Soul of the Age

by Hermann Hesse

  65. “Hans Amstein,” a novella; first published in Die Neue Rundschau (1904).

  66. Die Liebe der Erika Ewald (1904).

  67. Die Philosophic des Hippolyte Taint (1904).

  68. Writer and co-editor of the journal März.

  69. Der Mediceer (1907).

  70. On July 3, 1908, Hesse published a longish essay, “Cäsarius von Heisterbach,” in März as an introduction to his translations from the Dialogus miraculorum, which appeared in the subsequent three issues of März. Hesse published a more extensive selection of his Caesarius translations in 1925 under the title Geschichten aus dem Mittelalter.

  71. Olaf Gulbransson, caricaturist and graphic artist.

  72. Max Bucherer, painter and graphic artist.

  73. Published in März, February 18, 1908.

  74. A reference to the pantheistic work Welträtsel (1899) by the Jena professor Ernst Haeckel.

  75. A pastor and one of the finest poets of the nineteenth century.

  76. Johannes Hesse, Frühlingswehen in der Völkerwelt (1908).

  77. Johannes Hesse, Die Heiden und wir (1901/1906).

  78. “Kurgast” (“Guest at the Spa”), an open letter in the review Jugend.

  79. Badenweiler, a well-known spa at the western foot of the Black Forest.

  80. “A new product for export,” a note in the first number of März (April 1908).

  81. Composer and for thirty-eight years director of the Bern symphony orchestra.

  82. Politician, lawyer, and contributor to März.

  83. Martin, Hesse’s third son, was born on July 26, 1911.

  84. The painter Hans Sturzenegger.

  85. Hesse described his first flight in a Zeppelin airship in “Spazierfahrt in der Luft,” which appeared in the Basler Nachrichten.

  86. The founding of a “März Publishing Corporation.” Beginning with the first January issue of 1912, the name of the new company replaces the former title: “Albert Langen, Publishers of Literature and Art, Munich.” There is a new, separate entry on the masthead, printed in semibold letters: “Editor-in-Chief, Otto Wolters, Munich.”

  87. In September 1912, Hesse moved from Gaienhofen to Bern.

  88. Reinhold Geheeb, editor of Simplicissimus.

  89. Pseudonym of Albert Bitzius, pastor and novelist of Swiss peasant life.

  90. Composer and dentist in Constance.

  91. Hermann Cohen, philosopher, founder of Neo-Kantianism.

  92. Composer and conductor; one of Hesse’s earliest musical friends.

  93. Through Alfred Schlenker, Hesse had got to know Andreä, Fritz Brun, and the young composer Othmar Schoeck.

  94. Hesse was rejected on August 29, 1914, because of his “severe shortsightedness.”

  95. Battle at Mühlhausen on August 9–10, 1914. The 7th German Army drove the French out of Upper Alsace.

  96. Hesse’s cousin.

  97. The Russians had penetrated deeply into German and Austrian territory in East Prussia and Galicia. This led to the battle at Tannenberg. In the South, the Austrians were struggling to defend the Carpathian mountain passes.

  98. The German battle plan sought to achieve a decisive victory in the West through a large encircling movement while continuing to wage war in the East. The plan failed due to the Battle of the Marne, and the “probably final German battle” turned into trench warfare, which lasted until 1918.

  99. A Bern newspaper.

  100. Hermann Hesse, ed., Lieder deutscher Dichter (Munich: Langen, 1914).

  101. The movement of German troops through neutral Belgium in August 1914.

  102. French novelist, historian, and critic. Hesse’s extensive correspondence with Rolland has been separately published in German (1954); French (1972), and English (1978).

  103. Professor Paul Haeberlin. The project never materialized.

  104. A monthly periodical published in Leipzig by Kurt Wolff’s Verlag der Weissen Bücher (1913–21).

  105. A journal with revolutionary leanings (1914–29), published by Kiepenheuer Verlag, Berlin.

  106. Friend of Hesse’s from Zurich; she contributed money to his war relief efforts.

  107. Attack against Serbia by German and Bulgarian troops (November 1915).

  108. Battle of Champagne (September–October 1915).

  109. Der Sonntagsbote für die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen started appearing in January 1916; on January 7, 1916, it was expanded to include the Deutsche Internierten-Zeitung.

