Someone who lives differently because he is opposed to the pursuit of prosperity (Swiss Press Text 2015, by Walter Däpp) - Swiss Press Award

Der Kleine Bund

Walter Däpp

Christoph Trummer, 58, renounces the supposed comforts and security of life in Switzerland's affluent society. He lives differently – as an outsider. He built his paradise in the bed of the Engstligen mountain stream near Frutigen. I live in self-imposed material hardship, he says, necessity is the mother of invention. This report describes the reunion with the Frutigen dropout – ten years after the first visit. It asks what has become of Trummer's public step back then, what he feels, thinks, and does today. It also confronts him with the accusation of being a welfare parasite.