On the Blessings and Woes of Wine Drinking. Alcohol and Nicotine in the Works of Hermann Hesse

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Andrea Bartl, University of Bamberg
Wine and cigars – these intoxicants not only accompanied the author Hermann Hesse through various phases of his life but also influenced his writing. Alcohol, for instance, is a theme in novels such as Peter Camenzind, Beneath the Wheel, Gertrud, Siddhartha, and in Hesse's poetry, drawings, letters, and essays. Often, alcohol is accompanied by other pleasures and addictions, particularly the smoke of cigars and cigarettes. Both alcohol and nicotine ignite central thematic questions in Hesse's entire body of work: the contrast between intoxication and asceticism, or the contemplation of the artist's inspiration and the societal duties of the citizen. Some of Hesse's stories also align with a series of 'drinker novels' or 'smoker novellas,' as written by several authors of the Classical Modernism, such as Joseph Roth's The Legend of the Holy Drinker, Hans Fallada's The Drinker, or Thomas Mann's Vision. The lecture explores this striking yet often overlooked theme of alcohol in Hesse's work in an entertaining manner. Andrea Bartl is a professor of Modern German Literature at Otto Friedrich University Bamberg. She has written her doctoral thesis on Hermann Hesse and is currently publishing a comprehensive author handbook on Hermann Hesse with Metzler Verlag. For information and registration, please contact the Tourist Information in Gaienhofen at 07735/9999123 or touristinfo@gaienhofen.de.