  110. Gustav Ador, member of the National Council in Geneva and president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

  111. Dr. Rudolf von Tavel, managing editor of the Berner Tagblatt, the Berner Heim, and the journal Die Garbe, was, from 1915 to 1919, head of Pro Captivis, which exercised censorship over the Deutsche Internierten-Zeitung and Der Sonntagsbote für die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen.

  112. A bimonthly review of literature, drama, music, and visual and applied arts.

  113. Appeared in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

  114. American-born wife of legal historian Friedrich Emil Welti. The Weltis were old friends of Hesse.

  115. From April until the end of May 1916: electrotherapy in the Sonnmatt Sanatorium near Lucerne, where Hesse had his first twelve analytic sessions with Dr. Josef B. Lang, a young follower of C. G. Jung. Hesse subsequently traveled once a week to Lucerne for treatment.

  116. Sidney Sonnino, Italian statesman. On April 26, 1915, he signed the London Treaty with the Entente, which resulted in Italy’s entry into the war.

  117. Alfred von Tirpitz, German admiral and statesman, the advocate of the unrestricted submarine warfare that led President Woodrow Wilson to break off diplomatic relations with the German Reich and declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

  118. “Hope and faith are two of the very pillars on which our future rests.”

  119. Professor of forestry in Zurich.

  120. Austrian writer and man of letters.

  121. The Publishing House of the Book Depot for German Prisoners of War. Hesse edited twenty-two separate titles with an average run of 1,000 copies, including: Don Correa by Gottfried Keller, an anthology of poetry from Novalis to Emst Stadler; Dichtergedanken from Herder to Stifter; Zeitvertreib, a collection of anecdotes and jokes; Schüler und Studenten, stories by Stifter, A. Zweig, and Alfons Paquet; two anthologies of “strange” and “funny” stories; two novellas by Thomas Mann, Tonio Kröger and The Railway Accident. Hesse described the project in a letter to Emil Molt of January 8, 1918: “I feel that this attempt to influence the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been completely disrupted by the war is assuming ever greater importance for our future. The government has other priorities, and its interventions serve only to exacerbate the patriotic warmongering.”

  122. Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1880).

  123. Painter and graphic artist.

  124. Negotiations were held in Brest Litovsk and lasted from December 22 until March 3, 1918. There was a Russian offer (renunciation of annexations, evacuation of the occupied territories, national self-determination) and burdensome German demands (Russia had to give up its claim to Poland, the Baltic states, Finland, the Ukraine, etc.). Lenin finally surmounted the opposition of many of his comrades and accepted the German conditions.

  125. Dr. Johann Wilhelm Muehlon, a pacifist, served as a diplomat in the German Foreign Office and as a director of Krupp’s, retired from that position shortly after the outbreak of the war, then served as a German emissary entrusted with secret diplomatic missions; resigned on February 1, 1917, the day Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare, subsequently in contact with Germans in exile, whom he tried to unite.

  126. Der rote Kampfflieger (1917).

  127. Freud had thanked Hesse for his essay “Artists and Psychoanalysis” (Werkausgabe, 10:47ff) and for his works, which he had been following “with pleasure since Peter Camenzind.” Hesse expanded these views in reviews of works by Freud in 1919 and 1925 (WA, 12:365–68).


  128. Hesse’s youngest son, Martin, who was being cared for at the time by Johanna and Alice Ringier in Kirchdorf near Bern.

  129. Painter and graphic artist; became foster father of Hesse’s oldest son, Bruno.

  130. Hesse had written in a similar vein in a letter of September 11, 1917: “I have been short of money for the past two years, haven’t bought myself a suit for over two years, and walk around in torn shoes.”

  131. Painter and close friend of Hesse’s.

  132. Klein and Wagner (WA, 5:204ff).

  133. Klingsor’s Last Summer (WA, 5:293ff).

  134. Son of a rich man.

  135. Presumably trees pruned to a round shape.

  136. Mountain near Lugano.

  137. Ruth Wenger, who became Hesse’s second wife in 1924.

  138. Merchant, art collector, and patron of Hesse’s.

  139. Hesse was literary editor of Vivos Voco from 1919 to 1922.

  140. Hesse was not divorced until July 14, 1923.

  141. The painter Ernst Kreidolf.

  142. Psychiatrist and disciple of C. G. Jung; Hesse had some seventy psychoanalytical sessions with Lang in 1916 and 1917.

