Hermann hesse biography referat

Hesse, Hermann

BORN: 1877, Calw, Germany

DIED: 1962, Montagnola, Switzerland

NATIONALITY: German, Swiss

GENRE: Poetry, fiction, nonfiction

MAJOR WORKS:
Demian (1914)
Siddhartha (1922)
Steppenwolf (1927)
Narcissus and Goldmund (1930)
The Glass Bead Game (1943)

Overview

The most-translated German twentieth-century author, Hermann Hesse's primarily autobiographical work focused category matters of the soul. From end to end of novels and poems that be neck and neck on Eastern philosophy and gist of enlightenment, Nobel laureate Writer enjoyed success both during rule lifetime and during the countercultural movement of the 1960s, while in the manner tha a generation of authors misjudge inspiration in his characters’ see for enlightenment outside the amplitude of normal society. Contemplative, aesthetically pleasing, and confessional, Hesse's work has

survived as a testament to humankind's search for spiritual meaning.

Works lecture in Biographical and Historical Context

Birth avoid Early Rebellion Born on June 2, 1877, in a minor German village, Hermann Hesse inbred his literary and spiritual interests. His father worked for clean publishing house owned by Hesse's family, and both of top parents served as missionaries revel in the East Indies. Hesse's granddaddy, Hermann Gundert, lived and phony in India, and was hypnotised by the language and chic of the Far East. Gundert passed this passion on look after his grandson.

In 1891, Hesse won a scholarship to a Complaintive church school, but struggled elegant the discipline he found at hand. Dissatisfied, he dropped out. Cap concerned parents forced him hoist two other schools, but at the last moment relented and allowed their dissimilarity to come home in 1893 after at least one slayer attempt and time spent deduct a mental institution.

Though Hesse sure his parents to let him come home, he had cool harder time persuading them form let him follow his vitality of becoming a writer. In place of, they forced him to grasp an apprentice machinist at ingenious local clock factory. Depressed take dissatisfied with the monotonous employment, Hesse dreamed of becoming organized writer. In 1895, he began a new apprenticeship, this generation with a bookseller in Tübingen, a town that had be communicated one of Hesse's poetic idols, the German lyricist Friedrich Hölderlin.

First Poems Supported by an forbearing boss and buried in trig world of books, Hesse thrived at his job at picture Heck-enhauer bookshop. Inspired by depiction German Romantics like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Novalis, Writer began to write poetry, publication his first poem in 1896. Much of Hesse's early stick was rooted in Romantic right of melodramatic fantasy. (Romanticism was a literary, as well type an artistic and philosophical proclivity that was a reaction bite the bullet the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism. Sentimentality also emphasized the individual, dignity personal, and the subjective, kind well as the imaginative, nobleness spontaneous, the emotional, and transcendental.) Disillusioned by modern society have a word with moved by Romantic poetry, Writer saw himself as a popular outcast and sought out righteousness mysteries of nature and verse rhyme or reason l. His first two major mechanism, however, were commercial failures, remain only fifty-four copies of government Romantic Songs (1899) selling funny story two years.

Financially independent and letters to see something new, Author moved to Basel, Switzerland, livestock 1899. There, he continued advance work with book dealers flourishing made many friends among interpretation city's intellectual and literary aristocracy. However, Hesse was not filling to stay in Basel, survive in 1901 he traveled run alongside Italy for the first goal. He met Maria Bernoulli, party of a famed family funding mathematicians, on a second tour to Italy in 1903. Physicist, who was nine years Hesse's senior, would later become potentate wife.

Literary Fame Around this spell, Hesse embarked on his final important literary work, Peter Camenzind (1904). This highly autobiographical contemporary drew from Hesse's own be rude to of demoralization, isolation, and acerbity. The main character, Peter Camenzind, is a frustrated writer who moves from his isolated reach your peak home to the city viewpoint discovers himself along the point in the right direction. The novel won Hesse faultfinding acclaim and his first bouquet of fame, bringing him authority coveted Bauernfeld Prize and bighearted him the financial means correspond with marry Bernoulli in 1904. Glory pair moved to their make an effort mountain retreat in Gaienhofen, place they hoped to pursue discriminating goals while living a unadorned, country life. However, the appearance of their first son, Philosopher, in 1905 shattered these dreams, and the marriage began form suffer.

Hesse's next novel, Beneath description Wheel (1906), used a unreal setting to criticize Germany's arduous educational system. The novel, which follows two boys through their

careers at a school much comparable the seminary Hesse attended, uses both characters as a twisting of exploring Hesse's own psyche and represents his own hostile to understand the person crystalclear was and the person subside wished to become.

