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Red-haired Zora and the Black Brothers

National Museum Zurich | 10.6.2023 - 12.11.2023
published on 7.6.2023

Written in the 1940s in the Swiss canton of Ticino, two particular novels for young people continue to touch and move their readers 80 years on. They are Die Rote Zora und ihre Bande (published in English as ‘The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle’ and featuring the red-haired Zora of the German title) and Die Schwarzen Brüder (‘The Black Brothers’). Behind these two classics are two German authors – Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber – both writing and life partners, who fled to Ticino when the Nazis came to power.

In 1933, Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber took up residence in Carona, a small village just south of Lugano, where they rubbed shoulders with numerous writers and artists. Ticino – which until the mid-19th century was the poor part of Switzerland – had rapidly become a popular destination for travellers with the opening of the Gotthard tunnel and the emerging tourism industry. Writers and artists in particular, such as Hermann Hesse, Meret Oppenheim and Erich Maria Remarque moved to southern Switzerland, and many settled in Ticino. The internationally famous artists' colony Monte Verità, which was set up in 1900, also played a part in this.

From 1933, Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber spent their lives in this culturally stimulating environment. Kläber, who was a member of the Communist Party, had been politically persecuted in Germany and was only safe after fleeing to Switzerland. But even there the couple's life was not easy. Kurt Kläber was banned from publishing, so his wife was forced to become the sole breadwinner. The German National Socialist regime had also left deep scars on the pair and their social and political engagement permeates their work. For example, 'The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle', which Kläber published under the pseudonym Kurt Held, features red-haired Zora as the leader of a gang of young people on the Adriatic Coast who are fighting against adults and injustice, while 'The Black Brothers' tells the story of Giorgio, a Spazzacamino (chimney sweep) who is sold to the city of Milan.

The two works are shaped by personal experience and have lost none of their power and emotive force in the 21st century. The exhibition connects the worlds of the two heroes with the lives of Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber in Ticino, which evolved to become a tourist and cultural hotspot in the 20th century.

Documents

Images

Crying chimney sweep boy | © Pinacoteca cantonale Giovanni Züst, Rancate (Mendrisio), Cantone Ticino, Svizzera
Crying chimney sweep boy

Antonio Rinaldi (1816–1875), Spazzacamino piangente, 1860–1870, oil on canvas

Pinacoteca cantonale Giovanni Züst, Rancate (Mendrisio), Cantone Ticino, Svizzera

Chimney sweeper in Milan | © L’illustrazione popolare, Fratelli Treves Editori - Milano, 1906. Alamy stock photo
Chimney sweeper in Milan

Until the middle of the 20th century, poor families from Verzasca valley and Centovalli were forced to send their young sons to work as chimney sweeps for a pittance in northern Italy, where they would clamber up the chimneys of rich people’s houses.

L’illustrazione popolare, Fratelli Treves Editori - Milano, 1906. Alamy stock photo

Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber | © Bibliothek und Archiv Aargau
Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber

Basel, 1942, unknown photographer

Bibliothek und Archiv Aargau

Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber | © © Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media, Zurich
Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber

Carona, 1928, unknown photographer

© Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media, Zurich

View of Carona and Monte San Salvatore | © Bibliothek und Archiv Aargau
View of Carona and Monte San Salvatore

The ‘artists’ sanctuary’ of Carona is situated in an idyllic landscape above Lake Lugano in the southern canton of Ticino. Carona, around 1930, unknown photographer

Bibliothek und Archiv Aargau

The Black Brothers | © © Theo Glinz
The Black Brothers

Lisa Tetzner, The Black Brothers, Vol. 1 and 2, Aarau, Sauerländer Verlag, 1941, cover and illustrations by Theo Glinz.

© Theo Glinz

Red-haired Zora and her Gang | © © Erbengemeinschaft Hoffmann
Red-haired Zora and her Gang

Kurt Held, Red-haired Zora and her Gang, First edition, 1941, Cover Felix Hoffmann, Aarau, Sauerländer Verlag.

© Erbengemeinschaft Hoffmann

First editions | © Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media, Zurich. Photo: © Swiss National Museum
First editions

Kurt Held, Red-haired Zora and her Gang and Lisa Tetzner, The Black Brothers, Aarau, Sauerländer Verlag, 1941.

Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media, Zurich. Photo: © Swiss National Museum

New edition | © © 2023, ProLitteris, Zurich / Fischer Kinder- und Jugendbuch Verlag GmbH
New edition

Design by Edith Schindler for the cover of the new edition Red-haired Zora and her Gang from 1985, first published in 1941 by Sauerländer Verlag, Aarau.

© 2023, ProLitteris, Zurich / Fischer Kinder- und Jugendbuch Verlag GmbH

View of the exhibition | © © Swiss National Museum
View of the exhibition

Typewriters by Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber

© Swiss National Museum

© © Swiss National Museum

View of the exhibition

© Swiss National Museum

© © Swiss National Museum

View of the exhibition

© Swiss National Museum

© © Swiss National Museum

View of the exhibition

© Swiss National Museum

| © © Swiss National Museum
Keyvisual

Key visual of the exhibition

© Swiss National Museum

Please note that the downloading and use of images is reserved exclusively for journalists, teachers and other authorised parties. Images are only permitted to be used for the purposes of reporting on exhibitions, provided the captions and reference to copyright are included, or for teaching purposes. Many thanks!

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