internet have also helped to safeguard Bräker's work, allowing texts still in print (mostly those in the original German) to be more widely advertised.

Sometimes, however, one wonders if the bad luck and mismanagement which kept Bräker in poverty all his life, did not continue to dog his footsteps after death. Though other famous sons and daughters of the Toggenburg were not numerous, one can see that he might have been

Contents