This blog post explores why Sinclair, the protagonist of ‘Demian’, ultimately failed to remain a ‘good person’, examining the boundaries of morality and the inevitability of growth. It also questions the price demanded by the birth of an individual’s self.
Hermann Hesse (Hermann Karl Hesse) was a German-Swiss writer born in 1877 in Calw, in the southern German state of Württemberg. He died in 1962 in Montagnola, Switzerland, where he spent the last 43 years of his life. Consequently, Hermann Hesse museums have been established in both locations. During his long life spanning 85 years, he lived through two world wars, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946, and devoted himself to prolific writing throughout his life, encompassing numerous novels, poems, essays, travelogues, and other diverse genres. Yet, despite being a globally renowned and successful author, Hermann Hesse’s personal life was far from smooth. Examining Hermann Hesse’s life reveals that his literature was formed within a close relationship of influence with his eventful existence. His life’s journey was consistently understood as a quest to find his true self, and this theme permeated his literary world, taking diverse forms.
Hermann Hesse was born into a family where both his maternal grandparents and parents were Protestant missionaries. His maternal grandparents carried out missionary work in India under the auspices of the Basel Mission, a Protestant missionary organization. His maternal grandfather, Hermann Gundert, was a missionary, a Doctor of Philosophy, and fluent in multiple languages. An important figure in the history of the Württemberg Church, he graduated from the Maulbronn Seminary, which his grandson Hermann Hesse had left. During his seminary years, he was also a beloved student of David Friedrich Strauss, author of ‘The Life of Jesus,’ the most noted religious book of the 19th century. Gunderth spent many years in India as a Pietist missionary. After returning home, he ran a publishing house in Calw and edited missionary journals. Having participated in translating the Bible into Malayalam in southern India, he later compiled the Malayalam grammar and the Malayalam-English dictionary, considered the greatest achievements in the history of Indian language studies for the next 35 years.
Hermann Hesse’s mother, Marie Gunderth, was born in 1842 at a mission station in southern India. She returned to Germany with her parents at age three, only to go back to India at fifteen. Marie married missionary Charles Eisenberg in India in 1865 and had three children. For the next five years, she traveled between India and Europe, assisting her husband and father with publishing work while also writing poetry and biographies as an author herself. When her first husband died in Germany in 1870, Marie moved with her children to her parents’ home in Calw. In 1871, she taught English at the Calw Realschule (secondary school). She was the first female teacher employed at a higher education institution in the state of Württemberg. On November 22, 1874, Marie married Johannes Hermann Hesse, then an assistant at her father’s publishing house, and they had five children.
Her father Johannes Hermann Hesse’s family belonged to the German-Baltic minority in the Baltic coastal states under Russian rule. Johannes was born in 1847 in Weißstein, Estonia, then part of the Russian Empire, as the son of a physician. Consequently, Hermann Hesse was a citizen of both the German Empire and the Russian Empire from birth. Johannes graduated from seminary in Reval and traveled to India, but unable to endure the tropical climate, he abandoned his three-year missionary work and settled in Calw in 1873. Here, he worked at a theological book publishing house run by Hermann Hesse’s maternal grandfather and met Marie, who was staying at her parents’ home, eventually marrying her.
