The children’s book character and her creator will soon receive more attention in Zurich. A prominent ambassador also ensures this.
The Japanese love Heidi: a scene from the Heidi anime from 1974 including Goat Peter and St. Bernard Joseph. The dog was invented for the series.
Imago
Probably the most famous female fictional character in Switzerland is an orphan girl, and she has fans as far away as Asia. Heidi is a pop culture phenomenon, especially in Japan. In the 1970s she was the star of an anime-style television series, she appeared in manga, and the Heidi books were republished countless times.
Heidi, the simple, natural girl with a pure heart and big eyes, who grew up with her grandfather in the idyllic and untouched mountains, still shapes the image of Switzerland abroad today. A romantic transfiguration that is rather unpleasant for many Swiss people.
In this country, Heidi is primarily marketed for tourism. At Zurich Airport she is the ambassador in the Skymetro, the underground railway that connects the airport building with Dock E.
An entire region is applying to be Heidiland: Bad Ragaz, the Tamina Valley, the Pizol area, Flumserberg, the Walensee region and the Bündner Machtum. There, in Maienfeld, the fictional character Heidi lived on an alp. Tourists can take a tour of the “Heidi Village” including an alpine hut and village school, alpine carving courses and herbal medicine.
In her literary homeland, Zurich, however, Heidi’s marketing is not yet very advanced. Its creator, the writer Johanna Spyri, wrote her Heidi books in the city. After all, the city has a street, a square and a path named after Spyri.
A Chinese edition from 1970.
Heidi Archive Zurich, Heidiseum Foundation
And in Zurich, two important collections are maintained and supported by the university: the Johanna Spyri archive and the Heidi archive with over 1,000 documents such as original editions, comics and cinema posters. Both were added to the UNESCO register last year «Memory of The World» recorded. Its aim is to preserve historical documents and make them available for posterity.
“No knee problems like Roger Federer”
The inclusion is remarkable simply because of the over 400 documents registered to date, only 5 have been directly related to women. When the FDFA announced the good news on Instagram on its “About Switzerland” accountinternational followers in particular burst into storms of enthusiasm and described their memories of Heidi in the comments.
Heidi is now officially a world cultural heritage site. But especially in the left-wing urban environment in Zurich, Heidi receives little attention as world literature, to say the least. Wrongfully so, as Hans Peter Danuser believes. For the former long-time spa director of St. Moritz, Johanna Spyri is one of Switzerland’s first feminists: a woman who became a best-selling author at the end of the 19th century, even though she had not published a single text until she was 44 years old.
Danuser can confidently be considered a Heidi ambassador. After all, it was he who created and protected the “Heidiland” brand in Japan, at that time still for the Engadine. Today he is a board member of the Heidiseum in Zurich. Its aim is to honor Johanna Spyri’s literary life’s work and to preserve Heidi as a cultural heritage – with research, projects and exhibitions all over the world.
The first Heidi illustration by Friedrich Wilhelm Pfeiffer, authorized by Johanna Spyri.
Heidi Archive Zurich, Heidiseum Foundation
Danuser says Heidi has a good image abroad. But in Switzerland she is like Mickey Mouse, a children’s figure. She is a perfect ambassador, “and she doesn’t have knee problems like Roger Federer.”
Heidi Center with selfie spot
That’s why Heidi should finally be given the honor she deserves: with a Heidi Heritage Center. In Zurich, the Heidiseum is planning a multimedia center on around 350 square meters for a broad, international and young audience. A place where important documents and artifacts from the Heidi archive are displayed.
But not in a dusty museum environment, but with, among other things, a room in which the exhibits are brought to life with video projections. The “Grimmwelt”, which opened in Kassel in 2015, serves as a model., which is dedicated to the life and work of the Brothers Grimm. It is not yet clear where exactly the center will be built in Zurich, and the costs are also unclear.
In any case, the whole thing should be “very instagrammable”, which is why a selfie spot is a must. After all, it has a literary claim: visitors can have their photo taken in a virtual, endless visitor tower.
Johanna Spyri (1827–1901) wrote the Heidi books in the city of Zurich.
Zurich Central Library
Heidi, says Peter Büttner, is like an uncut diamond that should be made interesting for Switzerland. The literary and cultural scientist is president of the Heidiseum and has a very special connection to the fictional character: Büttner is a great-grandson of the painter Friedrich Wilhelm Pfeiffer, who created the first drawings for Johanna Spyri in 1880, including those of Heidi.
Büttner is used to the fact that the girl from the mountains receives more attention abroad than in Switzerland. Last year alone he traveled to Japan four times and met, among others, Yoichi Kotabe, the character designer of the Japanese Heidi films, who also helped design the Pokémon films and Nintendo’s Super Mario characters. In 2025, Heidi will be the star in the Swiss pavilion at the Expo in Osaka in Japan.
“Heidi can release so many emotions,” says Büttner. “Each of us has a Heidi memory.” He hopes that the new center in Zurich will explicitly give the local audience a new, fresh access to Swiss cultural heritage.
And when you hear the name Heidi, the first thing that comes to mind is a German model.
2024-01-24 04:10:46
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