Ninon Ausländer
1895–1966

Ninon was born in 1895 in Cernowitz, a small town in the farthest East of the Hapsburg Empire. At the age of 14 she read Peter Camenzind and, very impressed by the novel, she wrote to Hermann Hesse. This started an uninterrupted correspondence between the well known author, 18 years older than her, and the young admirer, who did not lack a critical mind.

In 1913 Ninon left for Vienna where she began to study medicine, and later History of Art, Archeology and Philosophy. Here she met her first husband, Fred Dolbin, an engineer, who afterwards became a famous caricaturist. She studies in Paris and Berlin.

Ninon and Hermann Hesse first meet in Montagnola in 1922.
Their love affair begins in Zurich in March 1926, when they both were going through the separation from their respective spouses, Fred Dolbin and Ruth Wenger.
Ninon often visits Hesse at the Casa Camuzzi in Montagnola; after a while they finally move together. Soon Hesse gets used to having her near him.

In 1927 Hesse writes the following poem:

For Ninon
Staying by me,
where life is full of darkness
and outside the stars hasten
and everything is sparkling,
knowing the centre
of the wheel of life,
all this makes you and your love for me
a good spirit.
In my darkness
you sense the well hidden star.
With your love
you remind me
of life's sweetest essence.

Hesse resigns himeself unwillingly to this marriage and writes to Alfred Kubin:
«My marriage is nothing else than what I conceive a marriage can be: a capitulation after a long resistence, an act of surrender [...] however I am grateful to this woman for having me lead into temptation again, almost at the limit of aging; and that she takes care of the house and feeds me with healthy food, since I am often very ill.»

In the same year of their marriage, 1931, they move to the Casa Rossa, on the outskirts of Montagnola, where Ninon keeps the house with determination and resolution, supports Hesse, and keeps away unwelcomed visitors.

Ninon still follows her interests, which, during the years, have concentrated in Greek mythology. The frequent trips to Greece mean physical and intellectual separations, which give her new strength to face daily life. Ninon shares her experiences with Hesse, and by telling him about her travels, he is able to participate to his wife's life.

In a letter from 1954 to Gisela Kleine, Ninon expresses how important it was for her to have a life of her own, independent from Hesse:
«Do not teach that the spirit of sacrifice is a feminine postulate. Being companion is a need for the husband as well as for the wife, but it should be a secondary aim and not the main thing.»

After Hesse's death she explains:
«For this reason he could only live with me […] because I knew that his work, and not only, also the inclination to work, was the most important thing for him; love, society, friendship and comradeship, all was of a minor importance».

After Hermann's death in 1962, Ninon makes an accurate inventory of his legacy and donates it to the German Archive of Literature of Marbach. After finishing the manuscript Kindheit und Jugend vor Neunzehnhundert, Hermann Hesse inn Briefen und Lebenszeugnissen [Childhood and Youth before 1900. Hermann Hesse in letters and testimonies of life], Ninon dies on September 22, 1966, in Montagnola.

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