Kälf, the hometown where Hermann Hesse spent his childhood, was also a place dominated by Pietist thought. Hermann Hesse grew up surrounded by a Christian worldview within his family and society, as well as in a stable and intellectually stimulating family environment. Showing talent for poetry and drawing from an early age, he was a boy of strong temperament and vivid imagination. Crucially, the libraries of his maternal grandfather and father, who greatly influenced his development, were filled with works of world literature. This encouraged his extensive reading and provided rich nourishment for Hermann Hesse’s later growth into a world citizen opposed to all forms of nationalism. In 1881, his father Johannes moved to Basel to become the publisher of a missionary journal, prompting the entire family to relocate to Basel and acquire Swiss citizenship. In 1886, Johannes took over the publishing house in Calw, leading the family back there. From 1893, Hermann succeeded his father as the head of the publishing house. Around this time, Hermann Hesse attended Latin schools here and in Göttingen while preparing for the Württemberg state examination. Students who passed this exam could receive free education to become civil servants or pastors in Württemberg. Consequently, Hermann Hesse lost his Swiss citizenship and reacquired German citizenship. Having passed the examination in Stuttgart in 1891, Hermann Hesse began his studies that autumn at the seminary affiliated with Maulbronn Monastery. Maulbronn was one of Germany’s most venerable and distinguished monasteries; numerous famous poets and scholars, including Johannes Kepler, Hölderlin, and Mörike, had passed through this seminary. Prominent figures from Württemberg, professors, clergy, and Hermann Hesse’s ancestors also received their education at this seminary. During the first few months after enrollment, Hermann Hesse seemed to be doing relatively well, writing essays and translating classical Greek poetry into German. However, it was precisely during this period that his personal crisis began. In March 1892, he suddenly displayed rebellious behavior, escaped from the seminary, and was found in a field the next day, resulting in confinement as punishment. Ultimately, not long after, he dropped out of the seminary and stayed at a mental hospital in Bad Boll under the care of the theologian and acquaintance Blumhardt. However, after attempting suicide due to a broken heart and being deemed beyond hope of recovery, he was sent home.
Hermann Hesse attended high school in Cannstatt at the end of 1892, but during this year he frequented taverns, incurred debts, and suffered the intense growing pains of adolescence, a mix of debauchery and world-weariness. In 1893, he signed a contract as an apprentice at a publishing house but quit after just three days. In early summer 1894, he began a 14-month apprenticeship as a machinist at a watch factory in Calw. It was through this machinist work that he finally regained his sense of reality and overcame his “mad, tempestuous period.” Hermann Hesse’s adolescence, marked by a deep inner crisis as he moved between various schools and institutions during a short period, is well described in his autobiographical novel ‘Beneath the Wheel’ (1906). In October 1895, Hermann Hesse began working as an apprentice in a bookstore in Tübingen. His Tübingen period was one of self-education, devoted to reading and self-study after working nearly 12 hours daily on bookstore tasks like organizing, wrapping, and storing books. “What makes my life worthwhile is my private life, my studies alone.” At that time, Hermann Hesse became captivated by Goethe for a while, learning and judging by taking him as “the standard of judgment.” He also immersed himself in the works of German Romanticism—Brentano, Eichendorff, Hölderlin, Tieck, and Schlegel—becoming captivated by them. The author who most enthralled him was Novalis. During this period, he also began reading Nietzsche, who would exert a powerful influence on his intellectual world and literature.
His first poetry collection, ‘Romantische Lieder,’ was published in 1898, with Hermann Hesse placing a poem by Novalis at its beginning. By 1898, Hermann Hesse had grown sufficiently to live off his own income, achieving economic independence. From late 1899, he worked at a prominent bookstore in Basel, the “city of Nietzsche, Burckhardt, and Böcklin.” Here, through family connections, he came into contact with Basel’s intellectual families. Immersed in this environment, he drew rich inspiration and developed spiritually and artistically. In 1900, Hermann Hesse received an exemption from military service due to an eye disease. This eye condition, along with neurological disorders and persistent headaches, became a major factor affecting his life throughout his lifetime. In 1901, Hermann Hesse made his first trip to Italy and began publishing poems and short works in magazines. In 1904, Hermann Hesse’s ‘Peter Camenzind’, published by Fischer, one of Germany’s leading publishers, received a tremendous response throughout Germany, finally marking his breakthrough as a writer. Realizing he could sustain himself as a writer, Hermann Hesse married Maria Bernoulli in 1904, the daughter of a renowned mathematician and nine years his senior. The couple settled in Gaienhofen on Lake Constance, established a home, and had three sons. Hermann Hesse published his second novel, Beneath the Wheel, with Fischer Verlag in 1906. During his time in Gaienhofen, Hermann Hesse achieved rapid success as a writer, yet he increasingly felt certain that the bourgeois, comfortable life there did not suit his sensibilities or his life as an artist. He renewed his interest in Buddhism and traveled more frequently. In 1911, as discord grew in his relationship with his wife Maria, Hermann Hesse embarked on a journey to India, his mother’s birthplace and a land steeped in the traces of his grandparents. However, during this trip, known as the “Indian Journey,” Hermann Hesse never actually reached India itself. The journey ended with visits to various regions of Southeast Asia, including Sumatra, Borneo, and Burma. Furthermore, he did not receive the spiritual or religious inspiration he had originally anticipated from this trip. Nevertheless, this Indian journey left a strong imprint on his later literary works. After this trip, in 1912, the Hermann Hesse family moved to Bern.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Hermann Hesse, as a German citizen, did not shirk his duty and volunteered for the Bern Command. However, he was deemed unfit for combat and was assigned by the German Embassy in Bern to work at the ‘German Prisoners of War Welfare Center’. This welfare institution provided reading material for German soldiers imprisoned in foreign camps until 1919. From this point on, Hermann Hesse devoted himself to collecting and sending books for German prisoners of war. He also served as co-editor of the ‘German Prisoners of War Newspaper’ (1916–17), publisher of the ‘Sunday Newspaper for German Prisoners of War’ (1916–1919), and manager of the ‘Library for German Prisoners of War’. Meanwhile, he adopted a critical stance toward the war-driven madness of the century, observing how most writers in both his homeland and enemy nations were engrossed in inflammatory rhetoric that incited mutual hatred. On November 3, 1914, he published an article titled ‘O Friends, Not These Tones’ (O Freunde, nicht diese Töne) in the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, appealing to fellow intellectuals not to succumb to nationalistic frenzy and hatred. However, this led him to face attacks from the German press and hate-filled letters from nationalists, plunging him into serious political conflict with long-time friends. Only a few acquaintances, such as his friend Theodor Heuss, who visited Hermann Hesse in August 1915, and the French writer Romain Rolland, sympathized with his cosmopolitan stance and supported him in this situation. Experiencing the madness of this world war, Hermann Hesse transformed into a staunch opponent of war and a supporter of conscientious objection.
Before the attacks from Germany’s public sphere had even subsided, in March 1916, Hermann Hesse plunged into an even deeper life crisis: his father’s death, his son Martin’s serious illness, and his wife’s schizophrenia. Ultimately, Hermann Hesse himself reached a state requiring psychiatric treatment. It was then that he first encountered psychoanalysis and experienced its profound effects. He formed a personal friendship with Carl Jung, a leading psychologist of the era, and underwent 60 sessions of psychoanalytic therapy with Professor Lang, one of Jung’s disciples. His masterpiece ‘Demian’, written between September and October 1917 during the war and published in 1919, deeply reflects the existential crises Hermann Hesse faced both internally and externally during the war, as well as his experiences of healing through psychoanalysis.
By the time Hermann Hesse left the barracks and returned to civilian life in 1919, his marriage had already reached a point of collapse. He moved alone to the village of Montagnola in Ticino, Switzerland, renting four small rooms in the castle-like building Casa Camuzzi to pursue his writing project. “As his life as a citizen collapsed, a new life as an artistic being began.” During this period, he began painting, an experience detailed particularly in ‘Klingsor’s Last Summer,’ published in 1920. The fresh start in a different environment brought him happiness, and so Hermann Hesse called his first year in Ticino “the most satisfying year.” “The most productive, the hardest-working, and the most passionate time of my life.” In 1922, Hermann Hesse published the novella ‘Siddhartha’, which explored Indian culture and Buddhist philosophy. In 1923, he divorced his wife and remarried in 1924 to Ruth Wenger, the twenty-year-old daughter of Swiss writer Lisa Wenger and a singer. This marriage also ended in divorce after three years.
