"Geographic and Allgebraic Books" 1912-1916

Books 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14

In a school notebook marked “Notes” of Adolf Wölfli, 1B 1912, Wölfli orders "100 to 120 pieces of genuine, whole and practical colored pencils: of the system Faber, Nürnberg with unpainted wooden boxes with 12 pieces to each box, that makes 10 or 12 boxes. As well as a roll of fresh newsprint pages with 100 or 120 pages in a roll. For the pupose of a highly elegant music booklet, which during the next years I want to write, compose and draw with my own highly personal hand and eventually complete and publish, just like the last booklet I completed with the title: Scientific and Nature Exploring Travels, Hunting, Accidental Falls, Adventures and Other Experiences of a Lost Soul Erring over the Whole Globe of This Earth; or, A Servant of God without a Head Is More Miserable Than the Most Miserable of Wretches. . . . The music booklet I intend to complete is going to appear in print under the title Indian Rose-Garden and Chinese Witches'-Ocean." Here again we witness Wölfli's systematic manner of working; he plans his work in advance and calculates the number of colored pencils and pages of paper he will need.

When Wölfli refers to a Book "just completed," he obviously means “From the Cradle to the Grave”. The seven Books written during the following four years (1912-1916) are titled “Geographic and Algebraic Books,” which is an especially appropriate title for the first four completed Books of this group. Wölfli never used the elaborate and romantic title "Indian Rose-Garden and Chinese Witches,-Ocean"; yet the last three Books of this group (12, 13, 14) certainly fulfilled his intention of creating, if not a "music booklet" certainly a book of music, three thick volumes of it, containing an increasing number of songs and marches, as well as illustrations consisting almost exclusively of musical notation.

In the seven “Geographic and Algebraic Books,” Wölfli describes the emergence of the "St. Adolf Giant Creation." The story moves forward in time, unlike “From the Cradle to the Grave,” in which Wölfli, in inventing a new version of his past life, turned backward in time. “From the Cradle to the Grave” was completed in January 1912, and for the following eleven months of that year he worked on Books 6, 7, and 8, the first three of the “Geographic and Algebraic Books,” which contain his "Building Foundations." In these Books Doufi has accumulated a fortune from "Charity Donations" given in sympathy for his calamities. Wölfli buys up the imaginary places he visited earlier on. He rebuilds cities and countries, creates public enterprises and social institutions, traffic systems, and so on. Wölfli is shaping the future. This activity culminates in Book 11 with the metamorphosis of the "Swiss Hunters and Nature Explorer Traveling Society" into a "Giant-Travel-Avant-Garde," the transposition of the travels around the earth into travels around the cosmos, the substitution of gods for the world regents, the encounter with "God-Father," and finally, the formation of the "St. Adolf Creation." What is decisive is the transformation of Adolf Wölfli into St. Adolf, who from then on becomes an author and a hero. Whereas the "Building Foundations" still refers to real events, the cosmic descriptions--though treated in a brashly realistic manner--attain a visionary dimension. In 1916 Wölfli renamed himself St. Adolf II and at this point he seems to have reached the peak of his visionary inventive energy. After that, moved by expansive euphoria, Wölfli enlarged the format of the Books, but in the story itself, relative calm ensued. Wölfli invented no other "Foundations" but celebrated his creation in ever new variations.

Some brief examples of Wölfli's new organization of Switzerland and the world: "Eh bien! My last mentioned, most cherished home community Schangnau is now to be rebaptized conclusively with the name St. Adolf-Home. And my beloved fatherland, the Republic Switzerland, with all that exists on top of its ground and in it, should in the name of God, the almighty father, who created heaven and earth, become a Duchy with the name of Switzerland subject to the new Kingdom St. Adolf-Forest, St. Adolf-Forest-East and St. Adolf-Forest-West. The last three countries again divided into land owned by knights and land owned by the community; all this must happen as soon as possible. In the course of the centuries the Swiss highland plateau turns into one single giant sea of houses under the single name St. Adolf-Hall."

"Now I am building the foundation of a highly elegant St. Adolf-Commerce-Bank in the following European and Asiatic Giant-Cities, each with capital of 20,000,000 Fr.
1. St. Adolf-Hall, Duchy Switzerland
2. St. Adolf-Trip, France
3. St. Adolf-Slaughter near Petersburg
4. St. Adolf-Bed near Omsk and Tomsk
5. St. Adolf-Witches-Hall in China
6. St. Adolf-Axe. Oh yeah! Near Axenhall
7. St. Adolf-Chamberan in China and
8. St. Adolf-Lion-Hall in India
All these American, European, Asian St. Adolf-South and Periphery, as well as the Greenland and St. Adolf-Continental-Commerce-Banks, are branches of the large St. Adolf-Commerce-Central-Bank in the Emporer-Hall, Grand-Duchy-Normandy, the Empire-Realm of St. Adolf-Forest."

In Book 11 (1913), Wölfli and his companions leave the earth and continue their travels in the cosmos. Directed by "God-Father," the "Giant-Airplane," called also "The Giant-Travel-Transparent" with the "Giant-Travel-Avant-Garde" on board flying from star to star. Wölfli describes the fantastical visions he encounters with "God-Father" and other divinites. Persons from his childhood now appear as "Great-Great-Gods, and Goddesses," and are connected to these cosmic experiences.

Since the conventional numerical system does not go far enough for the vast exaggerations necessary to describe the St. Adolf Giant Creation, he takes the traditional numbers through quadrillion and then expands them by twenty-three new numerical units, for which he invents names. At first the highest number in this invented system is "Oberon"; later he supplements it with an even larger number, ultimately the largest one, which he calls Zorn (rage).

In Books 12, 13 and 14 (1914-1916) Wölfli describes the expansion of the St. Adolf Creation. Book 12 contains his travels on the "Werant-Santa-Maria-Star." With the "Travel-Avant-Gaarde" Wölfli undertakes to rewrite the magazine Über Land and Meer. The magazine is "rewritten, photographed and drawn anew" with the goal of getting it printed after the return to Bern. In Book 13 Wölfli begins to quote the measurements of the "geographic descriptions" according to a "highly personal Weight-System" with a "Calculation-Index." In these three Books Wölfli celebrates his new creation and comments: "From this point the geographic region is structured and celebrated in music."

Wölfli signs the Geographic and Algebraic Books as "Knight-Adolf," "Emperor-Adolf," "St. Adolf," "St. Adolf-Great-Great-God," "A Fatality," "Dying Excellency," and sometimes, simply "Doufi." Then, in 1916, with a touch of irony, Wölfli formulates his new name: "St. Adolph the I., Great-King of Grenoble-St. Adolf-King, Giant-City in Savojen; last named with an additional calculation-supplement of 50 hours is my third-youngest brother as a Great-God! And I am, St. Adolf the II., Couscous King and Great-Great-God. Bern, Friday, the 23d of June, 1916." For a long time after, he signs as "St. Adolf II," with this name conferring on himself a new identity well earned by sixteen arduous years of work as a draftsman and a writer.

(Elka Spoerri)