BOHÈME SAUVAGE
Le Journal
Magazine for Sophisticated Entertainment
Edition N° 7
English version of selected articles
1920
*
NUDE CLIMBING WITH HERMANN
HESSE
Marie de Winter visits the
nature people at Monte Verità
Question upon question
Have you ever satisfied your
hunger with nothing but berries, grains and nuts? Tilled your garden in a
loincloth... or even climbed a rock face - completely unveiled?
Another nudist hoax of our
time? And shamelessly so, you may think. Who would be prepared for such
escapades - in one’s birthday suit? And: why?
Well, I asked myself the same
when I heard about the existence of these idealists. Where are they to be
found? On a mountain in beautiful Ticino, called Monte Verità. In a spiritual
colony of artists and a natural sanatorium, founded by alternative life
reformers like the pianist Ida Hofmann and the nature lover Gusto Gräser. And - "hardly believable" you may
probably exclaim - Hermann Hesse, the great writer himself, has already lived
through these experiences!
And no one less than him is
who will stand by my side in this daring investigative self-experiment -
descending into the depths of my soul in search of true knowledge! With an
alert mind and an enquiring eye, I will go to Monte Verità to face the bare
facts, and last but not least, I will dedicate myself to the question: WHAT
DOES IT DO TO ME?
More hill than mountain,
Monte Verità rises above the fishing village of Ascona,
whose inhabitants have been talking about this place for 19 years now with the
same mixture of curiosity and irony that only sensational states are able to
evoke.
On their journey through
anarchism, theosophy, Buddhism, feminism, esotericism, Satanism, sexual
bolshevism, parapsychology – phew - and not to forget art - countless followers
of these currents and practices are said to have experienced purification,
healing and deep inspiration on the mountain. More or less socially
well-accepted personalities - such as Else Lasker-Schüler,
Franz Arp, Oskar Schlemmer or Paul Klee - already dreamed there, naked and
hungry, of free love, veganism and a better world, celebrated their very
personal asceticism and lived this alternative to materialism, chauvinism,
church and state. Come along with me!
Confabulation
During our one-hour walk to
the "nudist settlement", however, Hesse, who moved into his new home
in nearby Montagnola last May, never tires of
emphasizing, how he feels about the behavior on Monte Verità after his
"encounter with himself" half a decade ago. He even speaks of
"kohlrabi apostles", "grain-eaters" and "barefoot
prophets". So I am surprised, how light-footed and carefree he is willing
to walk with me on the paths of the past. In his recently published novel
"Demian" under the pseudonym Emil Sinclair,
he openly reveals - in a frenzy of only three weeks of inspiration, as he
points out - his inner insights, even persons and places from "Mountain of
Truth". Now he wants to pay his last respects to the mountain. An end
shall soon be put to the colourful hustle and bustle.
It shall be over and done with the "Republic of the Homeless", as the
writer Erich Mühsam likes to call this place. It will
close its doors in January until further notice.
"I went seven days
without food. During this time, my skin peeled and renewed, I got used to being
naked, to lying on hard ground, to the heat of the sun and the cold night
wind", reports Hesse as we approach the fenced-in area of the commune -
probably to gently prepare me for what was to come... "Often, I laid half-conscious
for hours, watching the light and shade changing, listening to the small sounds
of the wasteland, disregarding them and not giving myself an account of what I
saw and heard", he continues, as we climb the steps out of the now deep
blue night to the brightly lit "Casa Anatta, the commune's residential and
representative building. There I move into a small, simple chamber, note down
the events of the day in my little book and fall into a restless sleep…
The early bird
The night was short and the
sleeping berth was uncomfortable. Any more inconveniences awaiting me today?
Every single berry, every nut
of the "sumptuous" morning meal promises ascetic purification. Hesse,
acknowledging my expression of suffering, pats my slender little arm in an encouraging
manner, and explains, obviously amused: "Apart from the fasting fanatics,
there are true vegetarian gourmands, who really feast. Vegetarians, too [...]
frugivores and mixed dietitians". Ida Hofmann, the foundress of the
community, looking daggers at Hesse, indignantly admonishes me: "You women
do not need to live with torment or suffering! Through a plant-based diet,
women can free themselves and shake off the yoke of men and develop into higher
beings. Let´s burn the rotten, the dead in humans and in their sphere of
influence!"
