Introduction

Part 1: The Solitary Walker: Nietzsche

Chapter 1: Nietzsche in His Youth
Chapter 2: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a work that stands alone in the "violet solitude"

Part 2: The Road to Success: Wagner the Seducer

Chapter 1: Seducing Boys
Chapter 2: Seducing Women, Wagner's Eternal Triangle

Part 3: Friedrich Schiller and Swiss Democracy

Chapter 1: William Tell: The Story of Swiss Independence
Chapter 2 Friedrich Schiller
Chapter 3: The Way of the Old Swiss Mercenaries

Part 4: In the midst of life, Hesse rises above frustration.

Chapter 1: Two Crises, Two Escapes
Chapter 2: Klingsor's Last Summer
Chapter 3: The Funicular of San Salvatore and the Walk through Montagnola

References
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1.
A lonely walker who only walks along the shaded path - Nietzsche

At the age of twenty-four, Nietzsche, a graduate student who had not even finished his thesis, was invited to become a professor of philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
Nietzsche had been recognized for his talent and was called “the idol of the entire young literary world” from early on. In Basel, he met the composer Wagner, who was enjoying support throughout Europe, and they formed a friendship that transcended their 31-year age difference.
The friendship between a great artist and a poet-philosopher, whose fields of activity were completely different, was, as Nietzsche said, close to a “friendship of the stars,” and was indeed rare in human history.

After moving to Basel, Nietzsche experienced very special moments in many aspects of his life, and he later recalled this time as “the happiest time.”
But unfortunately, this time did not last long.
Even at the young age of 35, he had to give up his professorship after 10 years due to unbearable eye pain, headaches, and stomachaches.
So the author defines Nietzsche as “a man who was born with a talent as brilliant as the sun,” but who had to avoid the sunlight and walk only in the shade because of eye pain, as “a man who had to live a lonely life in the shadows.”

After leaving his professorship, Nietzsche often stayed in Sils Maria, which had many lakes and a pleasant environment that was not hot even in summer.
Even now, if you take a leisurely walk along the small Silvaplana Lakeside promenade, you will come across the towering 'Nietzsche Rock' under the shade of the forest.
The name 'Nietzsche Rock' comes from the fact that Nietzsche confessed that he was reminded of the idea of ​​'eternal recurrence' in 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' while passing by this rock.
For Nietzsche, who had to live a “life of solitary shadow,” Switzerland was a place of rest and a land of inspiration.

They lived an extremely simple life, wandering mainly to resorts in southern Europe in search of weather that was tolerable to their bodies depending on the season.
This was possible because it wasn't a time when there were so many tourists like there are today.
(……) The “happiest period” in his painful life was the three years he spent close to the Wagner family living on the shores of Lake Lucerne. (p. 28)

2.
The Irresistible Seducer - Wagner

Wagner is still a respected composer today, but he was also a highly successful artist in his own time.
The author sheds light on Wagner and his life in Switzerland from the perspective of a 'seducer'.
Wagner was a seducer who had a particularly powerful influence on boys and women.
The same was true of the boy Hitler and Thomas Mann, as well as Cosima, the daughter of his close friend Liszt and the wife of his disciple.
Cosima, who wanted to “love an outstanding creator and artist to whom she could devote her whole life,” later became Wagner’s second wife.
According to Nietzsche, who had a special relationship with Wagner, this was because Wagner's large-scale stage had a "remarkable brainwashing effect" that was "similar to alcoholism."

Wagner, who was put on the wanted list after participating in the Dresden Uprising, escaped to Switzerland with Liszt's help.
Then, with the support of the wealthy businessman Otto Wesendonck, he lived a comfortable life in a forest mansion in the Enge district overlooking Lake Zurich.
Wagner called this place his “green hill refuge” and wrote prolifically there, but his first wife, Minna, could not stand his womanizing and the two were separated.

