Cowbells and Chocolate

November 24, 1972 was the day that Mani Matter died. But let me start at the beginning. Who exactly was Mani Matter and what did he do?

If you’re Swiss, then of course you have heard of the man. You probably have Mani Matter records or song books. If not then you’ve most likely heard of him through the Swiss media which regularly churns out articles about him so he stays in the Swiss collective memory.

Let’s start with the obvious first. What kind of name is Mani, some kind of nickname for sure. I always thought it was short for something like Manfred. Shortening a name and adding an ‘i’ is always a possibility as a diminutive. My husband’s family all call him ‘Beni’. But being from Berne as Mani was, he would probably have been called ‘Mänu’ and not ‘Mani’ outside his family. Actually discussing which nicknames come from ‘Manfred’ is a bit of a moot point.

As it turns out, Mani’s given name was ‘Hans Peter’. His mother, being Dutch, called him ‘Jan’ which is Dutch for ‘Hans’. His sister called him ‘Nani’ which is something of a cross between ‘Jan’ and ‘Hansi’. I wrote a whole post about nicknames a couple of years ago if you want to catch up on Swiss nicknames. Actually, ‘Mani’ is his boy scout name and probably was just an altered version of what his sister called him. It can and does happen that that name follows people for the rest of their lives. The Bernese rock musician ‘Polo’ Hofer was his boy scout name, too. As with the origin of the name ‘Polo’, the general public was more or less clueless to the fact that Polo’s given name was Urs Alfred.

Mani grew up bi-lingual, speaking French at home and Bernese everywhere else. In 1962 he married a Swiss secondary school teacher whose mother was English. In 1967 the Matter family went to England for a year. But before they went to England, Mani finished his doctorate studies graduating with the highest distinction of summa cum laude. After returning to Switzerland Mani began working as a lawyer.

It’s a Small World

Before I continue with the life of Mani Matter, let me tell you how our lives crossed. Actually, our lives never directly crossed, just sort of. Obviously he had died long before I came to Switzerland. But as you will see, it is a small world none the less.

English Classes

My husband, while studying to become a teacher, had to take languages classes, English was one of them. His teacher Mrs. Doebeli was an older lady. He recalls that after his first class with her, he thought ‘Great, I am going to learn English from a German woman!’ because she spoke perfect German with the students who didn’t understand what she had said in English. He eventually found out that English was her mother tongue. She was born and raised in England but her German and French, as I understand it, were amazingly good. He also found out that she was Mani Matter’s mother-in-law and quite an interesting person in her own right.

She lived alone in an eight room apartment in Berne, which is huge considering that most families live in 4 room apartments. She said that after growing up in a English castle, that eight rooms was the absolute minimum size apartment she could imagine living in.

Mrs. Doebeli was also a woman of high spirits and intuition. As a young woman during WWII she was working as a translator in an eastern country. At some point she had to evacuate the country because it was no longer safe. She was able to somehow secure a seat on the last flight out of the country. While waiting for her turn to board the plane there was some commotion with a child and mother. The child was screaming and crying that she didn’t want to get on the plane, but to no avail, they boarded.

Mrs. Doebeli thought that was an omen for her not to board the plane. And, luckily not having her mother there to push and prod her into the plane like she had just witnessed, she decided on the spur of the moment to find other means to leave the country. After a much longer, adventurous journey, and not without danger to herself, she was able to escape to safety. She found out later that the last plane out of the country, the one she was booked to be on, had been shot down by enemy guns. There were no survivors.

Mrs. Doebeli was also a woman of independent ideas and thoughts. She decided at the age of 67 or so that she wanted to learn to play the piano. And so was it, she began taking lessons.

Somewhat later, after Ben returned from the States and decided that he wanted to ask me to marry him, he drafted a letter to my parents to formally ask for their consent. He requested Mrs. Doebeli read it and correct any mistakes, which she did. Also, she decided while she was correcting mistakes, she would try to correct what she thought was a huge mistake that Ben was going to make. She didn’t think it was a good idea at all getting married before Ben finished his studies and without any practical job experience (luckily, as far as I know, she didn’t have any reservations about who he wanted to marry). Of course, that fact that I am here in Switzerland and can tell you the story, means that my husband-to-be didn’t share her opinion in that particular case. Lucky me.

Why was Mani Matter Famous?

So, now you know about his name and something interesting about his mother-in-law, but what exactly did he do? Well, he was a singer.

Learning Bernese German

With that comes my only real connection to Mani Matter; the fact that I sang his songs as a way to learn Bernese. It helped me immensely but probably hurt the people who had to hear me try to hit the right notes. Let it be said that I inherited all my singing talents from my father. Unfortunately, my father couldn’t carry a tune. He said that his singing voice was similar to Lee Marvin’s singing ‘Wanderin’ Star’ from ‘Paint your Wagon’.

So, if you wonder what my singing sounded like, listen to the music below. Imagine the voice of a woman and you can imagine what I sound like when I try to sing. At any rate, Mani helped me, and probably countless others to learn Bernese German. Again, this is NOT Mani Matter, and no, you don’t have to listen to the whole song if you can’t.

Mani’s Singing Career

In Swiss German Mani Matter is a ‘chansonnier’. That’s French and is a ‘cabaret artist who specializes in political satire’. That is a stuffy way to describe a folk singer. To put it a bit more into perspective think Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie or even Joan Baez. One voice, one guitar and stories to tell. Mani Matter modeled his songs similar to those of the French singer Georges Brassens.

He started sometime around 1953 texting and singing his Bernese dialect songs. A little more than 10 years later he was part of a group of six men – the Berner Troubadours. A troubadour was a lyric poet who thrived during the High Middle Ages (1100 – 1350) in the South of France. The texts of the troubadour songs were mostly metaphysical, intellectual and formulaic, sometimes in a form of satire. Troubadours were not wandering entertainers, they usually stayed in one place for a longer amount of time.

There were six ‘original’ Berner Troubadours. Being a ‘troubadour’ allowed each to perform singularly or as a group. Their songs, like those of the troubadours from the Middle Ages were famous for their ‘soft irony’, often about daily things that reflected on philosophical questions. For example, one such song asks if a sandwich without meat is just bread. Another song is about being at the barber’s and looking into mirrors that reflected back images of himself so many times he felt ‘metaphysical creepiness’.

This one is about lighting a match, of all things, and what can happen when everything goes wrong!

Another song he wrote was about the street he lived on. One that leads to the cemetery. And, contrary to what other people might think, he liked living there. He mused that although it’s a dead end street he enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t a one way street for him.

His Life Ended Abruptly

In the evening of Nov. 24, 1972 while driving to a performance in Rapperswil (ZH), Mani Matter had a fatal car accident while he was overtaking another car.

There is a cultural phenomenon called the ‘27’ club. It seems like many popular musicians, artists, actors and other celebrities died at that tender age. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse to name a few. Mani Matter was neither a rock singer nor was he 27 when he died, but he was a phenomenon.

Mani Matter was 36 years old when he died. Who knows, maybe being a Bernese, who are known for being slow and unhurried had an effect on him being 36 years old when he joined the 27 club.