Nature poetry, pacifism and witch hunt

Helene Bossert (1907-1999), who grew up in the simplest of circumstances in the Upper Basel region, was one of the best-known dialect authors in German-speaking Switzerland in the middle of the 20th century thanks to her work for the radio. However, after a study trip to the then Soviet Union in 1953, she was declared a traitor and subjected to a veritable witch hunt: She was dismissed from the Basel radio studio, ostracized in the village and spied on by the political police.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of her death, the DISTL - Dichter:innen- und Stadtmuseum Liestal is dedicating an exhibition to the writer. It offers insights into Bossert's private life, her career as a poet, her work in radio, her defamation under the sign of the Cold War and the only partially successful efforts for rehabilitation. In doing so, it can draw on Helene Bossert's estate, which has recently been preserved in the State Archives of Baselland.