y philosopher was Martin Heidegger, who died only in 1976. He was strongly influenced by Nietzsche, and in turn his work influenced the French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre, although Heidegger himself disagreed with existentialist interpretations of his work. His work has had a great influence on Western philosophy, but he has received little public recognition because of his refusal to apologise for his involvement with the National Socialist Party. To what degree he was involved is still unclear.

Standing like a giant over modern German literary philosophy is the Nobel prize-winner, Hermann Hesse. At the age of 13 he was told he would be 'a poet or nothing', so he started off by writing unimpressive romantic novels. His first successful work was the more philosophical 'Peter Camenzind', which positively burned with anger at his repressed and traditional childhood.

His most widely read work is 'Siddhartha', which was published in 1922, it is based on the idea that man's true nature has been lost and can only be found through self expression.

Hesse was at one point accused of supporting the Nazis, whom he did not openly criticize, but while based in Switzerland he did a lot to help political refugees from Germany, and refused to leave out sections of his works which dealt with pogroms and anti-Semitism. His publisher Peter Suhrkamp, was arrested by the Nazis in 1944.

Hesse received the Nobel Prize in 1946, and thereafter did not produce further major works. He died in 1962.

by Robert Easton (c) Soccerphile.com

Robert Easton is a UK based journalist specializing in Germany and German culture. He has written a series of Germany-related articles for http://www.soccerphile.com

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