Fathers shape our lives – but what remains of them? Twice a month we survey celebrities about their relationship with their father. This time: the musician Alex Eugster.
Alex Eugster in 1945 with his father Paul Johann and his sister Pia on the roof of the house.
1. Describe three characteristics of your father.
He was sociable, hardworking and a true Appenzeller. He hasn’t lost his dialect even after years in the Zurich area.
2. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: What are typical characteristics that characterize you as your father’s son?
Outwardly, of all my siblings, I resemble my father the most. Personally, however, I was always closer to my mother.
3. Complete the following sentence: Unlike my mother, my father was . . .
. . . thrifty. Every day when he came home from work, he checked the money in our mother’s purse. She was more generous than him. He was also more sober in his views.
4. What did your father teach you about life?
Paul Johann Eugster, around 1975.
My father was exceptionally hardworking. Back then, before and after the war, it was difficult times. It always seemed to me that father “cramped” day and night for us. I was very impressed and taught by this working attitude.
He also taught us how to play jass well. Father always had all the cards his fellow players played in his head and had already counted them. And both parents gave us the gift of making music. Father was an excellent singer.
5. . . . about love?
We never talked about love with our father. If so, then it was more the topic of conversation with the mother.
6. . . . about money?
Money was important to him, after all he had to support a family with six children. Most of the time it was too little. To make it enough, he worked at two jobs at the same time: he worked as a butcher and as a crane operator. Not least because of this, he advised me not to do athletics but to play football. “You can earn ‘gold’ there,” he said. Or when I wanted to learn how to be a piano tuner, he advised me to go to a plasterer instead, as they were better paid. Of course he was right. I still didn’t listen to him. I became a piano tuner and builder. And I also made it onto the national track and field team.
The Trio Eugster (pictured 2005) was the most successful Swiss pop group. It consisted of the three brothers Vic, Guido (✝ 2021) and Alex Eugster.
About Alex Eugster and his father:
Alexius «Alex» Eugster is a Swiss singer and music producer. He was born in 1937 in Wollerau. After an apprenticeship as a piano tuner, he continued his education as a piano builder. In Dübendorf (ZH) he ran his own piano workshop until 1980. From 1963 he appeared together with his brothers Viktor and Guido as the Trio Eugster. It was Alex Eugster who composed most of the songs. The biggest hits of the singing trio include “Oh läck du mir”, “Now mues de Buuch weg” or “Dä söll emal cho”. In total, the Trio Eugster sold around two million records. Together, the brothers founded their own record label, Eugster Musikproduktionen AG. Alex Eugster later wrote as a composer for other music groups. In 2007 he was awarded the Golden Treble Clef for his musical achievements. From September 2022, the dialect musical “Oh läck du mir!” premiered with the most successful hits of the legendary trio Eugster in the Theater 11 in Zurich.
His father, Paul Johann Eugster (1903-1981), was a trained butcher. He also worked as a crane operator for a construction company.
7. Tell about your most formative experience with your father.
Once when we went on a trip to America, we visited the grave of John F. Kennedy. Everyone got off the bus. Dad was the only one who stayed seated. When we said to him: “You must have seen that!”, his laconic answer was: “That’s why he’s no longer ‘alive’.”
Alex Eugster 1959.
8. What did you want to do differently than your father?
Actually not much. My father was a very happy person. We could all learn a trade, that was his greatest wish. That has always impressed me.
9. What has always annoyed you about your father, but now do the same thing?
When cooking on Sundays, my parents always took turns. Still, Father couldn’t help but correct Mother – after all, he was a chef in the military. According to my wife, I either inherited that or took it over.
10. A phrase your father often said to you?
When I was a child, my father often split wood near the playground. If I got too close to him, he would call out in his Appenzeller dialect: “Flüüch, Bueb!” («Flee, boy!») for fear a piece of wood might hit me.
Alex Eugster, circa 1942.
11. What did you always want to say to your father?
Our success as a trio made our father very happy, he was very proud of his “boy”. I’m glad we were able to give him so much back and I would tell him that in turn made me proud.