The ‘Garden’ in the Works of Hermann Hesse

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SOURCE: “The ‘Garden’ in the Works of Hermann Hesse,” in German Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, No. 1, January, 1951, pp. 42–50.

[In the following essay, Jehle discusses Hesse's use of the garden motif in Siddhartha and other works.]

A study of Hesse's works reveals the fact that through the garden motif much of his inner world and development can be studied, and the symbolic character of the use of gardens becomes more and more apparent. A number of critics of Hesse's works have suggested that a study of the use of water and clouds should be most interesting. It seems strange that the garden as a motif worthy of study was not mentioned, although Hesse's love for his own gardens is well-known. Hesse has often written about his different gardens, as in the sketch Einzug in ein neues Haus or the poem in hexameters Stunden im Garten. There is hardly a work of his without a garden. In a short paper like the present one the richness of this motif can only be indicated.

For Hesse the garden is first of all a symbol of childhood happiness, of the harmonious union between the child and nature. It is paradise before the entering of the serpent. How poignantly the wanderer Knulp expresses this when looking at his former childhood garden! He feels that no later experience can compare to the lustre of one single flower of that time.1 Hesse's heroes in the works published between 1900–1920 try in vain to return to the childhood garden which they have lost, through the experience of first love, like Hans Giebenrath in Unterm Rad or through the estrangement between father and mother in the novel Rosshalde. Hans in Unterm Rad goes to the small garden the morning after the meeting with Emma and the experience of the first kiss. Suddenly he is reminded of happy childhood days not long ago. Hesse writes: “Hans wußte nicht, warum er gerade heute an jenen Abend denken mußte, nicht, warum diese Erinnerung so schön und mächtig war, noch warum sie ihn so elend und traurig machte. Er wußte nicht, daß im Kleide dieser Erinnerung seine Kindheit und sein Knabentum noch einmal fröhlich und lachend vor ihm aufstand, um Abschied zu nehmen und den Stachel eines gewesenen und nie wiederkehrenden großen Glückes zurückzulassen. Er empfand nur, daß diese Erinnerung mit dem Denken an Emma und an gestern abend sich nicht vertrug und daß etwas in ihm aufgestanden sei, das mit dem damaligen Glücklichsein nicht vereinbar war.”2 The poem Rückkehr also expresses the deep-felt longing for childhood and garden:

“Sind wir alle denn so krank,
Daß die holden Kindertöne
Uns das Herz mit Weh bezaubern,
Nachklang nur verschollner Schöne?
Alle Reinheit ferner Kindergärten,
Alle Farben froher Morgenlust,
All die holden Schauer in der Brust—
Kann das nie mehr unser werden?”(3)

The garden as a symbol of childhood is so closely interwoven with the mother motif in Hesse's works that the two seem almost inseparable. The significance of the mother complex, as also Hesse's own strong attachment for his mother and its dangers, has been treated very fully by his critics. Hesse separates his inner world into a mother and a father world, or a world of the senses and one of the mind. This separation and conflict are the underlying theme of most of his works, which are all essentially autobiographical. The early garden world of Hesse is particularly the realm of woman, the “Urmutter” or Eva as she is called later on in the novel Demian. Veraguth, the painter in Rosshalde, envisions always his own dead mother with a gardening hat making a lovely bouquet of flowers. Symbolically one of his greatest wishes is to make a bouquet just like it and to paint it. In a very sensitive poem Hesse sees his mother walking in the garden looking for her lost son.4 Anselm, in the fairy tale “Iris,” is drawn to the girl Iris because her name subconsciously suggests to him the most precious thing which he lost, that is his mother and her garden world. The tale begins with a charming description of the different seasons in the garden.

“Waren die Lilien fort, so blühten die Kapuziner, waren die Teerosen welk, so wurden die Brombeeren braun, alles verschob sich, war immer da und immer fort, verschwand und kam zur Zeit wieder, und auch die bangen, wunderlichen Tage, wo der Wind kalt in der Tanne lärmte und im ganzen Garten das welke Laub so fahl und erstorben klirrte, brachten noch ein Lied, ein Erlebnis, eine Geschichte mit …”5

