The 'Zurich School' 1929-1939 — A war on two fronts

Exile was an obvious option for many German and Italian leftwing writers wishing to maintain their right to freedom of speech in the 1930s. The relative nature of freedom even in exile is however illustrated by the fate of writers who, having supported communism throughout the 1920s, refused to endorse Stalin's regime in the 1930s. Having broken free, some were misjudged or neglected for party political reasons, a state of affairs which tended to continue in postwar exile research. Misunderstanding of the work of the exile community in Zurich particularly has been compounded by the relatively low profile of Switzerland as a land of long-term exile. A temporary refuge for the famous, notably Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, Zurich was the home of Ignazio Silone and Bernard von Brentano for over fifteen years. There they formed life-long friendships with the Swiss writers Rudolf Jakob Humm and Fritz Brupbacher, and the French poet Jean-Paul Samson, who took up residence in Zurich during World War One as a conscientious objector. Innumerable evenings of discussion and frequent correspondence began as early as 1929/30 when Silone first arrived in Zurich. Brentano came to Zurich early in 1933; his background as a supporter of the workers' movement but also as a cultural journalist and wouldbe novelist making him a natural addition to the group. In 1936 Samson published an article entided 'L'École de Zurich (The Zurich School)' describing the factors which united them. He did not put forward any specific literary or political programme, but saw in this very lack of formal organisation and affiliation the group's specific role in the antifascist movement. Their residence in Zurich, traditionally the home of reformation and non-conformism, also seemed significant to Samson: