Hermann Hesse

Quick Facts

NAME: Hermann Hesse
OCCUPATION:Author, Poet
BIRTH DATE:July 02, 1877
DEATH DATE:August 09, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH: Calw, Germany
PLACE OF DEATH: Montagnola, Switzerland

Best Known For
Hermann Hesse was a Nobel Prize-winning novelist and poet who wrote classics like Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and Narcissus and Goldmund.

Hermann Hesse biography
Profile
Born on July 2, 1877, in Calw, Germany, Hermann Hesse published his debut novel in 1904, Peter Camenzind. Focusing on characters' quests for actualization in a world that imposes conformity, Hesse won eventual acclaim with other books like Beneath the Wheel, Siddhartha and Steppenwolf. Adopting Swizz citizenship, he also won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died on August 9, 1962.

Hermann Hesse - Biography

Hermann Hesse( 1877-1962) was a German-Swiss writer and painter. His work centers on the quest for individual authentic self-awareness and spirituality. After his death in 1962, the youth subcultures embraced Hesse work. This popularity was rooted in the fact that the countercultures were seeking the same enlightenment as many of Hesse’s characters. The University of Bern awarded Hesse an Honorary Doctorate for the profundity of his work. In addition, Hesse received many awards including Mejstrik-Preis of the Schiller Foundation in Vienna, Gottfried-Keller-Preis, Goethe Prize, Wilhelm-Raabe-Preis, Pour le Mérite and Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Hesse was also awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1946.
On 2 July 1877, Hermann Hesse was born in Calw in Württemberg, Germany. His parents were Protestant missionaries for the Basel Mission. Hesse’s mother was born in India while her own parents were on a mission. Johannes Hesse, Hermann Hesse’s father, was born in Paide, Estonia, which was born controlled by the Russian Empire. The heritage of Hermann Hesse gave him both Russian and German citizenship. His father was employed by the Calwer Verlagsverein, a publishing house managed by Hermann Hesse’s grandfather. The publishing house produced textbooks and theological books.
Swabian Pietism dominated the Hesse household. This system of belief encouraged believers to create small close-knit groups. This belief system left Hermann Hesse with a deep melancholy that would leave its mark on his later work. His mother would also offer Hesse a love of music and religious verse that would provide him with his spiritual and literary framework. Hermann Gundert, Hesse’s maternal grandfather, was a doctor of philosophy. Gundert was a polyglot who cultivated his Hesse’s taste for international literature. He wanted his grandson to feel that he should have global concerns. This spirit caused Hesse to resist the nationalistic fervor that was to sweep across Europe.
The Hesse family moved to Basel, Switzerland in 1881. The family would stay until 1887 before returning to Calw. Hermann Hesse attended the Latin School in Goppinberg and then the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Maulbronn Abbey. His education became itinerant, and his relationship with his family became strained. After a failed suicide attempt, Hesse was sent to an institution at Bad Boll. Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, a minister and theologian, oversaw his care. He was latter moved to a mental institution in Stetten im Remstal and eventually another institution in Basel.
In 1892, Hesse enrolled in the Gymnasium in Cannstatt, passing the One Year Examination the following year. Hesse spent time with older friends and began to drink and smoke. In 1885, Hesse’s half-brother Theo entered a music conservatory. Theo made this decision despite his family’s protestations. Theo’s dedication to his craft and desire to pursue his own goals left a deep influence on the young Hermann Hesse.
In the following years, Hermann Hesse apprenticed in a bookshop in Esslingen am Neckar and a clock tower factory in Calw. These experiences moved Hermann Hesse to return to his search for spirituality. In 1895, Hesse took another apprenticeship at a bookseller in Tubingen. This bookseller specialized in legal, theological, and philological texts. During this time, Hesse began to study the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Friedrich Schiller. These works of these philosophers would have a profound influence on Hesse’s later writing. He also studied Greek mythology. Hermann Hesse also spent time in the home of Fraulein von Reutern. He met peers who lived in city. However, his relationships with people his own age were difficult. In 1895, Hesse ceased alluding to Buddhism in his works (for a period of several years.)