The minute detailed description of the mother's garden prepares the reader to follow Hesse's thought when Anselm's mother gradually becomes a symbol for the whole world of nature and earth from where we spring and to which we long to return. Hesse has comparatively few woman characters but Gertrud, Frau Veraguth, Eva, Kamala, the courtesan in the Indian novel Siddharta, all live in houses surrounded by gardens. The men entering these always feel on the threshold of a protective sanctuary. The approach of the musician to Gertrud's house is described in the following manner: “Der Garten stand in voller Frühsommerpracht, überall waren Blumen und sangen Vögel um das stille Haus, und wenn ich von der Strasse in den Garten trat und an den dunklen, alten Steinbildern der Allee vorüber mich dem grünumwachsenen Hause näherte, war es mir jedesmal wie der Eintritt in ein Heiligtum, wohin Stimmen und Dinge der Welt nur leise und gemildert dringen konnten.”6 Similarly Demian in the novel of the same name says: “Wenn ich die Pforte hinter mir schloß, ja schon wenn ich von weitem die hohen Bäume des Gartens auftauchen sah, war ich reich und glücklich. Draußen waren Straßen und Häuser, Menschen und Einrichtungen, Bibliotheken und Lehrsäle—hier drinnen aber war Liebe und Seele, hier lebte das Märchen und der Traum.”7 Apart from the symbolic significance that the garden has for Hesse's male characters, these passages also show clearly what the men seek in women and love. Most writers like Goethe, Stifter, Keller, Storm and many minor writers use the garden frequently as a scene for lover's meetings, the favorite place for proposals. Hesse never uses the garden this way.

Besides being the lost paradise of childhood and the natural abode of woman and mother, the garden is a symbol of middle class life which can be better expressed in German as “bürgerliche Lebenskultur.” When Hesse describes a house there is almost invariably a garden around it, to be sure a garden with a fence, giving the feeling of protection from the outside world. In this sense the garden is the direct opposite of the woods, the place for the wanderer. In Einzug in ein neues Haus, which I have mentioned before, Hesse tells with what joy he planted his own first garden after his marriage,8 and how strong his belief was at that time that he too belonged to the world of the “Sesshaften”, as he later in Knulp calls the middle class people who have house, wife, and garden. But gradually it becomes clear to Hesse that he is really a nomad. He lost family, home and garden and during his middle years was more or less a wanderer. He renounces, escapes, and abhors the middle class world in Demian, Klingsohrs letzter Sommer, and Steppenwolf. Yet he longs for it just as he does for his lost childhood. In the sketch Tessiner Herbsttag he writes: “Irgendwo heimisch zu sein, ein Stück Land zu lieben und zu bebauen, nicht bloß zu betrachten und zu malen … das schien mir ein schönes, zu beneidendes Los, obwohl ich selbst es einstmals gekostet und erfahren hatte, daß es nicht genüge, um mich glücklich zu machen.”9 Also in the poems illustrated by Hesse's own paintings, as in the book Wanderung the author loves to paint and describe small houses and gardens with the most nostalgic feelings, and yet conscious of his restlessness which will only find an end when he finds peace within himself. “Dann gibt es kein Liebäugeln mit Gärten und roten Häuschen mehr.—Heimat in sich haben!”10 he exclaims longingly.

Although the feeling of longing is uppermost in Hesse's attitude towards the garden considered so far, there are also early examples that show a consciousness of the garden as a place to think, to calm one's feelings, to plan new steps. Hans in Unterm Rad after he has fallen in love goes to his little garden several times in order to wake up and clarify his thinking (“um aufzuwachen und klar zu werden”).11 Siddharta, tiring of his love for the beautiful Kamala and his amassing of money, sits in his garden under the mango tree an entire day until the stars come out, gradually realizing that the life of the “Kindermenschen”, that is those who live chiefly outwardly and through the senses, is not for him. “War es nicht ein törichtes Spiel, daß er einen Mangobaum, daß er einen Garten besaß12 he asks himself. On that night he leaves forever. Later in the story, the dying Kamala brought their son to Siddharta; he is overcome with love for him and loses again the hard-earned peace. In following the son who has run away, Siddharta comes again to Kamala's garden. Leaning for hours against the garden fence, reliving the former time, torn with love for the son, and saying the holy words “Om,” the most sacred words in Indian Religion, he at last decides that his wish to help the son and to cling to him is foolish. Regaining his peaceful smile, he goes back to the river with Vasadeva, his old friend.

