Editing Gottfried Keller (section)

==Career==
Keller's first true passion was painting. Expelled in a political mix-up from the ''Industrieschule'' in [[Zürich]], he became an apprentice in 1834 to the landscape painter Steiger and in 1837 to the watercolourist Rudolf Meyer (1803–1857). In 1840, he went to [[Munich]] (Bavaria) to study art for a time at the [[Academy of Fine Arts, Munich|Royal Academy of Fine Arts]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Keller, Gottfried |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/012024/2012-05-31/ |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref>

Keller returned to Zürich in 1842 and, although possessing artistic talent, took up writing. He published his first poems, ''Gedichte'', in 1846. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann characterizes these six years at Zürich (1842–48) as a time of almost total inactivity, when Keller inclined strongly toward radicalism in politics, and was also subject to too much temptation and indulged himself. From 1848 to 1850 he studied at the [[Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg|University of Heidelberg]]. There he came under the influence of the philosopher [[Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach|Feuerbach]], and extended his radicalism also to matters of religion.

From 1850 to 1856, he worked in Berlin. Hartmann claims it was chiefly this stay in Berlin which molded Keller's character into its final shape, toned down his rather bitter pessimism to a more moderate form, and prepared him (not without the privations of hunger), in the whirl of a large city, for an enjoyment of the more restricted pleasures of his native Zürich. It was in Berlin that he turned definitely away from other pursuits and took up literature as a career.
[[File:Gottfried Keller 1860.jpeg|left|thumb|Gottfried Keller in 1860]]
In this period, Keller published the semi-autobiographical novel ''Der grüne Heinrich'' (''[[Green Henry]]'').  It is the most personal of all his works. Under the influence of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s doctrine of a return to nature, this book was at first intended to be a short narrative of the collapse of the life of a young artist. It expanded as its composition progressed into a huge work drawing on Keller's youth and career (or more precisely ''non-career'') as a painter up to 1842.  Its reception by the literary world was cool, but the second version of 1879 is a rounded and satisfying artistic product.

[[File:Zürich - Enge - Gottfried Keller IMG 1874.JPG|thumb|Gottfried Keller memorial at [[Enge (Zürich)]] harbour]]
He also published his first collection of short stories, ''[[Seldwyla Folks]]'' ({{langx|de|Die Leute von Seldwyla}}). It contains five stories averaging 60 pages each: “Pankraz der Schmoller,” “Frau Regel Amrain und ihr jüngster,” “Die drei gerechten Kammacher,” “Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe,” and “Spiegel das Kätzchen.” Hartmann characterizes two of the stories in ''Seldwyla Folks'' as immortal: “Die drei gerechten Kammacher” he views as the most satyric and scorching attack on the sordid [[petit bourgeois]] morality ever penned by any writer, and “Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe” as one of the most pathetic tales in literature ([[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' plot in a Swiss village setting).

Keller returned again to Zürich and became the ''First Official Secretary'' of the [[Canton of Zürich]] (''Erster Zürcher Staatsschreiber'') in 1861. The routine duties of this position were a sort of fixed point about which his artistic activities could revolve, but Hartmann opines that he produced little of permanent value in these years. In 1872, Keller published ''Seven Legends'' (''Sieben Legenden''), which dealt with the early Christian era. After 15 years at this post, he was retired in 1876, and began a period of literary activity that was to last to his death, living the life of an old bachelor with his sister Regula as his housekeeper. In spite of his often unsympathetic manner, his extreme reserve and idiosyncrasy in dealing with others, he had gained the affection of his fellow townspeople and an almost universal reputation before his death.