13 questions · Literature
Hermann Hesse, born in 1877 in the Swabian town of Calw to Pietist missionaries, is the great poet of the search for self and was himself an early rebel: at 14 he fled the Protestant seminary at Maulbronn ('a poet or nothing at all'), followed by crises, a suicide attempt, abandoned apprenticeships. A bookseller's apprenticeship in Tübingen led him to literature; the success of 'Peter Camenzind' (1904) made him a freelance writer. His novels are stations of a single journey inward: 'Beneath the Wheel' (1906) settles accounts with the grinding school drill of his youth. 'Siddhartha' (1922), the 'Indian tale' of a Brahmin's son on the path to enlightenment, draws on the India heritage of the missionary's grandson. 'Steppenwolf' (1927) sends the torn Harry Haller, half man, half wolf, through the 'Magic Theatre': 'Entrance not for everybody. For madmen only.' 'Narcissus and Goldmund' contrasts thinker and sensualist; the late work 'The Glass Bead Game' (1943) invents the scholars' province of Castalia and earned Hesse the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. An opponent of war who wrote against the jingoism of 1914 ('O friends, not these tones!'), Hesse lived from 1919 in the Ticino village of Montagnola, became a Swiss citizen, painted watercolours, tended his garden and answered tens of thousands of letters from searching readers. Psychoanalysis, including sessions with a pupil of C. G. Jung, deeply shaped his work. He died in Montagnola in 1962. Did you know that in the 1960s and 70s Hesse posthumously became an idol of the American hippie movement? 'Steppenwolf' and 'Siddhartha' became cult books: a rock band named itself after the novel, and Hesse became the century's most-read German-language author.
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Siddhartha
Published in 1922: by the river Siddhartha finds what teachings could not give him.
💡 Did you know? “Siddhartha” became a cult book of the 1960s US hippie movement and remains one of the most translated German books.
Harry Haller
Half man, half wolf (at the end waits the 'Magic Theatre'): 'For madmen only.'
💡 Did you know? The US rock band Steppenwolf (“Born to Be Wild”) named itself after Hesse's novel.
The Glass Bead Game
Published in Swiss exile in 1943: Magister Ludi Josef Knecht finally leaves the ivory tower.
💡 Did you know? Hesse received the 1946 Nobel Prize for this late work: he deliberately never spells out the rules of the titular game.
the Nobel Prize in Literature
Above all for 'The Glass Bead Game': Thomas Mann had nominated him several times.
💡 Did you know? By then Hesse had long lived in Switzerland and had become a Swiss citizen in 1923: in protest against German nationalism.
Calw
As the son of Pietist missionaries: the town recurs in his novels as 'Gerbersau'.
💡 Did you know? The Swabian town of Calw appears as “Gerbersau” in several works; today the town runs a Hesse museum.
Maulbronn
'A poet or nothing at all': he worked the flight into 'Beneath the Wheel'.
💡 Did you know? Hesse drew on his flight from the elite seminary and the crisis that followed in “Beneath the Wheel.”
Beneath the Wheel
The gifted Hans Giebenrath breaks under the pressure: published in 1906, still school reading today.
💡 Did you know? The title refers to a pupil who breaks under the pressure of school and home: partly autobiographical.
Montagnola
'Siddhartha', 'Steppenwolf' and 'The Glass Bead Game' were written there: Hesse became a Swiss citizen in 1923.
💡 Did you know? In Ticino Hesse painted thousands of watercolours and tended a garden: a retreat from the noisy world.
the hippie movement
'Steppenwolf' and 'Siddhartha' became cult books: a rock band named itself after the novel.
💡 Did you know? Hesse thus became the most-read German-language author of the 20th century.
Narcissus and Goldmund
The monastery teacher and the wanderer: two paths, one vision of humanity; published in 1930.
💡 Did you know? The novel is set in the Middle Ages, contrasting the ascetic thinker Narcissus with the sensual artist Goldmund.
O friends, not these tones
After Schiller's/Beethoven's words: the essay earned him hate mail from war enthusiasts.
💡 Did you know? The title quotes Schiller's “Ode to Joy”; Hesse came under fierce attack in Germany for his pacifism.
painting
Thousands of Ticino landscape watercolours: painting was therapy after his life crisis.
💡 Did you know? Painting helped Hesse through severe life crises: he even illustrated his own handwritten volumes of poetry.
Foto: Nobel Foundation · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse (1877 to 1962) was a German-Swiss writer and painter. His novels about self-discovery and spirituality made him a cult author worldwide; he won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature.
💡 Did you know? Hesse remains one of the most widely read German-language authors worldwide: especially in the US and Japan.
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