A similar instance of awakening, “Erwachen”, as Hesse calls this becoming aware of new goals, is found in Hesse's latest work Das Glasperlenspiel, his most symbolic work. Joseph Knecht's education for the Glasperlenspiel, his rise to the post of Magister Ludi and final abandonment of his high offices to teach youth is the main theme of this interesting work. Knecht who wishes to know Chinese wisdom and culture spends some time with “the older brother” in his little Chinese garden and pavillion which is protected against intruders by a bamboo wood. The garden consists of some flowerbeds, a fountain whose water flows in a small pond filled with golden carp. Here, Knecht sits the first morning after his arrival, “mehr und mehr versinkend, mehr träumend als kontemplierend.”13 Symbolically this little garden scene describes the peace gained through Chinese wisdom but as it becomes clear later Knecht's doubt about the absolute supremacy of the Glasperlenspiel, the small “Magistergarten”, formerly taken care of by Thomas van Trave (Thomas Mann), is known to Knecht as “geheiligten Erholungs-und Sammlungsort des Meisters”14 (as the holy place of recreation and meditation of the master). Soon after he has become Magister Ludi, Knecht rests a short time from his arduous labor in this garden and reads a book of directions about his future duties. During this short garden rest he conceives the plan for the festival Glasperlenspiel, the most important event of the year. When Knecht has definitely decided to leave the order of the “Glasperlenspieler”, he again spends an hour of meditation in the quiet garden. “Im Garten setzte er sich auf eine mit ersten welken Blättern bestreute Bank, regelte die Atmung und kämpfte um die innere Stille, bis er geklärten Herzens in Betrachtung versank, in der die Konstellation dieser Lebensstunde sich in allgemeinen, überpersönlichen Bildern ordnete.”15

Closely related to these swmbolic gardens of meditation and reflection are the garden and religion. Lohe in Gertrud who found peace in Indian theosophy is a gardener with “a kind, satisfied gardener's face.”16 Buddha in Siddharta teaches his followers in a wooded garden. The Chinese “older brother”, mentioned before, lives in peace “with himself and the world” in his little garden which he tends. Many consider him a saint. Hesse's numerous saints and hermits often have a little garden plot in which they meditate.

Let us turn to those works of Hesse's where the garden is particularly important. In the novel Rosshalde, the account of the unhappy marriage of the painter Veraguth, the garden is as significant as it is in Goethe's Wahlverwandtschaften. A comparison of these two novels would be a most interesting task. The inner separation between Veraguth and his wife is indicated first by her living alone in the big house while he lives and paints in a gardenhouse, secondly, by the separation of the gardens. The painter's realm is the wooded park and lake, while Mrs. Veraguth spends a great deal of her time in the linden- and chestnut tree-garden, the lawn and flower garden. Symbolically she rules over the cultivated, closed-in part while he, who longs to be free, roams the wilder part. Neither enters the part of the other. Only the child Pierre, passionately loved by both parents, is at home everywhere in the first part of the story. Pierre is the friend of the flowers, the animals, of all of nature, and through him the painter relives once more his own lost childhood. When the painter finally decides to leave the family, even to give up Pierre, the child is suddenly seized by a violent illness. In a fever dream Pierre sees the flower garden which now seems endless. “Die Beete waren schöner, als er sie je gesehen hatte, aber die Blumen sahen alle so sonderbar gläsern, groß und fremdartig as und das Ganze glänzte in einer traurig toten Schönheit.”17 In this garden, familiar and yet so strange, little Pierre sees his father, his mother and older brothers walking along the path but each by himself with expressionless faces. Pierre tries to call to them but to no avail. The separation destroys Pierre's childhood paradise and really kills him. After the boy's death Veraguth-Hesse leaves for India.

In Klingsohrs letzter Sommer Hesse uses a masterly description of a Southern garden to symbolize the troubled passionate and complex mood preceeding the last summer and death of the painter Klingsohr. He achieves this through the most careful use of details which give one a feeling of the exuberance and rapid decay of Southern vegetation. Klingsohr has returned home late and stands on the balcony, looking over the garden.

