User:Sandstein/Drafts/Rudolf von Tavel

Rudolf von Tavel (21 December 1866 – 18 October 1934) was a Swiss journalist and writer. For his Bernese German novels, he is remembered as one of the most prominent authors in the Swiss German languages.

Life
Von Tavel was born in Bern as the son of a prominent family belonging to the old Bernese patriciate, the aristocratic class of ancient families who had governed the city and canton of Bern until the establishment of a democratic state in 1831, and who remained pre-eminent in many fields of public life. He studied law and forensics in Lausanne, Leipzig and Berlin, and obtained a doctorate in Heidelberg in 1891. He then worked as editor of the Berner Tagblatt, a major conservative Bernese newspaper, and as chief of staff of the Schweizerische Mobiliar insurance company. In 1894, he married Adele Stettler (1874–1966); the couple had no children.

He served in the Swiss Army, commanding a battalion, and was, together with Hermann Hesse, active in the care for German prisoners of war during World War I. From 1902 to 1912 he served in the city parliament of Bern, representing the Conservative Democratic Party. He was also active in several church and charitable organizations.

From 1920 until his death from a stroke in 1934, von Tavel lived as a freelance writer in his country house near Bern.