Editing Friedrich Dürrenmatt (section)

==Life==
Dürrenmatt was born in [[Konolfingen]], canton of [[Bern]], the son of a [[Swiss Reformed Church|Protestant]] pastor. His grandfather, Ulrich Dürrenmatt, was a conservative politician. The family moved to Bern in 1935. Dürrenmatt began studies in philosophy, [[German studies|German philology]], and [[German literature]] at the [[University of Zürich]] in 1941, but moved to the [[University of Bern]] after one semester where he also studied [[natural science]]. In 1943, he decided to become an author and dramatist and dropped his academic career. In 1945–46, he wrote his first play ''It Is Written''. On 11 October 1946, he married the actress Lotti Geissler. 

Dürrenmatt traveled in 1969 to the [[United States]], in 1974 to [[Israel]], and in 1990 to [[Auschwitz]] in [[Poland]].

[[File:Neuchatel CentreDuerrenmatt 2004.jpg|thumb|left|View above the [[Centre Dürrenmatt]] at [[Lake Neuchâtel]]]]

In 1975 he played himself in the film ''[[End of the Game]].''<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2486&v=swH50gVate8 Der Richter und sein Henker], accessed 2022-03-19.</ref>

Dürrenmatt also enjoyed painting. Some of his works and his drawings were exhibited in [[Neuchâtel]] in 1976 and 1985 and in [[Zürich]] in 1978.

His wife, Lotti Geissler, died on 16 January 1983. Dürrenmatt married another actress, [[Charlotte Kerr]], in 1984.{{fact|date=December 2024}}

In 1990 he gave two famous speeches, one in honour of [[Václav Havel]] ("Die Schweiz, ein Gefängnis?/Switzerland a Prison?") on discovering that he had been spied on for five decades, along with 800,000 of his left-leaning fellow citizens, by the [[Swiss Secret Service|Swiss secret service]];<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-secret-service-spied-on-duerrenmatt/46681496|title=Swiss secret service spied on Dürrenmatt|date=6 June 2021 }}</ref> the other in honour of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] ("Kants Hoffnung/[[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'s Hope"). Dürrenmatt often compared the three [[Abrahamic religions]] and [[Marxism]], which he also saw as a religion.{{fact|date=December 2024}}

Dürrenmatt died from [[congestive heart failure|heart failure]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fdurren.htm |title=Friedrich Dürrenmatt |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223120107/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fdurren.htm |archive-date=23 February 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> on 14 December 1990 in [[Neuchâtel]].{{fact|date=December 2024}}

Since 2000 his works have been exhibited in the Centre Dürrenmatt, part of the [[Swiss National Library]].{{fact|date=December 2024}}