Later Life
In 1990, he gave two famous speeches, one in honour of Václav Havel (Die Schweiz, ein Gefängnis?/Switzerland a Prison?), the other in honour of Mikhail Gorbachev (Kants Hoffnung/Kant's Hope). Dürrenmatt often compared the three Abrahamic religions and Marxism, which he also saw as a religion.
Even if there are several parallels between Dürrenmatt and Brecht, Dürrenmatt never took a political position, but represented a pragmatic philosophy of life. He traveled in 1969 to the United States, in 1974 to Israel, and in 1990 to Auschwitz in Poland.
Dürrenmatt died from heart failure on 14 December 1990 in Neuchâtel.
Read more about this topic: Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“To regard the imagination as metaphysics is to think of it as part of life, and to think of it as part of life is to realize the extent of artifice. We live in the mind.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“There is a delicate balance of putting yourself last and not being a doormat and thinking of yourself first and not coming off as selfish, arrogant, or bossy. We spend the majority of our lives attempting to perfect this balance. When we are successful, we have many close, healthy relationships. When we are unsuccessful, we suffer the natural consequences of damaged and sometimes broken relationships. Children are just beginning their journey on this important life lesson.”
—Cindy L. Teachey. “Building Lifelong Relationships—School Age Programs at Work,” Child Care Exchange (January 1994)