Literature Gian-Marco Schmid writes about a childhood between addiction and escape
Grisons author Gian-Marco Schmid writes like he used to rap under the stage name Gimma. In his book "Abschiede von Mutter" (Farewell from Mother), he eloquently and without pathos describes his childhood between addiction and escape.
13.01.2025, 13:58
SDA
What doesn't kill you makes you strong. That's roughly what Gian-Marco Schmid, formerly known as rapper Gimma, writes about his mother in his new book. More concretely: Theres became a mother at a very young age and was abandoned by her father immediately after giving birth. She drank, took drugs, medication, men in series.
"You would have been a resilient mother if the conditions had looked stable for longer," says the 45-year-old author from Graubünden looking back in "Abschiede von Mutter". "But your window to happiness was only open for a short time and you didn't notice. You had the family, me, us. But you wanted your wild life back, the one before us. (...) Yet we're still here now and you're gone."
Theres died in 2023. Her "button", as her son calls himself, admits that he was afraid of her. He had escaped from his mother's house as often as he could, had already financed himself at the age of 13, later celebrated success as a rapper, had his own drug career and is now a copywriter and youth worker. "In any case, I finally dared to write this text and I'm sure you would have wanted to discuss a lot of it with me - or threatened to call a lawyer."
Farewells before and after death
The plural "farewells" in the title of Schmid's fourth book is to be understood both figuratively and concretely. As a child, Gian-Marco had to say goodbye again and again to a mother who refused to live up to the superhuman demands that our society places on mothers and withdrew from the child. When she died, he had broken off contact with her for ten years, did not go to her funeral, but visited the grave the next day with his sister, only to decide never to return.
Finally, while writing this book, a reflective and differentiated farewell took place, which Schmid now shares with the public: "That's what we can do: be a bad role model for everyone". With a great sense of mission, he is committed to helping marginalized young people as a social worker. On the upcoming reading tour, he will be appearing with the "Löwenzahnkinder" association, founded in 2020 by "Platzspitzbaby" author Michelle Halbheer and other affected people from families with addicted parents.
Parallels to Eminem
As conciliatory as the book "Abschied von Mutter" (Farewell to Mother) always wants to be - as a young rapper, Gimma gave free rein to his anger at his mother and was awarded prizes and rewarded with royalties. He was perhaps the only real gutter rapper in Switzerland, an involuntary precocious rapper who grew up in poverty and neglect. Alongside sheltered middle-class kids who were allowed to be foul-mouthed in the hip-hop scene, or highly talented high-flyers who soon won literary prizes for their rapped lyrics, Gimma's desperately aggressive records were like reminders that there is misery in Switzerland too.
No wonder, given that one of his role models was the white US rapper Eminem. The private biographies of the two are almost identical. Eminem's mother was 17 when she gave birth to him, and his father also left immediately after his birth. In the track "Closing Out My Closet", Eminem made his mother's misconduct public as a young rapper and broke off contact with her. She then hired a lawyer and sued her son. Later, his conciliatory tones followed. For example in the song "Headlights", in which Eminem tells his mother: "The cross you carry must be the heaviest" and assures her that he does not hate her.
Gian-Marco Schmid draws a less pathetic conclusion for himself, which he already stated in his last book "#Scheitera": "I still believe that the art of surviving is to simply pretend that it's all normal. "*
*This text by Tina Uhlmann, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
