Hermann Hesse: A Forerunner of Today’s Environmentalism

Hesse continues to be accused of ignoring the great changes of modernity, of lacking an innovative linguistic and compositional approach, of sentimentality or kitsch, and so not deserving of a place in the twentieth-century canon of great literature. Worse still, as Germany sought to come to terms with Nazism and the Second World War, Hesse was reproached for being an apolitical writer, closed in his own inner world, strongly individualistic and self-centered. An article published in 1958 in the authoritative weekly Der Spiegel describes him as the typical German intellectual, detached from reality and dedicated to “Kleingärtnerfreuden” (small-­garden pleasures), using quotations from his poem “Hours in the Garden” to ridicule and mock him.1“Im Gemüsegarten,” Der Spiegel 28 (July 1958).

There is a growing awareness that taking care of and respecting nature is a political statement that affects us all. Nowadays nobody would be mocked for undertaking tiring manual labor in the garden, recycling natural materials, creating their own fertilizer, or endeavoring to be in harmony with the laws of nature. There is a continually growing interest in organic gardening that avoids synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Hesse’s philosophy of gardening anticipated some of the more advanced aspects of contemporary environmentalism, specifically bestowing trees and nature in general with emotions and feelings.

Nowadays it is not so uncommon to think of trees as having almost human attributes and emotions. Stefano Mancuso, an internationally renowned scientist and director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV), states in his book Brilliant Green that plants are not inferior organisms, but are intelligent beings who can feel, think, communicate with one another, and which have a form of consciousness. According to Mancuso, they have senses, and they employ survival strategies to respond to attacks from the outside world. He argues that this is how trees have been able to survive for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. From a scientific point of view, it is now universally recognized that they lower carbon dioxide, increase oxygen production and allow the life on earth of all aerobic organisms. A new planetary consciousness is developing among large sections of the world’s population, an awareness of being interconnected with all living beings on earth, a sense that we are all part of a very complex network of relationships.

Climate change, wildfires, the droughts that are drying up our rivers and lakes—these are all things that are bringing us back to fundamental questions about how we should live to preserve life on earth in the long term. The realization that humans must not irresponsibly exploit natural resources has brought us face to face with one of the great challenges of our time, one that is certainly felt strongly by the younger generations. Political leaders and financial analysts too are increasingly calling for sustainable and responsible investment that responds to the environmental challenges of global warming, pollution, deforestation, and the loss of biodiversity.

Concern for nature such as Hesse showed, which a century ago seemed eccentric and only a minority of intellectuals and artists cared about, has today become a priority. These issues fire up the young, are at the center of academic debates and at the top of international agendas. The Green parties of the most economically advanced countries place ecology and sustainable development at the center of their programs. Hermann Hesse, the outsider, the restless individualist who followed his own path and vocation, the ecologist ante litteram, who lived far from the metropolis to be in harmony with nature, the wanderer who chose “the road less travelled,” seems, all of a sudden, to be very modern indeed.