Hermann Hesse (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Hermann Hesse is also known for his quotes about life and wisdom. Hermann Hesse was born on 2 July 1877 in the Black Forest town of Calw, Germany.
His grandparents served in India at a mission under the auspices of the Basel Mission, a Protestant Christian missionary society. His grandfather Hermann Gundert, (died in Calw on March 19th, 1893) was a scholar of Indian culture and author of the comprehensive “Bhagavad Gita” translation. Hermann Hesse’s father, Johannes Hesse (born 4 May 1847 in Marburg; died 6 January 1907 in Basel), was a doctor of theology and philosophy; he also wrote several books about India.
Hermann had five siblings: Hermann (1870–1943), Hans (1872–1942), Martha (1873–1935) who married the poet Alfred Wolfenstein (de), Marie Elizabeth (1877–1907) and Bernhard Hermann Michael (who died one day after Hermann Hesse was born). Hermann’s mother, Marie Gundert (September 28th, 1849 – January 2nd, 1937), was born at sea during a journey from the Indian subcontinent to Basel. Hermann Hesse’s birthplace in Calw Hermann Hesse’s childhood home The Hermannsburg Mission House Hermann lived with his family in Calw after his father became pastor of the Lutheran Protestant community there.
Hermann was an introverted child who found it difficult to make friends with his peers. He grew up at the parish rectory where he matured within a context of Christian and ancient Indian culture (due to his grandfather Hermann Gundert’s influence). His friends were Wilhelm Jerusalem and particularly Max Demian, with whom Hermann formed a close friendship. Both characters reappeared in Hermann Hesse’s novels. Hermann also went to school in Tubingen.
Hermann Hesse studied at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Maulbronn Abbey from 1891 to 1893, but he left prematurely. In October 1894, Hermann Hesse began training in bookselling though this only lasted until 1895 when he switched careers to become a pharmacist after his time at Maulbronn. He worked for several pharmaceutical companies before being appointed as an assistant manager for a Swiss pharmaceutical company where he was involved in research work into tuberculosis and pharmacology (1898-1902) near Berne and later Basel (for a three-year period).
Hermann Hesse married Maria Bernoulli (born 14 February 1876 in Switzerland as Mary Bessie MacDonald) on 16 September 1903. Hermann and Maria Hermann Hesse lived in Paris from June 1904 until May 1905, where he wrote his first novel Demian published a year later. In that month, Hermann left for Montagnola near Locarno in Italian-speaking Switzerland because of an illness with asthma. He built a small house there on the Stalden mountain overlooking Lake Lugano which he called “Ramayana”, after a nomad camp from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha.
Hermann and Maria returned to Gaienhofen (near Lake Constance) in Germany in July 1914 where Hermann became a guest professor of the University of Berne (he taught Arthur Schopenhauer, Toni Wolff, Nietzsche and oriental philosophy). Hermann Hesse’s house in Gaienhofen The poet Michail Artamonowitsch Gorbatschow painted Hermann Hesse’s portrait Hermann Hesse married again Maria Bernoulli’s younger sister Ruth (born 1 June 1892 in India), nee Bessie MacDonald, on 24 March 1920. They had one son Thaddeus Hermann who was born 2 January 1922 in Bern.
“Demian; or, The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth” is Herman Hesse’s semi-autobiographical novel written in 1919. First published in Germany in 1920, the story describes the coming of age of its protagonist, Emil Sinclair.
According to Hermann Hesse, Demian begins with his meeting with Max Demian at age 11 and ends with his encounter with Kg Mauler, a schoolmate he does not like, when he is 14. While Demian plays no direct part in this time period for Emil Sinclair (and while some critics say that the character only appears twice), it becomes evident that Demian influences him greatly on how he perceives things. More so any other character.
Hesse writes: “I had a friend and I knew him well. But now it seemed as though I’d never really seen him until now, just as he stood here in front of me with the light falling on his face from the open window, at that moment when he was about to turn away—until this second I had merely thought myself his friend.”
The novel starts with Herman Hesse as a young boy, Emil Sinclair (though we later find out Hermann is actually Herman – they both go by their middle names – and Max Demian is Herman’s close friend). The two meet after Herman sneaks into a forbidden adult party with some college students and is sent home with Max.
During Herman and Max’s daily visits, Emil tells Max about his life and shares with him the story of The Great Secret which only Herman knows. Herman sheds light on certain aspects in his life so that he may understand it better himself: not just for others to know but also for himself. Akin to many other works in Herman Hesse’s writing, Demian is a book about self-realization or coming of age type novel that leaves its mark long after you finish reading it.
In Demian , Herman Hesse explores the idea of how we view ourselves consciously versus subconsciously and examines whether we can ever truly reach our true selves. This idea plays a major role throughout the novel, leaving readers questioning their own thoughts and self-views after Herman Hesse’s Demian .
In Herman Hesse’s Demian, Emil Sinclair is a young boy with a loving mother who dies from illness. Herman Hesse uses this as an opportunity to show the effects of a broken home – for example, Hermann is sent to live with his grandmother after his father remarries – and how it influences the personality development of each individual person. Herman focuses on teenagers since he believes they are still “in transition between childhood and adulthood”.
It is during these times that we find ourselves most vulnerable as people because we search for our identity through philosophy, religion, literature, entertainment etc. without realizing that those created concepts do not encompass our true selves: they are simply a part of what we make them and nothing more. Herman Hesse’s Demian follows Emil Sinclair as he begins to discover who he truly is and how much influence Max has had on his life.
Kg Miller, another classmate, also features prominently in Hermann Hesse’s Demian as the antagonist. Herman tries to avoid Kg for as long as possible because he cannot stand him (the feeling is mutual). Herman wants to distance himself from those that do not interest him or remind him of who he was before meeting Max – an angry boy with no sense of direction: “I could not tear my eyes away from the door behind which I knew there stood people whose words and appearance condemned me without appeal. I hated them back then already with the deadly hatred of someone who feels himself utterly powerless, vanquished” Hermann Hesse’s Demian
However, Herman eventually comes to accept Kg as a part of him – one that Herman had always seen but never acknowledged because it does not fit into his definition of self or how he sees others. Herman explains that Kg was just “a poor devil who ought not to be at all held accountable for being what he is” Hermann Hesse’s Demian. It is only when Herman manages to understand this part of himself that he can truly move on from his past and embrace his future.
On 12 September 1927 Hermann Hesse shifted from Gaienhofen to Kilchberg near Zurich which remained his domicile until the end of his life. Hermann Hesse’s grave in Kilchberg Hermann Hesse died of tuberculosis on 9 August 1962, shortly before his 88th birthday. Hermann Hesse left instructions to have a portion of his ashes buried in the small garden of the Hermannsburg Mission House, which he had attended as a boy. The remainder was sent to be scattered on the nearby lake by his widow Ruth and daughter Ninon.