Gerold Späth: key obituary facts
Is Gerold Späth dead? Yes. Gerold Späth died on October 14, 2026, at age 86.
Cause of death: Gerold Späth's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Gerold Späth known for?
He was a Swiss poet and writer from Rapperswil on Zürichsee lakeshore.
More about Gerold Späth
Born: 16 October 1939.
Place of birth: Rapperswil.
Gender: male.
Occupation: writer, poet, screenwriter, novelist.
Nationality: Switzerland.
Awards: Alfred Döblin Prize, Gottfried-Keller-Preis, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize, Georg Mackensen Literary Prize.
Also known as: Gerold Spaeth.
Occupations: Author, poet and writer.
Years active: 1970–.
Known for: Commedia (1980).
Gerold Späth, the Swiss author and poet known for Commedia, died October 14, 2026, aged 86.
Born in Rapperswil on the shore of Lake Zürich, he was the son of an organ builder. After training as an export clerk, he studied in London and Fribourg, then worked in his father’s organ-building company in Rapperswil.
He later traveled, including a longer stay in Ireland, and lived and wrote mainly in his hometown. Späth’s fiction often returned to Swiss small-town life. Three linked works—Unschlecht (1970), Balzapf oder als ich auftauchte (1977) and Barbarswila (1988)—use fictional places modeled on Rapperswil: Spiessbünzen, Molchgüllen and Barbarswila. The books are thematically connected and offer satirical depictions of a typical Swiss small town. In Commedia (1980), he introduced a different narrative form, drawing in part on Dante’s Inferno. The work became one of the titles most closely associated with him. A poet, novelist and screenwriter as well as an author, Späth received the Alfred Döblin Prize, the Gottfried-Keller-Preis, the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize and the Georg Mackensen Literary Prize.