A few years later, he served in a similar capacity in Basel, from where he traveled through Switzerland and to Italy.Īfter writing a few minor works, Hesse achieved recognized literary success in 1904 with the publication of Peter Camenzind, a very popular book written in the tradition of the German Romanticists. Some progress was made in 1895, when he became an apprentice in the book trade in Heckenhauer's bookstore in Tubingen, although Hesse was still a rebel. Needless to say, this was not satisfactory to him. In 1894, Hesse became an apprentice in Perrot's tower clock factory in Calw. These ranged from a school for the disturbed to an attempt at exorcism. He became so despondent that he considered suicide and purchased a pistol.Ĭausing great concern to his parents, Hesse was subjected to a variety of remedies for his rebelliousness. Great stress caused him to flee the Maulbronn Seminary, the setting of Mariabronn in Narcissus and Goldmund. By the age of thirteen, Hesse had decided that he was going to be a poet. His reaction to this oppressive atmosphere is also reflected in his writings, especially in the bitter attack in Unterm Rad ( Beneath the Wheel). He once stated that he had had only one teacher whom he liked. His grades were never outstanding, and he disliked his teachers. While showing intellectual promise as a student, young Hesse disliked school, especially the rigidity and the stifling of creativity of the German educational system of his time. It was established early that Hesse would become a theological student. Hesse himself much later stated that all of his writing was religious in nature, not in the orthodox sense, but in a larger, universal way. At his disposal was his grandfather's rich library. His house in Calw was frequently the scene of visitations from foreigners, ranging from Buddhists to Americans. Both views never left him they became an integral part of his thought. Hermann's maternal grandfather, Hermann Gundert, also spent a major portion of his life as a missionary in India, acquiring a huge library of books about Eastern thought and becoming a master of Indic languages.Īs a child, Hesse was greatly subjected to religious influences, both to the narrower views of Protestantism and to the wider scope of the Eastern religions and philosophies.

Forced to return to Europe after a short stay in India, Johannes worked in, and helped establish, a religious publishing house in Calw. Hesse was the son of Johannes Hesse, who had been a missionary for the Lutheran Pietists to India.

Situated on the edge of the Black Forest, Calw was to become the colorful setting of much of Hesse's writing. Hermann Hesse was born in the little south German village of Calw on July 2, 1877.

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