“Unter ihm sank tief und schwindelnd der alte Terrassengarten hinab, ein tief durschattetes Gewühl dichter Baumwipfel, Palmen, Zedern, Kastanien, Judasbaum, Blutbuche, Eukalyptus, durckklettert von Schlingpflanzen, Lianen, Glyzinen. Über der Baumschwärze schimmerten blaßspiegelnd die großen blechernen Blätter der Sommermagnolien, riesige schneeweiße Blüten dazwischen halbgeschlossen groß wie Menschenköpfe, bleich wie Mond und Elfenbein, von denen durchdringend und beschwingt ein inniger Zitronengeruch herüberkam. Aus unbestimmter Ferne der müden Schwingen kam Musik geflogen, vielleicht eine Gitarre, vielleicht Klavier, nicht zu unterscheiden. In den Geflügelhöfen schrie plötzlich ein Pfau auf, zwei- und dreimal, und durchriß die waldige Nacht mit dem kurzen, bösen und hölzernen Ton seiner gepeinigten Stimme, wie wenn das Leid aller Tierwelt ungeschlacht und schrill aus der Tiefe schelte. Sternlicht floß durch das Waldtal, hoch und verlassen blickte eine weiße Kapelle aus dem endlosen Walde, verzaubert und alt. See, Berge und Himmel flossen in der Ferne ineinander.”18

The description reminds one of Novalis whose influence on this story is felt in many ways. Hesse himself has told which of his own gardens he used in different novels. In Klingsohr the garden of Montagnola, near Lugano where Hesse has lived most of the time since 1920, was used.

Stunden im Garten, a most charming idyll, gives a complete picture of the same garden in an entirely different mood; it also presents all the different attitudes and uses Hesse makes of the garden motif. With Hesse we enter the garden early one morning and walk down past the vineyard to the vegetable terrace. The summer flowers along the path are a picture of the quick growing, blooming, and passing of life. The carrots recall to Hesse the happy childhood time when he ate them raw, but now the remembrance is only one of tender reminiscence, not of bitter longing. We watch Hesse typing up the tomatoes, which he does with love and skill. When it gets too warm, he goes to his favorite spot in the garden to burn weeds to be used later as fertilizer. This burning takes on symbolic character. As the weeds turn to ashes and new earth, so the soul through meditation and penance returns to the One—to God. Sitting at his little fire, Hesse, who feels his mission is to educate others, admonishes himself to patience. The regular beat, as he sifts the new won earth, sounds to him like a Mozart melody and starts him on the Glasperlenspiel “eine hübsche Erfindung, deren Gerüst die Musik und deren Grund die Meditation ist … In Zeiten der Freude ist sie mir Spiel und Glück, in Zeiten des Leids und der Wirren ist sie mir Trost und Besinnung …”19 The poem closes with Hesse's being called to lunch by his wife. (Hesse married again in the early thirties.) He finishes the meal eating raspberries raised by himself. The poem expresses hard-won peace and contentment. Hesse has achieved a synthesis of the world of the mind and the world of the senses. The garden is now a place where he attains unity with nature by working with the plants and earth. It is also a retreat from the ordinary cares of life, a place of thinking, meditation, and worship.

In the second Lebenslauf or Vita of Joseph Knecht, called Der Beichtiger, we find the garden mentioned as the last resting place. This is the story of two hermits, living in the desert, who at first separately and later jointly listen to the confessions of people. When the older one feels death approaching, he asks the younger one to help him dig his grave in their little garden and to plant a palm tree on his last resting place after his death. The story closes with: “Er begrub ihn, er pflanzte den Baum auf das Grab und erlebte noch das Jahr, in welchem der Baum die ersten Früchte trug.”20

May I close with a few lines of poetry which Hesse addressed to his sister:

“Bald holt in seinen Garten
Mich heim ins Abendrot,
Wo Vater und Mutter warten
Der gute Gärtner Tod.”(21)

Notes

  1. Knulp, p. 122.

  2. Unterm Rad, p. 212.

  3. Trost der Nacht, p. 69.

  4. Gedichte (1925): Im Garten meiner Mutter steht, p. 84.

  5. Märchen-Iris, p. 140.

  6. Gertrud, p. 213.

  7. Demian, p. 199.

  8. Gedenkblätter, p. 143.

  9. Ibid., p. 171.

  10. Wanderung, p. 109.

  11. Unterm Rad, pp. 211, 229–30.

  12. Siddharta, p. 85.

  13. Glasperlenspiel, vol. I, p. 197.

  14. Ibid., vol. I, p. 379.

  15. Ibid., vol. II, p. 148.

  16. Gertrud, p. 264.

  17. Rosshalde, p. 191.

  18. Klingsohrs letzter Sommer, p. 152.

  19. Stunden im Garten, p. 58.

  20. Das Glasperlenspiel, vol. 2, p. 380.

  21. Trost der Nacht, p. 123.

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