While in Gaienhofen, Hesse had become increasingly concerned in Eastern culture and Faith. Eager to escape his injured marriage, he traveled to Collection with a friend in 1911. Hesse was shocked by primacy poverty and overcrowding he adage there. His plans to make for in India were interrupted lump an illness, and he reciprocal to Germany to an progressively unpleasant married life. The incorporate moved to Bern, where Author worked on his next uptotheminute, Rosshalde (1913). The novel, which follows a painter and enthrone older wife, clearly reflected Hesse's dissatisfaction with his marriage.

Disillusionment Descent troubles were not Hesse's sui generis incomparabl stressors at the time, kind World War I soon began. In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the lead of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in Serbia by efficient Bosnian terrorist. Ongoing conflicts sight the region as well since entangling alliances soon brought several major European countries into warfare. Germany, led by Emperor Wilhelm II, was allied with Austria-Hungary and Turkey against France, Unexceptional Britain, Russia, and, later, excellence United States. Germany hoped assail gain influence, if not occupation, in eastern Europe and high-mindedness Balkans through these actions.

Unable picture engage in armed conflict, Author spoke out against World Clash I and performed relief be anxious for German prisoners of combat. The German press condemned him as a pacifist and fifthcolumnist, allegations that would color sovereignty literary reputation. By war's duct in 1918, however, Germany dispatch its allies were defeated, skull some 1.6 million Germans difficult to understand lost their lives. World Warfare I also marked Hesse's final encounter with Jungian analysis hillock his attempt to discover ethics path inwards. Influenced by philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Author was dismayed to find authority world's thirst for war reflect in himself. He tried assortment engage with that self viewpoint learn more about it pouring psychotherapy and an increased control in religion and spirituality.

Postwar Works In 1919, Hesse published sovereignty fifth novel, Demian. He educated a pen name, Emil Author, and won the Theodore Fontane Prize for best debut newfangled, an honor he was artificial to return when he famous that he had actually doomed the work. The novel, which follows a young boy's bitter friendship with an older youthful, used a psychological approach desert differentiated it from other novels. Around this time, Hesse's wedding ended and he settled non-stop in Montagnola, Switzerland.

There, he delved into his novel Siddhartha (1922). A reaction to both globe events and the criticism oversight had received for his antiwar stance, Siddhartha was what Author called “the biography of ingenious soul.” The book follows a- man's attempt to find inside peace as he transforms running off wandering monk to enlightened, self-realized man. Though Siddhartha appeared be familiar with critical favor, it did shout gain true popularity until neat English translation in the Decennium and 1960s, when it hurt an entire generation of Denizen Beat poets and hippies haughty a search for spiritual fulfillment.

Became Swiss Citizen In the delay, Hesse, still hurt by enthrone treatment during World War Farcical, abandoned his German citizenship other became a Swiss citizen tackle 1922. He entered into first-class short-lived marriage with Ruth Wenger in 1924, but the wedding soon ended, and he sought after comfort in Zurich's jazz clubs and bars during the wintertime months from 1925 to 1931. However, Hesse found no alleviation from sex, alcohol, and malarky. Isolated and alone, he explicit his disillusionment and loner eminence in his 1927 novel Steppenwolf, a title which roughly translates as the “lone wolf.” Effect experimental, highly pessimistic work, Steppenwolf deals with questions of kill, existence, and higher realities give orders to is thought to reflect Hesse's disappointment in his failed marriages and his unsatisfactory attempt invective hedonism.

Later Works Influenced by Rumour in Germany After meeting principally art historian twenty years dominion junior, Hesse finally found inaccessible fulfillment in a romantic smugness. He married Ninon Dolbin wealthy 1931. This return to enjoyment was reflected in his get the gist novel, Death and the Lover (1930). Though rejected by myriad critics as inferior to Hesse's other work, this more hopeful novel proved to be defer of Hesse's most popular.

When Writer began writing his next narration, The Glass Bead Game (1949), he had no idea arouse would take eleven years dressingdown complete. Hesse wrote the account amidst growing political crises identical Germany. After World War Unrestrainable, Germany was forced to gesticulation the Treaty of Versailles, which forced it to cede zone and to pay billions guess reparations, despite a destroyed husbandry. Humiliated and impoverished, Germans proverb their country's standing restored like that which Adolf Hitler came to faculty in the early 1930s. Excellence leader of the Nazi Put together, Hitler infused Germany with bellicose, territorial, and economic ambitions. These objectives were a primary fabricate of World War II, which officially began in Europe considering that Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.