  143. Vivos Voco.

  144. Reisetagebuch eines Philosophen (1919).

  145. The first part of Siddhartha, which was dedicated to Romain Rolland.

  146. Writer and painter.

  147. Brother of Hesse’s patron Georg Reinhart.

  148. The Wenger family lived in Delsberg (Delémont) in the Swiss Juras.

  149. Kurzgefasster Lebenslauf (Life Story Briefly Told) (1925; WA, 6:391ff).

  150. Opera in three acts by Othmar Schoeck.

  151. Either Novellino: Novellen und Schwänke der ältesten italienischen Erzähler or Geschichten aus Japan; both were published in 1922 by the Seldwyla Verlag in Bern.

  152. Walther Rathenau, who took office as German Foreign Minister in February 1922, was murdered in Berlin on June 24, 1922.

  153. Conference of the International Women’s League for Freedom and Peace in Lugano, August 18–September 2, 1922.

  154. Professor Wilhelm Gundert, an expert on Japan, translator of the Bi Yaen Lu (1912), the “Bible” of Zen Buddhism.

  155. A member of the Reichstag and a defender of parliamentary democracy, Haussmann was one of the first politicians to become a close friend of Hesse’s.

  156. The first English edition did not appear until much later: Siddhartha, trans. Hilda Rosner (New York: New Directions, 1951).

  157. Dutch poet and psychoanalyst who was influenced by socialist and communist ideas. He founded the Walden colony in 1898, but the experiment proved a failure. Young John (1886–1906) is an autobiographical, fairy tale-like novel about adolescent development.

  158. Indian missionary.

  159. “Robert Aghion.” Cf. Hesse’s Der Europäer, Gesammelte Erzählungen (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1977), Vol. 3, p. 160.

  160. Indian writer, philosopher, and painter.

  161. Philosopher of history. His major work, Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West), appeared during the period 1918–22.

  162. Hans Mardersteig, co-editor of the review Genius, was director of the Officina Bodoni.

  163. Engineer and architect; Hesse’s friend since 1919.

  164. Casa Camuzzi, in which Hesse rented a small apartment from 1919 to 1931.

  165. Englert had composed a horoscope for Hesse.

  166. “‘The Officina Bodoni’ in Montagnola,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, April 11, 1923.

  167. Permission to refuse Confirmation.

  168. Hesse traveled to Bern to sign his naturalization papers.

  169. Maria Hesse had been living in Ascona since August; Heiner was attending the Kefikon State Boarding School near Frauenfeld.

  170. Märchen (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1919).

  171. Wife of businessman Fritz Leuthold, who met Hesse on his trip to Southeast Asia in 1911.

  172. On the occasion of the marriage on January 15, 1924.

  173. His half brother, Karl Isenberg.

  174. Malaysian, “Mr.”

  175. Hesse’s nephew; a musician and music historian.

  176. Like the other titles in the series, The Romantic Mind did not appear during Hesse’s lifetime.

  177. Hesse’s youngest son, then fourteen years old.

  178. A mental institution in Basel.

  179. Dr. Hermann Bodmer ran the Kurhaus Victoria in Locarno.

  180. Indian historian, a friend of Hesse’s since 1922.

  181. Siddhartha, trans. Joseph Delage (Paris: Grasset, 1925).

  182. “Dedicated to my dear Romain Rolland.”

  183. “Ausflug in die Stadt,” in Frankfurter Zeitung, January 17, 1926, rept. in Hesse, Die Kunst des Müssiggangs (Frankfurt, 1973), p. 222.

  184. Painter, and wife of Dr. Hermann Bodmer.

  185. Johann von Tscharner, a painter born in Poland, who had lived in Zurich since 1916.

  186. “Gedanken über Lektüre,” in the Berliner Tageblatt of February 6, 1926. The article recommends an essay by Franz Oppenheimer, “Der Staat und die Sünde.”

  187. Pioneer in German sinology and author of authoritative German translations of the works of Confucius, Lao-tse, and Chuang-tze, among others.

  188. Hesse reviewed Schmitz’s Das dionysische Geheimnis: Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse eines Fahnenflüchtigen (1921).

  189. Wilhelm’s translation of the Tao Te Ching (1921), his study Lao Tse und der Taoismus (1925), and also the translation Dschuang Dsi: Das wahre Buch vom südlichen Blütenland (1912).

