HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

Music means solace for Kuhn in Gertrud (1910), who longs for 'den grausamen Trost,
in Tonen zu wiihlen' (SW 2, 359), and it betrays Romantic overtones in that it is the
ideal space 'wo Schmerz und Wonne nicht mehr voneinander unterschieden sind'
(SW 2, 389).8
Hesse's second marriage (with Ruth Wenger), celebrated in 1924 and ended
just three years later, set the tone of Hesse's private life in what could be identified as
the second major phase of his life and career. 9 This period was emotionally turbulent,
with Hesse spending most of his time at his Casa Camuzzi in Montagnola while his
wife stayed in Basle. This marriage could be recorded as an unfortunate union Ruth
was twenty years his junior; however, it was also symptomatic of Hesse's difficulties
in reconciling his needs as an artist with the new conjugal way of life. In a letter to
Hugo Ball of February 1924, he vents his malaise: 'Das Verheiraten, das ich nun
wieder lernen sollte, gliickt mir noch nicht gut' (SteMat, 41 ). 10
While his personal crisis deepened during this period, Hesse's literary work
provided an ideal outlet for his bitterness and discomfort:
From 1916 to 1926 (from Demian to Steppenwolf) Hesse was passionately intent
upon self-understanding. [...] The rather traditional poetic realism and the
evasive groping and vague presentiment of his earlier works now yield to a
more original dynamic expressionism in which Hesse finally comes to grips
with his persistent inner discord. 11 (Mileck 1961,171)
Where music is concerned, it is difficult to draw a neat line with the previous
phase, as there is no hiatus but more of a gradual transformation. The transition is
marked by a slight shift in Hesse's perspective on music: he gradually moves away
from an appreciation of Romantic elements in favour of a more Classic sobriety of
forms and balance of feelings; this process culminates in Der Steppenwolf and has
8 Account must also to be taken of Hesse's favourable attitude towards Wagner's music, especially Die
Meistersinger von Niirnberg, in this period of his life. Moreover, the pairing of Beethoven and Chopin in a letter
of 1898 to Helen Voigt-Diederichs shows that his reservations on Beethoven's 'melodies' had not manifested
themselves at that point (Cf. letter of 1962 in section 3 of Chapter 2): 'Diejenigen meiner Verse, die mir selber
am liebsten sind, lassen sich fast alle auf Stiicke von Chopin und Beethoven zuruckfuhren' (Musik, 132).
9 Gommen calls this period 'Phase der Desillusionierung (1916/17-1927)'.
10 Freedman notes: 'The contribution of Hesse's involvement with Ruth Wenger to his crisis of the early 1920s
and to the evolution of Steppenwolf reflects his strain on a personal level' (1979, 247).
11 Boulby, who dates the end of this phase to 1925 instead of 1926 or 1927, regards this segment of Hesse's
career as 'this author's most productive, most impressive period' (24).
70