It is late evening and already dark, Dorothee Elmiger is on her way home when an unknown number calls.
On the phone is Peter Weber, Swiss writer and member of the jury for the office of town clerk in Bergen-Enkheim.
He tells Elmiger that she will be the new officer.
This is how the Swiss writer, born in 1985, tells how she found out about her honor.
"I'm scared," she says of the moment. The shock came mainly from the fact that she already knew the importance of the place and the office, she says the day before the keys were handed over, in the inner courtyard of exhibition hall 1A in Sachsenhausen. A few years ago she had already been to Bergen-Enkheim. Then she had already seen the house at An der Oberpforte 4, in which she is now allowed to live for a year as the town clerk. She could also remember the signs with the names of all the scribes that hang on the facade and where she will be represented from now on. As they get to know each other, Elmiger speaks calmly, but not cautiously, with a slight Swiss accent. When she talks about her upcoming time as a town clerk, she smiles. On her first walk through the city, she realized in the first placethat she would soon be living here, and that she was very happy.
47 town clerk in front of her
As the town clerk of Bergen-Enkheim, the Zurich native not only receives prize money of 20,000 euros.
But also the right of residence, like the 47 officials before her.
The then independent city of Bergen-Enkheim has been promoting writers through the office since 1974.
This was unique in German-speaking countries to date, and many cities have since adopted the concept.
The price associated with the city clerk's office is not the first for Elmiger.
After the publication of her debut novel "Invitation to the Daring" in 2010, she was awarded, among other things, the Aspect Literature Prize.
In 2015 she also received the Swiss Literature Prize.
In Frankfurt Elmiger had drawn attention to herself primarily with her third book, which was published last. “From the sugar factory” was shortlisted for the German Book Prize in 2020, which is awarded every year at the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair. The novel stands out above all because it does not follow a set plot. Rather, he researches the history of sugar, telling it in seemingly incoherent but interrelated biographies, anecdotes and collected impressions.
This also impressed the nine members of the Bergen-Enkheimer jury, which includes not only experts but also citizen juries.
Elmiger's books are "compositions that follow motifs and stories and draw associative circles", wrote the jury.
The author creates fields around apparently loose terms such as sugar, desire and colonialism and finds relationships and reflections there.
This allows you to "stroll through" the books.
Place of residence in Zurich, place of work in Berlin
Strolling, that's what Dorothee Elmiger intends to do during her time in Frankfurt. Going for a walk is the best way to get to know a place, says the writer. So far, she has known Frankfurt mainly from books. As a student, she was also interested in the Frankfurt School, she recalls. Accordingly, it is “charged” in relation to the city. But Elmiger does not have a plan of what she would like to write about in Frankfurt. She is currently working on a longer text on the history of European expansion and colonialism, she reports. But she is currently in a phase in which she rejects a lot. She has it once for every book.
Despite her actual residence in Zurich and a teaching position in Berlin, Elmiger plans to spend as much time as possible in Frankfurt. “It is my wish to be here,” she says. The key to her new apartment in Bergen-Enkheim was ceremoniously handed over to her on Friday at the town clerk's festival. There will also be an inaugural reading by the Swiss woman. The date has not yet been set.