Klingsor's last summer
Klingsor's Last Summer is a short story by Hermann Hesse , written in the summer of 1919.
History of origin
The year 1919 marked a turning point in Hermann Hesse's life in many ways. His first wife, Maria Bernoulli, was in a mental hospital with no prospect of recovery. In the spring, Hesse was released from the prisoner-of-war service for which he had worked during the First World War . In May he therefore moved from Bern to sunny Ticino , where he found a new home in the Casa Camuzzi in Montagnola . In July he finally met the singer and painter Ruth Wenger, whom he was to marry in 1924.
All these circumstances, the newly won freedom, the new love, especially the climatically favored area, should make the first year in Ticino the “fullest, most luxuriant, hardworking and most ardent time” of his life, with painting, poetry and visits to Spends the Grotti des Sottoceneri . He set a monument to her with the story of Klingsor's Last Summer, which he wrote down in a few weeks in July and August .
content
The protagonist of the story is the painter Klingsor , a figure who later appeared several times in Hesse's story Die Morgenlandfahrt from 1932. Thematically the creative and artistic creation process and the associated expenditure of energy are presented as well as the thoughts, hopes and fears associated with this unleashing.
Klingsor's lifestyle
The story is about Klingsor's last few months. Marked by the fear of imminent death, which has already been postponed several times, he tries to make the best possible use of the time he has left. He spends the days with intoxicating devotion to his art. He paints the landscape “in those southern regions around Pampambio, Kareno and Laguno” with its “ Judas trees , copper beeches and eucalyptus ” in bright colors . He spends the nights in grottos with wine or in the arms of beautiful women. In view of the short time he has left, he allows himself very little sleep, which further shatters his already ailing health. The days, however, blazed away like "burning flags" as long as they were.
He is kept company by Louis the Cruel , the painter colleague who leads an unsteady Wandervogel life, with whom Klingsor not only shares his conception of art, but also his preference for the "cheerful things" in life such as Milanese schnitzel , pears with Gorgonzola or Benedictine . Klingsor occasionally suffers from the fact that his friend Louis has little understanding for his own melancholy and noise, and from time to time sees himself forced to leave.
The day in Kareno
Kareno Day is a highlight of the story. Amid conversations about death and transience, occasionally brightened only by his friend Ersilia, Klingsor walks with friends over to the town of Kareno to visit the “Queen of the Mountains”, a woman of “slim elastic blossom, taut, springy, all in red, burning flame, portrait of youth ”. The afternoon and evening are spent with bread and wine in happy company and spiritual connection, which Hesse describes in an impressive parable: "Birds in a golden cage (...) sang exotic songs (...) The answer came from the stars and the moon, from the tree and the mountains, Goethe sat there and Hafez , Egypt smelled hot and Greece up deeply, Mozart smiled, Hugo Wolf played the piano in the crazy night. "
In a short letter to Edith, Klingsor later defends love in every form and in the changes in living feelings.
The music of doom
In the next chapter, “The Music of Downfall”, Klingsor and his “poet friend” Hermann, who take the names of the Chinese poets Li Tai Pe and Thu Fu , meet with an Armenian astrologer . This Armenian predicts a troubling future for Klingsor, whereupon Klingsor, who already feels death is imminent, has a farewell meal with his friends. In this chapter, Klingsor also discusses with the Armenians that old Europe is devoted to extinction and that the Asians would soon take over the position of the Europeans. Klingsor's desperate greed for life is only fueled by this, he wants to empty “three hundred cups” in the “burning house” and toast with the moon.
Klingsor's fear of death
In the chapter "Evening in August" the reader learns about a fleeting love affair Klingsor, which can only for a short time suppress the thoughts of death.
Then, in a letter to Louis the Cruel, Klingsor put into words his thoughts about his art, which only seems to break out of him like an explosion this summer. He also writes to Louis that he will soon no longer be painting landscapes, but fantasies and memories of himself. A little later, the letter is followed by a poem in the style of Tang poetry, the subject of which is Klingsor, who is drinking and thus suppressing his fear of death.
