" The more exuberant the music – the more dangerous the land becomes." Hesse's cultural criticism using music as an example.

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Karl-Josef Kuschel, President of the International Hermann Hesse Society

Hermann Hesse not only loved music as a listener, but he also wrote about music like few other German-speaking authors. With "Gertrud" (1910), he presented a novel about a musician, described listening experiences from Bach to Wagner in essays, and reflected on the beauty and allure of music alike. Especially in his major novels, starting from "Steppenwolf" (1926) to "The Glass Bead Game" (1943), Hesse demonstrated that there is a close connection between the state of contemporary music and the respective state of society. In sharp criticism of the prevailing idolization of Richard Wagner's music, he states that in a society, "ecstatic music" leads to a loss of control and a breakdown of order, because: "The more intoxicating the music, the more dangerous the land becomes."

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