Hesse published his poem “Madonna” in a Viennese journal in 1896. The following year Hesse published Romantic Songs, his first book of verse. His poem “Grand Valse” prompted Helene Voight to write to Hesse. In 1898/199. Voight (who had married publisher Eugen Diederichs) convinced her new husband to publish Hesse’s One Hour After Midnight. Financially, both books were unsuccessful. His mother declared Romantic Songs “vaguely sinful” because of the overtly secular theme.
In 1899, Hesse was employed by a seller of antique books located in Basel. He made connections with families that were intellectually inclined. Hesse felt stimulated as he began to investigate is spirituality since the city offered the chance to retreat into a quiet life of artistic investigation. An eye condition prevented Hesse from compulsory military service in 1900. While living in Basel, Hesse maintained a close relationship with many of the city’s intellectuals. Hesse would release his novel, Peter Camenzind in 1904. Sigmund Freud claimed that this novel was one of his favorites.
In 1904, Hesse married Maria Bernoulli. The Bernoulli family had become famous for providing advances in mathematics. Hermann and Maria Hesse moved to Gaienhofen. Gaienhofen is a community located on Lake Constance. In 1904, Hesse also returned to his former interest in India and Buddhism. He returned to his interest after reading the works of Arthur Shopehauer and Theosophy. Hesse continued writing. His story “The Wolf”, which was written between 1906 and 1907, had many thematic elements that Hesse would later include in Steppenwolf.
Hesse’s marriage became increasingly strained. In 1911, Hesse traveled to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo, and Burma. Hesse had planned on renewing his spirituality through this trip. However, the physical exertion of the travel made is depression worse. Hesse was able to find literary inspiration from his journey. When Hesse returned in 1912, he relocated his family to Bern. There was perhaps some hope that the change in location would help his marriage. The relationship did not improve.
In 1914, Hesse volunteered with the Imperial army. He was assigned to care for the causalities of World War I. Despite his desire to serve his country, Hesse inadvertently found himself surrounded by controversy. Hesse drafted an essay, "O Friends, Not These Tones." In this work, he argued that intellectuals should not fall victim to the extremities of nationalism. Hesse argued that despite the war everyone should embrace Europe’s common culture. The public turned against Hesse.
In 1916, Hesse’s emotional state was further undermined by the death of his father, his wife’s worsening mental state, and his son’s severe illness. Hermann Hesse became a believer in psychotherapy and eventually formed a personal relationship with Carl Jung. Hesse continued to write, but adopted the nom de plume, Emil Sinclair.
By 1919, Hesse’s marriage was irreconcilably damaged. Hesse moved to house outside of Minusio. Later, he would move to Montagnola. He began to paint during this period. In 1922, Hesse’s novel Siddhartha was published. This novel reflected his full return to addressing Indian and Buddhist subject matter. It is perhaps Hesse’s best known work. In 1923, Hesse became a citizen of Switzerland.
In 1933, Hesse helped Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann leave Nazi Germany. Although Hesse never openly condemned the Nazi party, his writing clearly illustrate his deep loathing for then.
Hesse married Ruth Wegner in 1924. Much like Hesse’s first marriage, his second marriage was also very unstable. In 1927, Steppenwolf was published—another work which could be seen as Hesse chef d’oeuvre. Hesse’s last major works was The Glass bead Game, published in 1943. Only three years after this work, Hermann Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. For the rest of his life, Hesse would continue to paint and write. He died on August 9, 1962.
His friend Hugo Ball would pen the first biography of Hermann Hesse. In the 1960s and 1970s, the counter culture and youth movements embraced the writings of Hermann Hesse for their spiritual observation.

