Editing Hermann Hesse (section)

{{Short description|German writer (1877–1962)}}
{{About|the German writer|the Swiss politician and businessman|Hermann Hess (politician)|the Ghanaian technology entrepreneur|Herman Chinery-Hesse}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Hermann Hesse
| image            = Hermann Hesse 2.jpg
| image_size       = 
| caption          = 
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=y|1877|7|2}}
| birth_place      = [[Calw]], [[Kingdom of Württemberg]], German Empire
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=y|1962|8|9|1877|7|2}}
| death_place      = [[Montagnola]], Ticino, Switzerland
| resting_place    = Cimitero di S. Abbondio, Gentilino, Ticino
| occupation       = {{cslist|Novelist|short story author|essayist|poet|painter}}
| spouse              = {{marriage|Maria Bernoulli|1904|1923}} {{marriage|Ruth Wenger|1924|1927}} {{marriage|[[Ninon Hesse]]|1931|1962}}
| period           = 
| genre            = Fiction
| signature        = Hesse Signature.svg
| signature_alt    = Signature of Hermann Karl Hesse
| notableworks     = {{plainlist|
* ''[[The Glass Bead Game]]'' (1943)
*  ''[[Siddhartha (novel)|Siddhartha]]'' (1922)
*  ''[[Steppenwolf (novel)|Steppenwolf]]'' (1927)
*  ''[[Narcissus and Goldmund]]'' (1930)
*  ''[[Demian]]'' (1919)
}}
| awards           = {{plainlist|
* [[Gottfried-Keller-Preis]] (1936)
* [[Goethe Prize]] (1946)
* [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (1946)
* [[Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize]] (1950)
* [[Peace Prize of the German Book Trade]] (1955)
}}
}}

'''Hermann Karl Hesse''' ({{IPA|de|ˈhɛʁman ˈhɛsə|lang|De-Hermann Hesse.ogg}}; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a [[Germans|German]]-[[Swiss people|Swiss]] poet and novelist, and the [[1946 Nobel Prize in Literature]] laureate. His interest in [[Eastern philosophy|Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions]], combined with his involvement with [[Jungian analysis]], helped to shape his literary work. His best-known novels include ''[[Demian]]'', ''[[Steppenwolf (novel)|Steppenwolf]]'', ''[[Siddhartha (novel)|Siddhartha]]'', ''[[Narcissus and Goldmund]]'', and ''[[The Glass Bead Game]]'', each of which explores an individual's search for [[Authenticity (philosophy)|authenticity]], self-knowledge, and [[spirituality]]. 

Hesse was born in 1877 in [[Calw]], a town in Germany's [[Northern Black Forest]]. His father was a [[Baltic Germans|Baltic German]] and his grandmother had [[Romands|French-Swiss]] roots.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} As a child, he shared a passion for poetry and music with his mother, and was well-read and cultured, due in part to the influence of his polyglot grandfather.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

As a youth, he studied briefly at a [[Protestant]] boarding school, the [[Evangelical Seminaries of Maulbronn and Blaubeuren]], where he struggled with bouts of depression and once attempted suicide, which temporarily landed him in a sanatorium. Hesse completed [[Gymnasium (Germany)|Gymnasium]] and passed his examinations in 1893, when his formal education ended. An autodidact, Hesse read theological treatises, [[Greek mythology]], [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]], [[Friedrich Schiller]], and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] after his formal education concluded. His first works of poetry and prose were being published in the 1890s and early 1900s with his first novel, ''[[Peter Camenzind]]'', appearing in 1904.