1931–1962
Maturity and old age

«For the one who has grown old without having found anything objective, anything that is above himself and his own worries, anything absolute or holy to venerate, by serving which he would have given a meaning to his own life, searching was the wrong way and life a failure.»

1931

Move within Montagnola into a new house, the Casa Rossa, where Hesse will live for the rest of his life.
He marries Ninon Dolbin.
Hesse leaves the Prussian Academy of Arts.

1932

Die Morgenlandfahrt [Journey to the East] appears.
Hesse begins writing Das Glasperlenspiel [The Glass Bead Game], on which he will be working for 11 years. The various chapters of this book are published one by one on magazines until 1942, year of its accomplishment.

1933–1945

During the 12 years of Hitler's dictatorship in Germany, Hesse and his wife try to help refugees and persecuted Jews with money, a home, and above all by requesting travelling documents, visa and working permits, etc.

1934

Hesse becomes a member of the Swiss Club of Poets and Writers for better protection from the Nazi cultural policies and for more efficient possibilities of intervention for emigrated colleagues.

1936

Gottfried-Keller-Prize of the Martin Bodmer Foundation in Zurich.
Stunden im Garten is published.

1939–1945

Hesse' works are declared undesirable in Germany and therefore cannot be published anymore.

1943

The first unabridged edition of Das Glasperlenspiel [The Glass Bead Game] is printed in Switzerland.

1946

Hesse is awarded the Goethe Prize of the city of Frankfurt and the Nobel Prize for literature.

1947

Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bern.

1949–1961

Hesse spends every summer in Sils-Maria in Engadina.

1955

Hesse receives the Wilhelm Raabe Peace Prize of the German bookdealers.

1962

On July 1, the town of Montagnola confers Hesse the honorary citizenship.
Hesse dies of cerebral hemorrhage on August 9 at the age of 85. He is buried in the cimitery of S. Abbondio in Gentilino.