Important works
The red diamond
Thomas Hürlimann's novel The Red Diamond opens with the sentence: "Adapt, and you will survive." This memorable warning is no mere life lesson, but an echo of his school days at Einsiedeln Abbey, which left a lasting impression on the author. The monastery, which is called "Maria im Schnee" in the novel, a place of ascetic discipline and religious austerity, appears in Hürlimann's portrayal as a narrow-minded microcosm that strives for spiritual greatness, but often fails due to the contradiction between aspiration and reality. The red diamond becomes the central metaphor: it stands for the undiscovered, the unique, that which can be lost through mere conformity and conformity.
In Einsiedeln, Hürlimann, in the novel Arthur Goldau, was taught to be subordinate, to follow rules and to put aside individual freedom in favor of the community. Although this rigid structure shaped the mind, it could not satisfy the inner longing. The monastery, as Hürlimann describes it, strove for spiritual greatness, but the students who grew up there were often prisoners of a world that could not see the red diamond -- the unpolished core of individuality, of free thinking, of creative development.
The central plot revolves around the search for a valuable diamond from the Habsburg crown treasure, which is said to be hidden in the monastery. For Hürlimann, the red diamond symbolizes precisely that which resists conformity: the unconventional, the unruly, which is overlooked in the midst of conventions and dogmas. In Einsiedeln, or "Maria im Schnee", people were looking for this diamond, but the rigid order and narrow spirit prevented them from really finding it. Instead, all that often remained was the claim to greatness, which blocked the actual breadth of thought.
But Hürlimann also recognizes that it was precisely this tension - between conformity and individuality, narrowness and greatness - that shaped him. The monastery became a place of challenge for him: those who conformed survived, but those who had the courage to rebel searched for the red diamond within themselves. Hürlimann describes how this inner search helped him to escape spiritual and intellectual constraints and find his own voice.
According to Hürlimann, life offers everyone the opportunity to discover their own red diamond. But to do so, you have to have the courage to question the narrow boundaries of institutions, traditions or expectations. True greatness - be it intellectual, artistic or human - does not come from conforming, but from insisting on what makes us unique.
In The Red Diamond, Hürlimann writes a deeply personal yet universal reflection on the tensions between the individual and society, tradition and freedom. It is a plea for the courage to be independent and for the search for what shines beneath the surface - for the red diamond that not everyone can see, but which lies dormant in everyone.