Mia Bernoulli
1868–1963

In 1903, at the age of 26, Hesse falls in love, in Basle, with Maria Bernoulli, 9 years older than him. Maria is a free-lance photographer and is the first woman in Switzerland to have a studio in the old town. Moreover she is a talented musician. Together they set out on journeys and frequent the artistic circles in Basle. Shortly before their marriage in 1904, Hesse writes to a friend of his that Mia is very similar to him «as far as concerns education, life experience and intelligence, older than me, but from all sides a clever and indipendent personality». After the marriage they move to Gaienhofen, on the lake of Constance, where their children Bruno, Heiner and Martin are born in 1905, 1909 and 1911.

Mia, who had always been introvert, is now withdrawing more and more into herself, while her husband escapes from the imaginary idyll of his family and throws himself into his work and travelling. In 1912 they move to Bern.

The second son Heiner, (1909-2003), well remembered his mother during the Bernese period as being a cheerful person, full of life, who often took walks with her children, excursions in the mountains or went swimming with them. In 1918 the couple decides to separate. In the meantime Mia shows the first symptoms of a mental illness. She gets worse and must be sent to a psychiatric clinic. In the same year Hesse and Mia separate for good.

In the tale Iris, which Hesse writes after the separation and dedicates to Mia, he notes:
«[…] she would rather live with flowers and music and perhaps a book nearby, and in a solitary silence […] Sometimes she was so delicate and sensitive that anything extraneous could hurt her and made her cry […] Then she was radiant again and quiet in a solitary happiness, and anyone who saw this, felt how difficult it was to reach this beautiful and peculiar woman to offer her something or to have a meaning for her.»

After recovering from the mental crisis, Mia organizes the dismantling of the house in Bern and moves to Ascona. In old age she moves with her son Martin in Bern, and later in a rest home, where she eventually passes away at the age of 95. Until the very end she cultivated many interests and played the piano.

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