When the highly anticipated opera Tristan und Isolde was a huge failure, Wagner found himself in debt again.
However, this time, he was revived with the financial help of King Ludwig II, who was fascinated by Wagner's works.
Afterwards, he and Cosima stay at the Tripschen mansion on the shores of Lake Lucerne, living “without worrying about money” and “in luxury according to their own tastes.”
The author faithfully reveals episodes such as Wagner's womanizing, extravagance, and conflict and reconciliation with Nietzsche, set in places like Zurich and Lucerne, and realistically unfolds the fateful backdrop of Switzerland, which appears as a savior at several turning points in Wagner's life, as if on a large opera stage.

In Tripschen, Wagner was able for the first time to live comfortably and quietly with his family, in luxury and according to his own taste, without worrying about money.
(……) Whether life was difficult or stable, he never stopped creating with incredible concentration, even when his health was failing. (p. 36)

3.
A free man who suffered even in death - Schiller

Schiller, best known for his play "Wilhelm Tell," which depicts the process of Swiss independence, ironically never visited Switzerland.
How did Schiller address the issue of space in a play so crucial to spatial description? According to Goethe, who called him his rival, Schiller "scoured out as many unique maps of Switzerland as he could find and plastered them on every wall," and he read so diligently that he even memorized the alleyways, never leaving his seat until the play was completed.
The author tells in impressive sentences how Schiller skillfully combined the historical events of the three cantons surrounding Lake Lucerne with the legend of William Tell to create William Tell.

Schiller, who had suffered financial hardships during his lifetime, was buried 53rd in a mass grave, with coffins stacked one on top of the other, without a special funeral.
Twenty-one years later, when the cemetery had to be moved, the mayor at the time, Karl Schwabe, decided to find Schiller's remains.
However, Schwabe dug up the grave without any proper procedure, assembled a few bones, and declared them to be Schiller's.
It was not until 2008 that DNA testing revealed that the remains were not Schiller's, and Schiller's grave was ultimately left empty.
The author tells the story of the death of the great playwright Schiller, the misidentification of his remains for a long time, and the modern-day uproar that finally ended with an empty tomb, in a thrilling yet fascinating way, like a train crossing the winding Alps.
Schiller, whose grave had been dug up, was given a monument swaying on the waves of Lake Lucerne, a place he had never been to.
If you take a boat from Lucerne and go a long way towards Flüelen, you will see a huge rock pillar rising above the water, which is a monument dedicated to Schiller.
As it was created by manipulating natural rocks, it has the characteristics of a natural monument and is still considered the number one tourist destination in central Switzerland.

The Swiss have long struggled against harsh nature and lived in poverty (now incredibly wealthy), but it's hard to deny that their democracy and history reflect the vision Schiller envisioned. (p. 237)

4.
A wanderer intoxicated by the language of color - Hesse

Hesse, who experienced a rough adolescence, faced an even greater crisis in his life after the outbreak of World War I.
His father's death, his wife's schizophrenia, and Hesse himself suffering from a severe nervous breakdown.
Eventually, he moves into Casa Camuzzi in Montagnola, southern Switzerland, alone.
Although it was “an abandoned house without electricity or heating and without people,” he spent 12 years “here, gradually rediscovering himself as an artist and as a human being.”
The climate of the sunny southern region, unlike that of northern Switzerland, was of great help to Hesse.
From this time on, Hesse began to devote himself in earnest to writing novels and painting.
The author notes that his time in Montagnola marked a decisive turning point in Hesse's life, and clearly shows that this personal experience continued through Klingsor's Last Summer, a novel that, along with Demian, marked the beginning of Hesse's later work.

Klingsor's Last Summer is a novel about the mad creative fervor of a painter facing death, and the author describes it as a work that can even serve as a guide for those traveling to the beautiful southern city of Lugano.
He also says that although the sunlight in southern Switzerland is "shockingly" warmer than in the north, you will "slowly, unconsciously, unwind and feel a sense of drowsiness and happiness."
Perhaps this is why Hesse was able to escape a life crisis in southern Switzerland and find new sparks as an artist.

At the age of forty-two, the "Expressionist painter" Klingsor spent his last summer in southern Switzerland, where he painted his final paintings. (p. 319)