What is Jeremias Gotthelf?
[[File:JeremiasGotthelf.jpg|thumb|Jeremias Gotthelf]] '''Albert Bitzius''' (October 4, 1797 – October 22, 1854) was a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[novelist]] and [[pastor]]. He is probably more famous by his [[pen name]] '''Jeremias Gotthelf'''. He was born in [[Murten]], where his father was pastor. In 1804 the family moved to Utzenstorf, a village in the [[Canton of Berne|Bernese]] [[Emmental]]. Bitzius gew up there and received his early education. He also had to help his father to cultivate his [[glebe]]. In 1812 he went to complete his education at [[Bern (city)|Bern]], and in 1820 was received as a pastor. In 1821 he visited the [[University of Göttingen]], but returned home in 1822 to act as his father's assistant. When his father died in 1824, he went to [[Herzogenbuchsee]] as a [[priest]]. In 1829, he went to [[Bern (city)|Bern]]. Early in 1831 he went to help the old pastor of the village of Lützelflüh, in the [[Upper Emmenthal]] (between [[Langnau im Emmental|Langnau]] and [[Burgdorf, Switzerland|Burgdorf]]). In 1832 he was chosen as his successor. He married one of his granddaughters in 1833. He spent the rest of his life there, leaving three children (the son was a pastor, the two daughters married pastors). His first work, the ''Bauernspiegel'', appeared in 1837. It claimed to be the life of Jeremias Gotthelf, narrated by himself, and this name was later adopted by the author as his pen name. It is a living picture of Bernese (or, strictly speaking, Emmenthal) village life, true to nature, and not attempting to gloss over its defects and failings. It is written (like the rest of his works) in German, but contains expressions from the [[Bernese dialect]] of the Emmenthal. Unlike [[Berthold Auerbach|Auerbach]], Bitzius was not a peasant by birth, but belonged to the educated classes. He reproduces what he had seen and learnt, and not what he had himself personally experienced. The book was a great success, as it was a picture of real life, and not of fancifully beribboned eighteenth-century villager