In 1923, Hermann Hesse regained Swiss citizenship. His autobiographical works ‘Kurgast’ (1925) and ‘Die Nürnberger Reise’ (1927) anticipated his novel ‘Steppenwolf’, published the same year. To mark Hermann Hesse’s fiftieth birthday, his close friend Hugo Ball published Hesse’s biography. Hermann Hesse personally met Ninon Dolvin in 1922, who had written to him after reading ‘Peter Camenzind’ in 1910 at the age of fourteen. He began living with her, who had become an art historian, in 1927. His novel ‘Narcissus and Goldmund’, published in 1930, achieved great success and is considered Hermann Hesse’s most poetic and beautiful novel. In 1931, Hermann Hesse moved with Ninon to a large house near Montagnola. Known as “Casa Hermann Hesse,” this house was built for his friend and patron Hans Bodmer to serve as his home for the rest of his life. After Hermann Hesse’s death, Ninon lived in this house for the rest of her life. Following the deaths of both Hermann Hesse and Ninon, the house reverted to the Bodmer family. During his 43 years living here, Hermann Hesse welcomed numerous guests. Not only his publishers, but also great European writers of the time such as Thomas Mann and his family, Romain Rolland, Bertolt Brecht, Max Brod, Hans Carossa, André Gide, and Stefan Zweig visited Hermann Hesse at this house. The year Hermann Hesse moved into Casa Hermann Hesse, he married Nion and planned to write the novel ‘The Glass Bead Game’ (Das Glasperlenspiel). As a precursor, he published the novella ‘Die Morgenlandfahrt’ in 1932. During this period, Hermann Hesse’s political stance was characterized by a critical view of civilization and cultural pessimism.
Hermann Hesse watched with deep concern as the Nazis seized power in Germany. In 1933, Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann, who had gone into exile, visited Hermann Hesse’s home. Thomas Mann, in particular, later emphasized his spiritual bond with Hermann Hesse in the preface to the English edition of ‘Demian’. They were deeply united in their rejection of Nazi ideology and their opposition to Hitler’s suppression of art and literature resisting Nazism. Although Hermann Hesse’s third wife, Ninon, was Jewish, Hesse had long before publicly voiced opposition to anti-Semitism. While criticized for not publicly denouncing the Nazi Party, he instead defended and supported Jewish writers and those persecuted by the Nazis through book reviews published in German media for decades, advocating for them in his own way. In the 1930s, Hermann Hesse quietly resisted by reviewing and publishing works by banned Jewish authors, including Franz Kafka. From the mid-1930s, German newspapers and magazines ceased publishing Hermann Hesse’s works. Hesse later recalled surviving the eleven years of Nazi rule and the years of the Second World War by working on ‘The Glass Bead Game’. Ultimately, ‘The Glass Bead Game’, printed in Switzerland in 1943, became Hermann Hesse’s final novel. It also earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.
During the final 20 years of his life, Hermann Hesse primarily wrote numerous short stories based on childhood memories and poems centered on nature. During this period, the core of his daily routine increasingly shifted to reading and replying to the ever-growing flood of letters. Statistics indicate Hermann Hesse received approximately 35,000 letters. Working without a secretary, he personally replied to most of them. In one essay, Hermann Hesse even mentioned that his average daily correspondence exceeded 150 pages. The letters came from a new generation of German readers who sought advice on life and direction from Hermann Hesse, known at the time as the “wise old man” of Montagnola, or sometimes hoped for financial support. These letters attested to his renewed fame after the war. In 1961, Hermann Hesse contracted a severe case of influenza and learned he had been suffering from leukemia for some time. He passed away in his sleep on August 9, 1962, following a stroke. He was 85 years old. After his death, Hermann Hesse was laid to rest in the Sant’Abondio Cemetery in Gentilino, where his friend and biographer Hugo Ball and the German conductor Bruno Walter are also buried.
