The Swiss researcher who lived in a school basement for 27 years

Wilhelm Kaiser wanted to be close to his research work. ZVG/Nachlass Zentralbibliothek Solothurn

Wilhelm Kaiser gave up everyday comforts and daylight and moved into a school air raid shelter in northwestern Switzerland to live and work. A portrait of the enigmatic Swiss researcher.

The shelter is located at the end of a long dark corridor in the school basement. Inside, a tall, gaunt man leans over a book. This is where he lives and sleeps on a camp bed. He survives on millet, spinach and raw eggs. The man is allowed out into the fresh air only when school is not open, otherwise he could irritate the pupils.

What sounds like a script for a horror film is actually the true story of Wilhelm Kaiser, who lived from 1955 to 1983 in Solothurn cantonal school in a dark, windowless air raid shelter, surrounded by his books and research.

“The place where my works are – that is where I can also be. And where I am – that is where my work is,” was probably what he said. That is according to Rolf Weber, who spent years studying the researcher Wilhelm Kaiser. It is a story that is still retold in the school’s corridors.

Fascinated by anthroposophy

“When I was in high school in 1988, there was a door that was closed and no one had a key to it,” says Jan Schneider, who now teaches at the cantonal school.

The entrance to the air raid shelter where Wilhelm Kaiser lived for 27 years. SRF/Alex Moser

“One hot day I was in the basement with my students to cool off. That’s when I got the idea to research the story of the school ghost,” he says. A book on Wilhelm Kaiser was produced as a class project.

Kaiser was born on February 23, 1895. After training as a primary school teacher, he studied mathematics, physics and chemistry, and completed a PhD in astronomy. However, he did not only focus on traditional research after that. Kaiser was also fascinated by anthroposophy, a spiritual movement founded in the early 20th century by Rudolf Steiner.

But Kaiser got into trouble with its members after he started correcting Steiner, writes Weber. For the movement this was considered very rude. At the same time, Kaiser wasn’t accepted as a scientist owing to his closeness to anthroposophy circles.

With no regular income, in 1955 he was forced to leave his apartment and find another place to stay.

Storage room to bedroom

Solothurn’s education department offered him rooms in the basement of the cantonal school as a place to store his research work, not somewhere to live. He was repeatedly told that he could not live there.

Kaiser had other rooms and apartments, but he disturbed the other tenants with his night-time work. Over the years, the cantonal school tolerated his presence. Instead of spending money on accommodation, he preferred to invest the little money he had in publishing and printing his works, says Weber.

Wilhelm Kaiser’s documents were piled up in the basement. In between he slept on a camp bed. ZVG/Nachlass Kantonsbibliothek Solothurn

Incredibly, school officials told Kaiser that he must stay in the basement during the day and that he was forbidden to use the school corridors during class time.

Earth as centre of universe

Current students and teachers at the Solothurn school have also taken a closer look at Kaiser’s research.

Jan Schneider found that Kaiser took a very different approach to other astronomers: he viewed the Earth as the centre of the universe.

Kaiser wrongly assumed that the Earth was the centre of the universe. ZVG/Nachlass Kantonsbibliothek Solothurn

Rolf Weber, who also studied his research, said Kaiser believed there was only one sun in space and that it was moving.

During his lifetime, Kaiser may never have received any formal recognition for his extensive research. But he was never forgotten, even after his death in 1983.

Adapted from German by DeepL/sb