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ABOUT HERMAN HESSE
In the 1960s, especially in the United States, the novels of Hermann Hesse were widely embraced by young readers who found in his protagonists a reflection of their own search for meaning in a troubled world. Hesse's rich allusions to world mythologies, especially those of Asia, and his persistent theme of the individual striving for integrity in opposition to received opinions and mass culture appealed to a generation in upheaval and in search of renewed values.
Born in southern Germany in 1877, Hesse came from a family of missionaries, scholars, and writers with strong ties to India. This early exposure to the philosophies and religions of Asia—filtered and interpreted by thinkers thoroughly steeped in the intellectual traditions and currents of modern Europe—provided Hesse with some of the most pervasive elements in his short stories and novels, especially Siddhartha (1922) and Journey to the East (1932).
Hesse concentrated on writing poetry as a young man, but his first successful book was a novel, Peter Camenzind (1904). The income it brought permitted him to settle with his wife in rural Switzerland and write full-time. By the start of World War I in 1914, Hesse had produced several more novels and had begun to write the considerable number of book reviews and articles that made him a strong influence on the literary culture of his time.
During the war, Hesse was actively involved in relief efforts. Depression, criticism for his pacifist views, and a series of personal crises—combined with what he referred to as the "war psychosis" of his times—led Hesse to undergo psychoanalysis with J. B. Lang, a student of Carl Jung. Out of these years came Demian (1919), a novel whose main character is torn between the orderliness of bourgeois existence and the turbulent and enticing world of sensual experience. This dichotomy is prominent in Hesse's subsequent novels, including Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), and Narcissus and Goldmund (1930). Hesse worked on his magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game (1943), for twelve years. This novel was specifically cited when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. Hesse died at his home in Switzerland in 1962.
Calling his life a series of "crises and new beginnings," Hesse clearly saw his writing as a direct reflection of his personal development and his protagonists as representing stages in his own evolution. In the 1950s, Hesse described the dominant theme of his work: "From Camenzind to Steppenwolf and Josef Knecht [protagonist of The Glass Bead Game], they can all be interpreted as a defense (sometimes also as an SOS) of the personality, of the individual self."
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What does Siddhartha mean when he refers to the "path of paths" that must be found (p. 17)? Why is he so certain that neither the Brahmins nor the samanas have found it?
Does Gautama adequately answer Siddhartha's contention that "no one is granted deliverance through a teaching" (p. 32)? Why doesn't Siddhartha become one of Gautama's followers?
What is the connection between Siddhartha losing his friend Govinda to Gautama and Siddhartha's "awakening"? What does it mean that "the awakening man was on the way to himself" (p. 37)?
What is the meaning of Siddhartha's dream in which Govinda becomes a woman?
Why does Siddhartha both love and despise the "child people"? How is it that having been a samana separates him from them?
After waking up by the river, why does Siddhartha say, "I have nothing, I know nothing, I can do nothing, I have learned nothing. How wondrous this is!" (p. 84)?
How is Vasudeva's ability to listen so deeply related to his being "no friend of words" (p. 94)?
Why is seeing Siddhartha just as good for Kamala as seeing Gautama?
When Siddhartha can no longer distinguish the many voices he hears in the river, why does he feel that "he had now learned all there was to know about listening" (p. 118)?
Why does Vasudeva leave Siddhartha?
Why does Govinda think Siddhartha's teaching sounds foolish?
Why does the story end with Govinda thinking about "everything that he had ever loved in his life," when he had previously reminded Siddhartha that Gautama had "forbade us to fetter our hearts in love for anything earthly" (p. 132; p. 128)?

For Further Reflection

How can we know who is the right teacher for us?
Can wisdom be taught?
What is the relation of words to wisdom? Do words tend to enhance or limit wisdom?

Siddhartha

Introduction

This seems to be an easy going, rock and roll novel, but it has some serious depth to it, depth worth searching through.

Sections	This unit will be divided into the following sections.
Topic		See Page
Vocabulary
Dalai Lama and “Little Buddha”

Vocabulary

Instructions

The following words are taken from the first chapters of the novel. From their use in the novel, what do you suppose they mean?

Words

Define the following words.
• ablutions
• Om
• Atman
• Brahmin
• Rig veda
• Prajapati
• Upaanishads
• samanas

Dalai Lama and "Little Buddha"

Introduction

Before we begin the work, it is important that you have a good idea of the people, country, and the author.

