Gisela Kleine

Gisela Kleine, born in 1926, obtained her PhD after studying German philology, philosophy and journalism under Benno von Wiese with a dissertation on »The Problem of Reality in the Works of Hermann Hesse« at the University of Münster. Since Hesse liked her doctoral thesis, she was invited to Montagnola, where she also met Ninon Hesse, and a correspondence with both the poet and his wife ensued. Her experiences as editor-in-chief of the magazine Der leitende Angestellte formed the basis for all her teaching positions in the field of literary and media studies at institutions such as the University of Dortmund and the University of Bochum, where she also studied archeology and art history. The marital biography on Ninon and Hermann Hesse, the archeologist and the poet, created, as many critics have stressed, a new literary genre and it was the first of the biographies on (married) couples that now enjoy great popularity. For her studies of the women in question – basis for the biographies she authored – she received a literary prize from the City of Munich, where she lives as a freelance author.