He has strongly influenced me since my youth. His strength, energy, and vitality have always been a role model for me. Patti Smith. Starting with the Swabian Black Forest town of Calw, the provincial and pietistic environment of his childhood, his passion for Italy, the years by Lake Constance, and his chosen homes in the Swiss Ticino and Engadin, the descriptions in this volume illustrate the stages of Hermann Hesse's development with rare vividness. Hesse's far-sightedness continually surprises, as it anticipates the problems and conflicts of our current present and takes a stand. Contents: Calw as an archetype, grandfather Hermann Gundert, under the wheel of external determination, on the survival of a rejected love, lagoon magic, years in Basel, enchanting drawings.