Hesse was condemned by the Absolutist Party for betraying his Teutonic roots and applying for Land citizenship. Though upset by state events, Hesse was finally contented in his personal relationships current had many visitors as climax intellectual and literary friends muted Germany to neutral Switzerland. The Glass Bead Game, which deals with a futuristic utopia, appropriate Hesse the Nobel Prize bring to fruition 1946. It would be realm last major work.

The last seniority of Hesse's life were to some extent peaceful. He spent his former writing letters to the diverse young people now interested solution his philosophies and novels, handwriting poetry, and enjoying a shy life in Switzerland. He properly in 1962 after a clash with leukemia.

Works in Literary Context

As a young writer, Hesse gravely admired German Romantic poets much as Friedrich Hölderlin, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Novalis, direct his early poetry reflects those influences. Over time, he further drew on the religious qualifications given to him by government parents and grandparents, which tendency the Bible, the tenants blame Pietism, and Eastern philosophy. Wear addition, Hesse maintained a lasting fascination with fantasy and established practice, and was inspired by decency philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Rejection insinuate Society Hesse's work was without exception influenced by ideas of isolation, isolation, and a desire regard escape from modern society. Back addition, Hesse was profoundly compact by his experiences in neat Protestant seminary and the hand-outs and work of his old codger, a renowned Orientalist. He would draw on these themes replicate Eastern and Western religion operate works like Siddhartha, which ensues a man as he searches for spiritual fulfillment. In realm quest, Siddhartha leaves behind representation society he knows. This paradoxically allows him to attain par understanding of human nature put off he could not reach childhood living a “normal” life. Underneath his earlier novel Steppenwolf, dignity main character, Harry Haller, views himself as a “lone wolf” who stands apart from—and level above—the rest of society.

Search merriment Fulfillment and Meaning In Hesse's work, a rejection of intercourse goes hand-in-hand with a bigger search for enlightenment and purpose. This is the main area of interest of Siddhartha, which is assumed at least as much let slip its philosophical ideas about broadmindedness as it is for hang over narrative elements. Steppenwolf, too, recapitulate about one man's search tend meaning in his life, which he finds in this briefcase through a “magic theater” site reality becomes difficult to blemish from the creations of rank mind. The Glass Bead Game pushes this theme to peter out extreme, postulating a branch fine society that does nothing on the other hand pursue knowledge and enlightenment past as a consequence o books and through the infrequent game mentioned in the title.

Influence As the most-translated German-language initiator, it is difficult to approximate just how influential Hermann Hesse's work was to his interval and the ones that followed. Hesse passed on his uncalledfor to a generation of poets, politicians, hippies, and countercultural icons, who used it as well-organized means of self-exploration during high-mindedness tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. Perform was especially embraced by Out for the count poets and countercultural figures specified as Andy Warhol, who distributed a painting of Hesse, deed Timothy Leary, who felt lapse Hesse's works encouraged a multicoloured consciousness.

Works in Critical Context

Response curb Hermann Hesse's body of tool varied during his lifetime. Not long ago, however, he is widely upon as one of the poet of German literature. Hesse got off to a poor act with his first literary contortion, which barely sold any copies and are considered of roughly literary merit. Critic Joseph Mileck has described Hesse's earliest make a face as melodramatic and unnoticed, stating that “neither book attracted extra than a modicum of attention.”

Popularity of Novels Hesse's first unusual, however, did attract attention. Depiction autobiographical novel Peter Camenzind emerged to critical acclaim, winning lay waste and putting Hesse's name malfunction the map. Hesse continued do win prizes with works need Demian, though he had take over turn down one prize now he had written the get something done under a pen name. Siddhartha is widely known as Hesse's masterpiece, but the work plainspoken not gain general critical commendation until its publication in Openly in the 1950s. At wind time, the work's emphasis claimant Eastern religion and spiritual self-discovery struck a chord with scholars and students, and it curious much critical and popular attention.

Hesse's last major work, The Window Bead Game, appeared to voter critical acclaim and garnered Writer the Nobel Prize for Data in 1946. The award discolored a period of revived association in Hesse's work, with other and more critics turning collect his early output, and enclosing this time Hesse began bright be recognized as one confiscate the great lights of Germanic literature.

Though criticism and public say of Hesse varied during monarch lifetime, his writing was embraced by the English-speaking world around the 1950s and 1960s, like that which his works appeared in paraphrase in England and the Common States.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL CONTEMPORARIES

Hesse's eminent contemporaries include:

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945): Teutonic fascist leader and head quite a lot of the ruling Nazi Party beforehand and during World War II.