The self-portrait
In the last days of his life, Klingsor finally paints a self-portrait . In the usual bright colors, but in an abstract style atypical for his art, it shows a furrowed face, a "face like a landscape (...), hair reminiscent of leaves and tree bark, eye sockets like crevices". He paints many faces in his self-portrait, "children's faces sweet and amazed, youthful temples full of dreams and glow, mocking drinker's eyes, lips of a thirsty man, a persecuted person, a sufferer, a seeker, a libertine, an enfant perdu". Some viewers interpret it as the painter's relentless psychological self-analysis, while others interpret it as evidence of Klingsor's madness . He includes the finished picture and does not show it to anyone. It is only discovered after his death. The self-portrait was Klingsor's last work.
Hermann Hesse closes the novel with the following sentence: “ Then he washed, shaved, put on new clothes and clothes, drove to town and bought fruit and cigarettes to give to Gina. “This return to everyday life will only be short-lived, however, as summer is now well advanced and Klingsor, as made known in the preliminary remark, will die in late autumn.
interpretation
Autobiographical
Klingsor's last summer bears strong autobiographical traits from Hesse. The name “ Klingsor ” goes back to the multifaceted literary magician from Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival epic. Hermann Hesse saw himself as such, just think of his work Childhood of a Magician . In addition, the author appears as "poet friend Hermann" (Thu Fu) in the astrological scene. But people from Hesse's surroundings are also often hidden behind the other figures: Louis the Cruel not only bears his first name, but also the features of the painter Moilliet . Behind the Armenian is the architect Josef Englert, who is a friend of Hesse, and behind the Queen of the Mountains is Hesse's second wife, Ruth Wenger .
The local scenario of the story is reminiscent of Ticino, where Hesse lived from 1919. Behind the “Laguno” location in the plant is the Swiss city of Lugano , near which he lives in Montagnola. The nearby village of Carona , where Ruth Wenger's parents' summer house was located, becomes Kareno in the novel . The landscape that Hesse describes in the Klingsor, with all its blood beeches and Judas trees, is astonishingly reminiscent of those that we encounter in his short autobiographical prose, for example in the complaint about an old tree from 1927. After all, Hermann Hesse also painted in addition to his writing in a style that closely resembles Klingsor's. Reference should be made to the prose piece Malfreude, Malsorgen from 1928.
Colours
In Klingsor's book last summer , colors play a very central role. For a long time the reader thinks he is drowning in them. The following text passage typical of the work may clarify this:
“ And now the larger color sketches, white leaves with luminous areas of color in water colors: the red villa in the woods, glowing fiery like a ruby on green velvet, and the iron bridge near Castiglia, red on a blue-green mountain, the violet dam next to it, the rosy road . Next: the chimney of the brickworks, red rocket in front of cool, light green trees, blue signposts, light purple sky with the thick, rolled wool. "
In addition to their function as a means for Klingsor's works of art, they also serve to clarify the feelings and feelings of the people.
The color red in all its nuances is of particular importance. One encounters red flowers, roof tiles, mountains, churches and streets in the story. This color is also found in wine, which Klingsor and his friends always drank in large quantities, but above all in the “red queen” of Kareno. The red color symbolizes passion, love and flaming youth, but also aggressiveness and anger. And both trains can be found at Klingsor. The love and passion for women and nature, the anger and aggressiveness come to the fore in relation to death and when he painted his self-portrait. Klingsor uses sensuality and lust for life, which are also embodied in the color red, as weapons against death. " Purple was the denial of death, cinnabar was the mockery of putrefaction ".
death
Throughout the whole story, despite Klingsor's irrepressible lust for life, the shadow of death lies invisible in the air. In the preliminary remark, the narrator announced that the news of Klingsor's death would reach his friends in late autumn. Metaphors of doom and consumption keep popping up, starting with the "blazing flags" with which the days are compared, from the "candle lit at both ends" with Klingsor's life. The Armenian astrologer brings the message of death. On the way to Kareno, the transience of colors and images, but also of black girl's hair, as well as the irretrievability of every day are lamented. The meal of bread and wine consumed there also reminds of the Last Supper , which Jesus celebrated with his disciples before he went to death on the cross after the betrayal by Judas . Klingsor, too, was ultimately to die a “sacrificial death”, one for selfless devotion to his art.
The motif of death receives an additional aspect through its transfer to dying Europe. After the catastrophe of World War I, there was indeed reason to believe that the old continent would finally lose its centuries-old supremacy . Accordingly, the Armenian magician heralds the rise of Asia, which is also present several times in the story. Klingsor and Louis sometimes bear the names of Chinese poets, especially in connection with Kareno Day, the Arab Orient occasionally appears, along with India and Japan repeatedly.