Project

Thanks to the World Wide Web, I have found a ton of information on Siddhartha and the Buddha. Your project is to read the information, find what is important, then relate it to the rest of the class.

Steps		You should follow these steps when working on this project.
Step	Action
1	Read the material and highlight anything interesting or relevant.
2	Copy the interesting or relevant onto another sheet
3	Photocopy that sheet for the class
4	Present your information to the class

The Little Buddha

Introduction

A lovely little film, a trifle dull, but Keanu Reeves plays the Buddha and it looks beautiful.

Questions

Answer the following questions as you watch the film.
1. The very first scenes in a film are key for setting the tone and developing key elements. The goat story is the initial scenes of the movie
What tone does this story set?
2. What makes the monks seem so wierd to the mother?
3. Why might it be important that Jesse first sees them wearing a mask?
4. What were the circumstances of the buddha’s birth?
5. What does the hermit say about the son?
What does the father want?
6. What is Siddhartha’s youth like?
Why wouldn’t Dad want him to see the world?
What does Sidd see in the world?

Continued on next page
Little Buddha 1, Continued

7. What analogy does the teacher use for the tea?
8. What are ascetics?
What does he learn there?
9. How does the director use colors to create mood?

The Brahmin’s Son

Introduction

See the contrasts to the movie from the outset, but notice the tone is the same.

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. Why is Siddhartha unhappy?
Why is his spirit like a “waiting vessel”?
2. Why is Govinda willing to follow him?
3. How are the Samanas described?
From his description, how does the author feel about them?
4. How did Siddhartha convince his father?
Why didn’t he just go?
5. Why, do you suppose, Mom doesn’t have more of a role in the decision?

Structure

Answer the following questions thoughtfully.
• Why, in the center of this chapter, does Siddhartha string together 20 rhetorical questions?

With the Samanas

Introduction

Siddhartha gets started on the way.

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. How does he act when he is with the Samanas?
2. What is his goal?
What happens when he reaches that goal?
3. How does Sidd meditate?
4. What frustrates Sidd?
5. Complete the quote: “I could have learned more quickly and easily _______________________________”
Explain this.
6. Acccording to Siddhartha, what can one learn?
Explain.
7. Who is Gotama?
What does the author think of him?
8. What does Sidd do with the oldest Samana?
What does that feat show?

Thought questions

For all his talents, Siddhartha is still learning. How can you tell that Siddhartha is still very young?

Continued on next page
Siddhartha, Continued

Structure Questions

Answer the following questions thoughtfully.
• When Sidd meditates on the animals, what does the author do to show the change?
• When Sidd out-meditates the old Samana, How does the author show Sidd’s power?

Gotama

Introduction

Sidd goes on to look for second hand wisdom.

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. How is Gotama different from the Samanas?
2. How do they rcognize him?
3. Why does govinda choose to join him
Why won’t Siddhartha?
4. According to Siddhartha, how will he find enlightenment?
5. Gotama asks him if his (Gotama’s followers) will also find enlightenment. Siddhartha dodges this question. How?
6. What has the Buddha robbed from him?
What has he given?

Language

Answer the following questions thoughtfully.
• What does the Buddha mean by “clever”?

Though

Answer the following question thoughtfully.
• Is Siddhartha arrogant?

Awakening

Introduction

Sidd goes his own way and goes and goes and goes.

Questions

Answer the following questions thoughtfully.
1. What does Sidd decide to study?
How is that the one field he has been ignorant in?
2. Why does he feel an “icy chill”?
He compares himself to a star. How is that so?
3. How is he different now.

Structure

Answer the following sentence thoughtfully.
• Why, do you suppose, the third sentence of the chapter is so long?

Kamala

Introduction

The world of Samsara is open to the master. No more fasting and meditation! Bring on the Courtesans!!!!

