Hesse’s Views on Craft Technology

An example of humans’ relationship to craft technology can be found in Narcissus and Goldmund, which follows in line with our reading of Hesse’s view on modern technology—namely, that humans have a conflicted relationship with it and need to find ways to live well with technology. Narcissus and Goldmund is set in the Middle Ages. The industrial revolution is far ahead in the future. The only technology available is craft technology—simple mechanisms and handmade tools. In this setting, the reader follows Goldmund’s life story in which he spends long periods tramping through Middle Europe, seeking purpose and meaning in life.

In the novel, Hesse idealizes a tramp’s lifestyle as being characterized by an immediate connection with nature and its forces, whereas seeking refuge from nature through technology can cause a diminishing of creativity. For instance, Meister Niklas’s “Manufaktur” is an example of pre-modern production where the master craftsperson has lost inspiration to produce deeply meaningful artwork and instead appears to be more concerned with attaining wealth and economic stability through an increasing technologization of production. Albeit still primitive compared to today’s advanced technology, craft technology, if put into the service of accumulating wealth, can take away serendipity. It eliminates opportunities for play, prevents spontaneous reactions to the unforeseen chaos of nature, and discourages improvisation. The progress of technology, seen from Goldmund’s perspective, is thus one of increasing security and predictability, but casts a shadow on other parts of life that are at the core of artistry. Thus, direct exposure to nature is a central theme in Goldmund’s artistic development. It lends strength to an interpretation that technology can stand in the way of nature’s well-spring of primal creativity.

However, although Goldmund’s direct exposure to nature can help him appreciate and perceive the world from an artistic perspective, this alone does not make him an artist. Instead, becoming an artist requires Goldmund to master techniques and crafts in Meister Niklas’s workshop, so that he can express his ideas through the artwork. Hence, a key theme is Goldmund’s process of mastering the craft of a woodcarver/sculptor. We can see the necessity for Goldmund to master craft technology—the tools and processes of woodcarving—although it can reduce opportunities for spontaneity and improvisation. Managing this struggle to live well together with technology thus not only concerns modern technology, but also appears when in Narcissus and Goldmund Hesse depicts craft technology.

In Beneath the Wheel, Hesse portrays craft technology also romantically as an integral part of nature and a harmonious society.1Hermann Hesse, Beneath the Wheel, trans. Michael Roloff (New York: Bantam Books, 1970). Technology plays an important role when the protagonist, Hans Giebenrath, having lost all hope and feeling unable to meet his father’s (and the whole community’s) expectations of him becoming either an excellent student, clerk, or apprentice to some artisan, approaches an area in the town where people are making cider. He is invited to join in the cider making by the shoemaker, Flaig, who has just rented a cider press. In the area, there are numerous cider presses, where people gather and make merry, and children play. Here, Hans’s world starts to brighten up:

Later in the novel, Hans, following his father’s advice, starts to work as an apprentice in a mechanic’s workshop, which gives us further insight into craft technology. In the workshop we are taught about the value of human expertise and the effort needed to make mechanical contraptions work. Hans is fascinated by the processes, the connection to the raw materials and the tools, and the knowledge required, but he also feels that his body cannot cope with the drudgery and monotony of physical labor. After only a few days, Hans follows his colleagues to a tavern, and after indulging in a bout of excessive drinking, he does not return home. While his father is thinking about ways to scold the young man, Hans’s body is floating in the river, cold and lifeless.

What we see in the novel is how Hans, despite having found temporary refuge in the form of the cider press and the workshop, cannot sustain this joy due to the demands of his surroundings. Even when he identifies strongly with his new profession, he is bullied by former fellow pupils who call him an “academy mechanic,” indicating that Hans has fallen very low since he would like to become a craftsman.4Hesse, Beneath the Wheel, 124. SW 2:268. The novel, in our reading, thus explores how craft technology can provide only ephemeral refuge, depending on the particular life and social context.

Considering Hesse’s own biography, his time in the Perrot Tower Clock Factory in Calw arguably shaped his understanding of craft technology—and the world—in several ways. After escaping the seminary in Maulbronn, dropping out of school in Cannstatt, and leaving his apprenticeship in a bookshop in Esslingen, not quite seventeen years old, Hesse was apprenticed in May 1894 to the tower clock factory. Despite the positive experiences of his apprenticeship, similarly to Hans, he did not work long as a mechanic. He left after fifteen months, in September 1885.

At the same time, the young Hesse’s contact with technology-­oriented work became a form of therapy for him as he searched for his social identity.5Joseph Mileck, Hermann Hesse: Life and Art (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 13. The experience of craft work—even if Hesse mainly learned how to fabricate a metal flower stand—allowed him to regain his self-confidence and to learn persistence in striving for a goal.6Decker, Hesse: The Wanderer and His Shadow, 111–12.

Moreover, working in the tower clock factory allowed Hesse to develop his literary imagination by discovering the magic of clock assemblies. It inspired Hesse’s novel The Glass Bead Game, where the Game reminds us of the mystery of clock mechanisms produced with meditative patience, creativity, and purpose; moreover, Heinrich Perrot—the actual owner of the factory—is presented in the novel as Bastian Perrot of Calw who invented the Game.7Hermann Hesse, Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game), trans. Richard and Clara Winston (New York: Bantam Books, 1978).

Lastly, the seventeen-year-old Hesse discovered his affinity for craftwork and a fondness for the working class, which resulted in him distancing himself from the bourgeoisie—a critical move shaped by his Pietistic heritage and influencing his later political and literary writings.8Barry Stephenson, Veneration and Revolt: Hermann Hesse and Swabian Pietism (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009).