Spa guest

This article deals with the work of Hermann Hesse; for the trivial meaning as a guest of a health resort see Kur .

Hermann Hesse (1925)

Spa guest. Notes from a Baden cure are glosses by Hermann Hesse , written in October 1923 and published by S. Fischer Verlag in 1925 . The background is formed by his experiences from two spa cures in the thermal baths of Baden in spring and autumn 1923. Until 1952, there followed annual spa stays at the Hotel Verenahof to treat rheumatism and sciatica .

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Postcard from Baden on the Limmat (1904)

Hesse describes a bleak picture: spa guests “with clumsy bones”, lacking appetite, needing help, bored. He reports on "those shameful days", about "that Hesse who behaved so strangely in Baden". His sciatic nerve drives the writer to the health resort west of Zurich for three weeks. Gout is added to the new spa guest, the spa doctor states and immediately classifies the newcomer as a neurotic . So something is done about it every day: " Baths , drinking cure , diathermy , quartz lamp , therapeutic gymnastics ". But at lunchtime in Baden, despite a metabolic disease, people traditionally eat lavishly. After all, nobody has eternal life . In addition, bathrooms are draining. After one of the dead days, Hesse went to the “ gambling hall ” and bet two francs on roulette . The numerous sciatica patients present make long necks as onlookers, because they know the "player" by reputation. One observes one another incessantly. Hesse loses and seeks space. What happens at the gaming table, soon approaching the “happy experiences of childhood”, is fascinating for the poet, “the image of life”. But just an image that never replaces “own performance”. Hesse knows what he's talking about. In the field of the purely mental, he is a "true expert".

In general, Hesse sees himself as a loner and therefore his considerable distance to the “average spa guest” seems difficult to shorten. He describes this more precisely to his roommate, the noisy Dutchman. Hesse can't stand the noise around the clock. Guests shake the handle on the next door, but Hesse urgently needs some rest in his room. The writer who lives at his desk can not avoid the communicative “man from the Hague ” all the time. B. in bad weather. In addition, Hesse has "terrible pain" and has to "almost always" lie down. But the spa guest Hesse remains inwardly admirable cheerfulness; creates the work of Christian charity within the framework of his “love theory” according to the New Testament : “Love your enemies” ( Mt 5,44  EU ). In the painful struggle against himself, the poet gradually dismantles the enemy image of the “annihilator” of his “sleep” to such an extent that he can finally say: “All of Holland could celebrate a fair next door ”. But when the Christian Hesse "melted down" his image of the Dutchman, that is, overcame his hatred, the riot maker suddenly leaves, and all of a sudden there is Sunday calm on the floor. And yet, after the painful process just outlined, Hesse was finally ready to talk, was really “deeply connected” to the Dutchman (of course without having exchanged a single word with him). In short, Ischiatiker Hesse is disappointed with the neighbor's departure.

In the recordings, there is space for the laughable, cheerful, comical, even black humor , and even the sublime. Example: Hesse's very special psychology is based on belief in God. The author equates that higher being with unity. This in turn can in any case be “restored ” “on the path of grace ”. Comforting - every sick person “could” afterwards in practice “come to life through death”. Worrying, the poet writes “could”. This is also comforting: “Grace” is “only tangible to the sinner ”. And "ninety-nine righteous before God" are "less than one sinner at the moment of repentance." The poet lost his balance in Baden, but luckily he found it again there.

Poetry in prose: Hesse always sprinkles notes on poetry in his text.

• Certain old trees sometimes have the “magical beauty” that “comes from our soul”.
• Writing makes sense because the "will to truth" stands behind it.
• “Writing” is “always a great, exciting thing, a trip in the smallest boat on the high seas”.

Quote

"Life is not an invoice ... but a miracle."

reception

• His friend and biographer Hugo Ball judged the spa guest Hesse: "He also tends to be a little quarreling."
• Ball discovered - following Hesse's reverence in the text to Jean Paul - analogies between the spa guest and Dr. Katzenberger's bathing trip .
• Ball also said that Hesse was dealing with the subject of the “neurosis of the modern artist”.
• In his work, Hesse deals with dichotomies throughout his life : In the spa guest , “spirit” and “nature” are the two poles of life.
• When Hesse's second wife, Ruth Wenger , filed for a divorce in March 1927, she wrote off reasons for separation from the spa guest . These were by and large accepted by the judge.

Book editions

Hesse first published his notes in 1924 as a private print in a numbered edition of 300 copies, under the title Psychologia Balneara or Glosses of a Baden Spa Guest . In 1925 they appeared with a different title, but practically identical in content, by his Berlin publisher S. Fischer as part of the newly designed work edition. In 1946 Kurgast appeared together with the Nuremberg trip in a revised, but only slightly changed version, with a short afterword by Hesse, by the Zurich publishing house Fretz & Wasmuth, who supervised his work during the war.

• Spa guest. Notes from a Baden cure. Fischer, Berlin 1925; 15. A. ibid. 1939 (Collected Works in Individual Editions).
• Spa guest. The Nuremberg trip. Two stories. Fretz & Wasmuth, Zurich 1946.
• Spa guest. Notes from a Baden cure. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1964 (= Insel-Bücherei , Volume 814).
• Spa guest and the "records of a cure in Baden". Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-518-01329-7 (= Suhrkamp library , volume 329).
• Spa guest. Notes from a Baden cure. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-518-36883-4 (= st 383).
• Spa guest. Notes from a Baden cure. Afterword by Volker Michels and with photographs by Pieter Jos van Limbergen. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-458-34086-6 (= it 2386).
• Spa guest. Notes from a Baden cure. Afterword by Volker Michels. Cover photo: Pieter Jos van Limbergen. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1977/2008, ISBN 978-3-518-36883-1 (= st 383)

literature

• Hugo Ball : Hermann Hesse. His life and his work. Fischer, Berlin 1927; Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-518-36885-0 , pp.
• Hermann Hesse, Robert Mächler , Ulrich Münzel: Hermann Hesse as a Baden spa guest. With drawings by Gunter Böhmer . Tschudy, St. Gallen 1952.
• Gisela Kleine : Between the world and the magic garden - Ninon and Hermann Hesse: A life in dialogue. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988.
• Volker Michels (ed.): Hermann Hesse: Complete works in 20 volumes. (Volume 1: Youth Writings). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-41101-2 .
• Joseph Mileck: Hermann Hesse. Poet, seeker, confessor. A biography. Bertelsmann, Munich 1978; Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-37857-0 .
• Siegfried Unseld : Hermann Hesse. Work and impact history. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-458-32812-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 781.
2. ↑ Kleine: Between the world and the magic garden. 1988, p. 525.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 104.
4. ↑ Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 116.
5. ↑ Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 126.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 53 f.
7. ↑ Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 81.
8. ↑ Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 122.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Ball: Hermann Hesse. His life and his work. 1977, pp. 173-176.
10. ↑ Michels: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes. 2001, p. 40
11. ↑ Mileck: Hermann Hesse. Poet, seeker, confessor. A biography. 1987, p. 190.
12. ↑ Kleine: Between the world and the magic garden. 1988, p. 221 f.
13. ↑ Unseld: Hermann Hesse. Work and impact history. 1987, p. 117; 119.