  190. Hesse uses the English word “outsider.”

  191. Writer, co-founder of Dadaism, pacifist; Hesse’s close friend since 1919.

  192. Ball was commissioned by S. Fischer to write a biography on the occasion of Hesse’s fiftieth birthday.

  193. Adele, who provided Ball with information about the family.

  194. Der Steppenwolf: Ein Stück Tagebuch in Versen. The series of poems appeared in Die Neue Rundschau in November 1926, subsequently published under the title Krisis. (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1928; Gedichte.)

  195. Possibly her memoirs, Im Spiegel des Alters (1926).

  196. Der Steppenwolf.

  197. Concerning Heiner’s choice of a profession.

  198. A bouquet of flowers painted on the letterhead.

  199. Ball’s biography of Hesse, published by the S. Fischer Verlag (1927).

  200. Hugo Ball, Byzantine Christianity (1923).

  201. Franz Schall, a school friend in Göppingen and Maulbronn.

  202. “Yesterday I received the exceptional book in which Hugo Ball provides an excellent account of Hesse’s life, being, and work, and thank you very much for it.”

  203. Sculptor and graphic artist.

  204. A small bust of “beautiful Lilly,” which Hesse had admired in Hubacher’s studio.

  205. Ninon Dolbin, née Ausländer, art historian; Hesse’s wife from 1931 to his death.

  206. For stomach cancer.

  207. Max Wassmer and his wife, Mathilde. He was proprietor of Bremgarten Castle near Bern and a patron of Hesse’s.

  208. Author of novels and short stories, also a music teacher, whom Hesse visited in 1919. Appears as Hans Resom in Hesse’s The Journey to the East.

  209. Three weeks previously, Hesse had visited Würzburg with Ninon.

  210. Since there was no heating in Hesse’s rented apartment in the Casa Camuzzi in Montagnola, he usually spent the winter months in apartments in the city (Basel, Zurich).

  211. Hans Rudolf Schmid, Hermann Hesse (1928).

  212. The essay was never published.

  213. Harry Haller, the main protagonist in Steppenwolf.

  214. Betrachtungen (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1928).

  215. Bilderbuch (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1926).

  216. His half brother, Karl Isenberg, and his family.

  217. Otto Rosenfeld, a friend of Hesse’s in Stuttgart.

  218. Editor of Der Bund, Bern.


  219. From Geschichten aus dem Mittelalter, published in Der Bund on January 26, 1930.

  220. Physician, musician, and collector of Beethoven; Hesse’s patron.

  221. Hans Prinzhorn, author and essayist.

  222. Baltic writer, cousin of Hesse’s father.

  223. Eugen Salzer, a publisher in Heilbronn.

  224. Die Angstmühle (1930). Hesse’s review appeared in the National-Zeitung, Basel, on November 30, 1930.

  225. Nationalistic writer, who became one of fourteen founding members of the new National Socialist Academy of Arts in 1933, when the Prussian Academy of Arts was dissolved.

  226. From the Prussian Academy of Arts, to which he had been elected four years previously.

  227. In a circular letter of November 4, 1930, Wilhelm Schäfer, who at that point was convenor of the Academy’s meetings, had tried to persuade the less active members of the Section for Literature to resign.

  228. Walter von Molo, writer, was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts from 1928 to 1930.

  229. In the course of his life, Hesse published over 3,000 reviews drawing attention to new books and reprints of noteworthy older titles.

  230. Nobel Prize-winning German novelist. Hesse’s correspondence with Mann, extending from 1910 to 1955, has been published in English under the title The Hesse/Mann Letters, trans. Ralph Manheim (New York: Harper & Row, 1975).

  231. Mann had left Chantarella with his wife and daughter Elisabeth a week earlier.

  232. Heinrich Mann writes in his essay: “The Section fully understands the reasons for the resignation of those gentlemen.… Henceforward, it will have to defend intellectual freedom, regardless of the nature of the intellectual position being suppressed.”

  233. Latin, “in a nutshell.”

  234. Journalist and editor of the socialist workers’ paper Der Kulturwille.

  235. Josef Englert, who was Jup the Magician in Klingsor’s Last Summer. He owned a house near St. Moritz, where Hesse spent some months convalescing in 1931 and 1932.

  236. The highest station on the funicular on the Piz Corvatsch (3,458 meters), a mountain near St. Moritz, Switzerland.

  237. Hesse’s Zurich friends Alice and Fritz Leuthold allowed him to use an apartment at Schanzengraben 31 for winter quarters.