I pause in amazement as I
crush the grains - such a view on female self-liberation was previously
completely unknown to me. As I want to find out more about the reasons for the
closure of the settlement, I take the opportunity: "A conversation over a
cup of tea?“ Ida Hofmann nods, tomorrow she'll receive me. I´m politely
beginning my retreat now - in joyful expectation, before long, climbing
cheerfully, in the altogether, towards self-liberation on a nasty rock face.
Having a stunning view to the glittering surface of Lake Maggiore, rippling in
the rising midday sun...
Strange things
As we climb out onto the
first, jagged rocky plateau, all of a sudden, I am deeply torn between an
almost overpowering investigative curiosity and a natural flight instinct.
Hesse's encouraging words immediately soothe my hesitation: "Between man
and mountain there can develop an almost erotic relationship." This is
supposed to the female nature as well... Ok then, that's convincing...
Surrounded by warm air and the blue sky, this incredibly daring little
intermezzo with the cool rock turns out to be an exceptionally sensual moment
of glory for my female contemplation…
It does not take a
extrasensory nature to guess, whom once served as a shelter the hidden rock
grotto, whose gorge now opens up before us, after our descent into the valley:
the prophetic visionary Gusto Gräser! "Be
yourself." Hesse, in a pensive and melancholic mood, cites his old
friend... "Our only obligation and destiny was, that each of us should
become completely ourselves", I add from my memory of "Demian", while the pieces of the past come together to
form a whole...
So we sit for many hours in Gräser's abandoned, savaged "forest garden world"
– Gräser himself had been expelled from Switzerland
last year. We philosophize until twilight begins to surround us... when the
mountain – all of a sudden - seems to melt a polymorphic wave of naked bodies
onto the plateau in front of the grotto! I can hardly believe my eyes when, in
the light of the rising full moon, I recognize some familiar faces among them:
the Dadaists Hugo Ball, Käthe Kruse, the painter Paul
Klee, Mary Wigman... and her master Rudolf von Laban!
It's incredible: All of them came to honour Gusto Gräser one last time, to remember better times, to invoke
the spirit of long gone days in this familiar place. To move now their naked
bodies ecstatically in the moonlight, one last time, under the guidance of the
dancer from Laban... The "Balabiott", the
naked dancers! Legendary!
Discipline
Still completely caught up in the deep, Dionysian impressions of the previous
night, I am strolling - almost somnambulistically to
the "Parsival meadows" - passing wooden
"light-air huts", lightly dressed sun worshippers with flowing beards
and wild hair and a group of peaceful meditators. Ida Hofmann is already
awaiting me in the shade of an old, gnarled tree. She smiles, but at the same
time she seems a little depressed. She tells me about the beginnings and the
noble goal pursued by the founders of the community, but also about the
infighting, conflicts and intrigues between the artists and "new
gurus" who resided on the mountain in the past few years. Too many
different ideologies... In 1907, the need for money made matters worse:
"This was the beginning of the end of our dream." Although making the
necessary changes to the food menu brought back guests, who had been thought
lost, her husband Henri Oedenkoven literally had his
hands full tracking down forbidden things - such as salami or wine - in the
hiding places: "He carried the accusatory signs between his fingers like
poison and presented them [...] to the attendant crowd. He always hoped, that
the poor sinners would confess. A pious hope […]." And at the same time
Ida´s great hope faded away: the women´s self-liberation by a strict "Vegetabilism! Vegetarianism!". "We will emigrate
- but who knows? Perhaps one day our dream will be dreamt by others..."
While Mrs. Hofmann is trying
to forget her sorrow, playing heart-rending piano sonatas, I am preparing
myself for my departure next day, lost in thoughts.
Farewell
Reflecting on my journalistic
boldness, which - only a few days ago - had led me to the nature people, I am
sitting on the train and begin to browse in Hesse's ancient notes on Ascona - his parting gift - which fascinates me for many
hours. A really strangely enchanted place, this mountain! After Gräser, Hofmann and Oedenkoven,
there probably will be others trying their luck and finding happiness one
day... As we come to a stop with squeaking wheels in the home station, my
thoughts stop all at once. Loudly I am reading Gusto Gräser´s
words now:
„Ascona was, was fine, good its variety of
delight and pain -
a repetition would be nothing than sadness.
Gone!
Newly we must live our life! Anew!“
Stepping out of my train
compartment, the pulsating life is embracing me invitingly and lovingly...
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