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. How has his point of view changed?
How does the writing style reflect this?
2. Complete the quote: “To obey no other eternal command ________
_____________. Nothing else was necessary”
How is this Emersonian?
3. What dream does Siddhartha see?
Will this woman lead him to enlightenment?
4. What does Siddhartha think of the Ferryman and of the river?
5. Why doesn’t Siddhartha “ascend the tree” with the woman?
6. Hesse uses a simile to describe the woman’s (Kamala’s) mouth. What is it?
What does that say about the woman?
7. How does Siddhartha prepare for Kamala?
What does he want from her?
8. Why might the portrayal of Kamala be politically incorrect?

Continued on next page
Kamala, Continued

9. What three things can Siddhartha do?
10. When Siddhartha recieves his first kiss, the style changes.
How?
Why?
11. Who is Kamaswami?
12. Siddhartha compares himself to a stone. How is this so?

Amongst the People

Introduction

After ”ascending the tree” Siddhartha decides he likes his new world.

Questions

Answer the following questions.
1. How does Siddhartha take control of the interview?
2. For all of his holy skills, in the end, why does Kamaswami hire him?
3. In your own words and thoughtfully, what did Kamala teach him?
4. What makes Siddhartha good at business?
Why might he be an excellent partner for Kamaswami?
5. What does his four day trip to the village show about Siddhartha?
How could that be good business?
6. What does Siddhartha’s inner voice say?
How is life “flowing past” him?
7. What do you suppose a Samana heart is?
8. How are Siddhartha and Kamala similiar?

Samsara

Introduction

Sidd is starting to get tired of it all.

Questions

Answer the following questions.
1. Does Sidd have a bad life?
What is good about it?
2. What had Siddhartha learned (important stuff)
3. What happened when the property finally became chain and a burden?
4. How does his dice playing echo his real life?
5. What was his Kamala dream about?
6. What was the Bird dream about?
7. Why does he feel dead?
8. Why is it important that Kamala is pregnant? Why out of that last trip?

Symbolism

This chapter uses at least three major symbols or similes. What are they?
Explain.

By the River

Introduction

Suicide is painless...

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. Why does Sidd wish to kill himself?
2. What is the tone of this section. is it entirely serious?
3. What sound does he here?
How does he react?
4. How is he different when he wakes up?
Who is sitting with him?
5. What does Sidd start lecturing his friend about?

Symbolism

How does the river work as a symbol?

The Ferryman

Introduction

Don’t pay the Ferryman....

Questions

Think

Kamala has a pretty weak role. How would the story be different if she were stronger? What would happen if she had a sense of humor?

The Son

Introduction

Now, the strangest chapter of the book. The shoe is on the other foot.

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. What about Sidd would make him a lousy father?
2. How does young Sidd take advntage of the father?
3. What does he try and do for his son?
Why won’t it work?
4. Why doesn’t he punish the boy?
5. Why is the river laughing?
How has Siddhartha gotten his own?
6. How can love be “Samsara”?
7. Why does the son hate the father?
8. Why did he break the oar?
9. In losing his son, what might Siddhartha have gained?

Thought

When I read this chapter, I laugh at Sidd’s troubles. Whyat is ironic about his losses?

Introduction

Vasudeva finally gets what he deserves.

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. What “wound” does Siddhartha have?
What is the different light that he sees people in?
2. What has been his biggest change since becoming a ferryman?
As a result, how does the tone of the book change?
3. What does the river do when Sidd goes to see his son?
Whoe reflection does he see?
4. Siddhartha and Vasudeva listen very, very closely to the river. What do they hear?
Why is everything interconnected?
5. Where does Vasudeva go? (Not just the woods)

Thought

Although there is one more chapter left to go, the ultimate realization has come in this one. What is it?

Govinda

Introduction

Sidd prepares for his final trip; his apotheosis. And he gets an old visitor.

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.
1. Why is there still restlessness in Govinda’s heart?
2. What is wrong with seeking, according to Sidd?
3. Why doesn’t Sidd have a doctrine?
How can wisdom not be communicable?
Can you communicate knowledge?
4. What is the symbolism of the stone?
5. How can Nirvana and Samsara be the same?
6. What does Govinda see Siddhartha do?
What does this show about Sidd’s final change?

Thought question

Could Sidd have become a Buddha while sitting next to a freeway instead of a river?

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Hermann Hesse

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