'Hesse implored for the defeat, not of foreign nations, but of "unreasoning war and modernised brutality" '

From Relevance of Hesse today

The politics and writings of this Nobel Laureate are particularly relevant in this, his 125th birth centenary, because he had the courage of his convictions to protest against German militarism in the years during and after the First World War. On November 3, 1914, Hesse wrote an article that hurled him into the maelstrom of controversy. Sharply critical of his colleagues who had defected to the "camp of the super patriots", Hesse pleaded for an upholding of the historic standards of German culture. Hesse implored for the defeat, not of foreign nations, but of "unreasoning war and modernised brutality". The results were immediate: his books disappeared from bookstores and he was lambasted for being a traitor, and unpatriotic pacifist. This call to action, however, softly interwove a desire for contemplation. In 1951 Hesse told his friend Miguel Serrano: "You should let yourself be carried away, like the clouds in the sky. You shouldn't resist. God exists in your destiny just as much as he does in these mountains and in that lake. It is very difficult to understand this, because man is moving further and further away from nature, and also from himself."