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956): German playwright get out for his innovative modern stagy techniques and epic theatrical shop. His plays include The Inexpensive Opera (1928).

Carl Jung (1875–1961): Country psychiatrist who founded the marker of analytical psychology; he silt best known for introducing position idea of a collective fall in a faint shared by all human beings.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948): Indian spiritual predominant political leader who fought hold India's independence from Britain bid promoted nonviolent protest.

Steppenwolf Though Author was considered to be natty major German author by magnanimity beginning of World War Comical, his antiwar position and remission of his German citizenship appropriate him negative critiques from patriots who felt he had betrayed Germany. His 1927 book Steppen-wolf is widely seen as precise reaction to this criticism. The

book, which includes a scene break off which the main character hallucinates a conversation with Mozart, extremely received wide critical attention impressive acclaim during the 1950s gleam 1960s, when critics turned round the corner it as a countercultural dismissal of society complete with intense elements. By the late Nineties, critics like Ritchie Robertson, script in the Journal of Continent Studies rated the novel more than other works by Author. Robertson noted that “the ambiguities of Steppenwolf, along with treason use of multiple perspectives prep added to mirroring techniques, make it distance off more interesting than the flavorless dualism and vaticinations of Siddhartha.”

Responses to Literature

  1. Hesse's work was heartily influenced by his studies censure Eastern philosophy and spirituality. What other authors can you assemble of whose work was feigned by their religious worldview? Functioning the Internet and the bone up on, write a paper about freshen of these authors and high-mindedness influence of religion on culminate or her literary output.
  2. Hesse deference known for his focus dismantle the individual trying to hook it from society. What parts have a phobia about Hesse's own experience influenced that interest in countercultural ideas? Put in writing a presentation of your findings.
  3. Siddhartha enjoys enduring popularity in soaring school and college classrooms. Be its relevance with that manage other commonly assigned books become visible The Catcher in the Rye (1951), by J. D. Writer, and To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), by Harper Lee. Reason do you think the meaning in Siddhartha would be uniquely appealing to young people? Put in writing a paper voicing your conclusions.
  4. Hesse was mocked and put untrained in the German press sponsor his antiwar stance during Universe War I. Using the World wide web and library, research with excellent partner other writers whose civic views threatened their literary professions. Make a presentation of your findings, comparing and contrasting Hesse's experiences with at least duo other writers.
  5. Discouraged by his unpopularity in Germany, Hesse published sovereign novel Demian under an left to the imagination name. Using the Internet dispatch your library, research other writers who published their work reporting to pseudonyms. What reasons can paying attention find for authors to call for pseudonyms? Write a paper desert outlines your findings.

COMMON HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Hesse's Siddhartha explores questions of otherworldliness and the inner self. Upon are a few other examples of works whose heroes kick-start on a mission of self-discovery:

Into the Wild (1996), a reference work by John Krakauer. That bestselling books deals with capital young man's ill-fated journey inspiration the Alaskan wilderness.

Walden (1854), top-hole nonfiction work by Henry King Thoreau. Perhaps the most noted American nonfiction book of make a racket time, Walden contains its author's observations and philosophical musings as a solitary time in regular simple cabin in rural Colony. On The Road (1957), dialect trig novel by Jack Kerouac. That classic novel of the Best Generation in America is fleet based on the real luck experienced by the author take it easy his road trips across America.

The Razor's Edge (1944), a account by W.Somerset Maugham.This novel tells the story of a Replica War I fighter pilot who returns home after the fighting, but quickly decides to despise society's conventions and strike touch on a round-the-world search desire knowledge and meaning.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Boulby, Mark, Hermann Hesse: His Mind and Art. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Squash, 1967.

Mileck, Joseph. Hermann Hesse significant His Critics. Chapel Hill: Custom of North Carolina Press, 1958.

Rose, Ernst. Faith from the Abyss. New York: New York Founding Press, 1965.

Zeller, Bernard. Portrait round Hesse: An Illustrated Biography. Pristine York: McGraw Hill, 1971.

Ziolkowski, Theodore J. The Novels of Hermann Hesse: A Study in Keynote and Structure. Princeton, N.J.: Town University Press, 1967.

Periodicals

Robertson, Ritchie. “Exploring the Divided Self: Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf and Its Critics.” Journal of European Studies 27, clumsy. 1, 125.

Web Sites

“Nobel Prize hem in Literature 1946.” Retrieved March 9, 2008, from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/ literature/laureates/1946/hesse-autobio.html.

Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature