Hermann Karl Hesse (1877 - 1962)

Born 2 Jul 1877 in Calw, Württemberg, Deutsches Reich

Ancestors

Died 9 Aug 1962 at age 85 in Montagnola, Ticino, Schweiz

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Biography

Hermann Hesse is Notable.

Hermann Hesse has German Roots.

Hermann Hesse was a German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

Hermann was born in 1877 in Calw in the Black Forest. He was the son of Johannes Hesse and Marie, née Gundert.^[1] Herman grew up in a Swabian Pietist household.^[2] His father, a Baltic German, came from Estonia; his mother was the daughter of a Swabian and a French Swiss. His father's father was a doctor, his mother's father a missionary and Indologist. His father, too, had been a missionary in India for a short while.^[3] His mother, who had been born in India,^[2] had spent several years of her youth there, and had done some missionary work.^[3] Hermann had eight siblings and half-siblings, three of whom died as infants.^[4] His childhood in Calw was interrupted by living in Basle (Basel, Bâle) from 1880 to 1886.^[3]

Hermann spent most of his school years in boarding schools in Württemberg and some time (1891-1892) in the theological seminary of the monastery at Maulbronn. Since the age of twelve he wanted to be a poet and had a hard time deciding what to do after leaving school. He left the grammar school "Gymnasium Cannstadt" in 1893^[5] and became an apprentice to a tower clock mechanic. In 1895, he began an apprenticeship as a bookseller and worked in book and antique shops in Tübingen and since 1899 in Basle.^[4] In 1899, a small volume of his poems appeared in print, followed by other small publications that remained equally unnoticed.^[3] In 1904, he achieved his literary breakthrough with the novel Peter Camenzind.^[4]

Hesse gave up selling books and, on 2 Aug 1904, married photographer Maria "Mia" Bernoulli from Basle. She was a member of the famous family of mathematicians. Hermann and Maria had three sons:^[4]

• Bruno (9 Dec 1905 - 22 Jul 1999),
• Hans Heinrich "Heiner" (1 Mar 1909 - 7 Apr 2003),
• Martin (26 Jul 1911 - 14 Oct 1968).

Hesse preferred a rural life, far from the cities and civilization. So he and his family lived in Gaienhofen on the German shore of Lake Constance until 1912. During this period, he loved to travel; he often went to Italy^[3] and, in 1911, spent a few months in Ceylon and Southeast Asia.^[2] In 1912, he and his family moved to Bern, Switzerland.

At the outbreak of World War I, Hesse volunteered to serve in the German army. Because of his nearsightedness, he was found unfit for combat duty, but was assigned to service involving the care of prisoners of war.^[2] Through his experience, Hesse became a determined opponent of war.^[4]

In 1918, Hermann and Maria decided to separate; they divorced in 1923.^[6] Hermann moved to Montagnola near Lugano in 1919.^[4]

Hesse's India novel Siddhartha was published in 1922. It was an expression of his love of Indian culture and Eastern philosophy, with which he had already become acquainted in his parental home.^[4]

In 1923, Hesse renounced his German and acquired Swiss citizenship.^[3] On 11 Jan 1924, he married second the singer Ruth Wenger, the daughter of the Swiss writer Lisa Wenger and the aunt of Méret Oppenheim. They had no children and divorced on 24 Apr 1927.^[4]

On 14 Nov 1931, Hermann married third the art historian Ninon Dolbin, née Ausländer (born 18 Sep 1895 in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary; died 22 Sep 1966 in Montagnola, Switzerland).^[7][8]

Hesse's intellectual refuge from the Hitler regime and World War II was the work on his novel The Glas Bead Game / Magister Ludi (Das Glasperlenspiel), which was printed in Switzerland in 1943. Not least for this late work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.^[4]

He died on 9 August 1962, aged 85.^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VH36-316 : 16 August 2022), Herrmann Hesse, 1877.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} English Wikipedia article on Hermann Hesse
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Hermann Hesse – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Fri. 19 Aug 2022. From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8} German Wikipedia article on Hermann Hesse
5. ↑ https://www.ehe.de/blog/wie-liebte-eigentlich-hermann-hesse.html, accessed 20 Aug 2022
6. ↑ https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/thomas-lang-und-sein-hermann-hesse-roman-immer-nach-hause-a-1105059.html, accessed 20 Aug 2022
7. ↑ English Wikipedia article on Ninon Hesse
8. ↑ German Wikipedia article on Ninon Hesse
9. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #6001

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q25973
• Hermann Hesse – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Wed. 25 Jan 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1946/hesse/facts/
• Hermann Hesse – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Wed. 25 Jan 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1946/hesse/biographical/
• https://www.hermann-hesse.de/media/de_stammbaum_570.gif
• Basler Patrizier Stämme Seite BnN_f
• https://geneee.org/hermann/hesse?lang=en
• https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KJ8F-KP8/hermann-karl-hesse-1877-1962
• Mileck, Joseph. Hermann Hesse: Biography and Bibliography. Vol. 1. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1977. ISBN 978-0-520-02756
• Minkus, Elke. Traces of motherhood in Hesse's works. Summary of the lecture held in German by Elke Minkus at the Hermann Hesse Colloquium in Calw, 9 May 1997