Artist
Klingsor is depicted as torn in several ways. On the one hand he was aware of the impending death, on the other hand he fought against it with an infinite greed for life, wanted to savor every second and not waste a drop of life. He also wavered between romantic melancholy and expressionist rebellion. This back and forth between different poles corresponds to the cliché of the artist as a lonely, suffering visionary.
narcissism
Klingsor has narcissistic traits in an almost exemplary way . This is expressed, for example, in his relationship with women. It is significant in the dream described at the end of the first chapter, in which the painter has fun with women of all ages and hair colors who all loved him and wanted to be loved by him. As the story progresses, however, it becomes clearer that he ultimately only used all the Ediths and Ginas, the Ninas, Hermines and Elisabeth to confirm his ego. He also writes in a letter:
“ I don't know if I can even love. I can desire and look for myself in other people, listen for echoes, ask for a mirror, can look for pleasure, and everything can look like love. "
In this excerpt it becomes very clear that he is unable to love, he also said shortly beforehand that he had great doubts about his love for his actual girlfriend, Gina. The patronizing gesture with which he renounces his love for the Queen of the Mountains due to the age difference, without wondering whether he had any prospects at all, testifies to Klingsor's egocentric overestimation of himself .
Klingsor's narcissism is also expressed in the evaluation of his own painting. He considers himself a grandiose innovator of European art, who freed art from the naturalism of color. Together with Louis the Cruel, he takes it for granted that in a hundred years' time professors will be preaching their life data to high school students and that they themselves will stand on a monument like Goethe and Schiller .
The most impressive proof of Klingsor's narcissism, however, is provided by his self-portrait, which ends the narrative monumentally and summarizes the personality of the protagonist again. Even the creative process, which is reminiscent of van Gogh, speaks for itself: "But he built the head majestically and brutally, a jungle idol, a loving, jealous Jehovah, a bogey, before which firstfruits and virgins are sacrificed." The judgment of later critics was correspondingly: “a kind of monomaniacal self-worship, a blasphemy and self-glorification, a kind of religious megalomania”.
Book editions
Klingsor's Last Summer was preprinted in the literary magazine Deutsche Rundschau in December 1919 . The first edition was published in 1920 by S. Fischer Verlag in the narrative volume of the same name, together with the novella Klein and Wagner and the story Kinderseele , which was written in Bern at the end of 1918 , in the same compilation in 1971 as a paperback by Rowohlt Verlag . In 1931 these three stories were published together with Siddhartha under the title Weg nachinnen ; in the new editions 1973 and 1983 supplemented by the Ticino records hike and eight watercolors by Hesse. The story was first published individually in 1951 in the Insel-Bücherei , in 1978 in the Suhrkamp library and in 1985 as a paperback by Suhrkamp Verlag .
- Klingsor's last summer . Stories. Fischer, Berlin 1920.
- Way inside . Four stories. Fischer, Berlin 1931; Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 3-518-04480-X .
- Klingsor's last summer . Narrative. Insel, Wiesbaden 1951 (= IB 502).
- Klingsor's Last Summer and other stories . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1971, ISBN 3-499-11462-3 (= rororo 1462).
- Klingsor's last summer . Narrative. With colored pictures from the author. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1978, ISBN 3-518-01608-3 (= BS 608).
- Klingsor's last summer . Narrative. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-518-37695-0 (= st 1195).
- Klingsor's last summer . Narrative. With watercolors by the author. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-458-34098-X (= it 2398).
- Klingsor's last summer . Narration with colored pictures by the author. Insel, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-458-19431-6 (= IB 1431).
literature
- Helga Esselborn-Krumbiegel: Interpretation of Klingsor's last summer. In: Hermann Hesse's literary knowledge. Reclam, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-15-015208-9 , pp. 60ff.
- Hermann Hesse: Memories of Klingsor's Summer (written 1938). In: Gesammelte Werke , Vol. 11, Frankfurt am Main 1970, ISBN 3-518-38100-8 , pp. 43–46.
- Reso Karalashvili: The "Acts of Light". For coloring in Klein and Wagner and Klingsor's Last Summer. In: Hermann Hesse - character and worldview. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-518-38656-5 , p. 274.
- Hans-Jürg Lüthi: Klingsor in Montagnola - to a story by Hermann Hesse. In: Maria Bindschedler, Paul Zinsli (eds.): History - Interpretation - Criticism. Francke, Bern 1969, p. 231ff.