Hans Konrad Sturzenegger (2 May 1875 † 19 November 1943) was a Swiss painter. He was friends with Hermann Hesse.
Biography
Sturzenegger came from a wealthy Schaffhausen family of entrepreneurs, which enabled him to attend the Karlsruhe Art Academy. After completing his studies, he returned to Schaffhausen and set up a studio in Haus Belair. The small, picturesque castle, which is located at Randenstrasse 65 and which today houses the youth hostel of Schaffhausen, became the centre of an artistic circle. Sturzenegger maintained contacts with Hermann Hesse and the surrounding circle of artists from Gaienhofen on Lake Constance. Among others, the painter Ernst Kreidolf also frequented the Belair House.
The friendship with Hermann Hesse remained very intense even after he moved to Montagnola in Ticino. There was an intensive correspondence, Sturzenegger repeatedly visited the poet and portrayed him. Hesse, on the other hand, portrayed Sturzenegger in a literary way in his novel Roßhalde, by giving the figure of the painter Veraguth certain traits of Sturzenegger. In 1911, Sturzenegger undertook a trip to India together with Hesse. It took the two artists via Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore (where the Sturzeneggers family was entrepreneurial) to Sumatra. On the journey, Hesse wrote numerous notes, poems and stories, which, supplemented by drawings and watercolours by Sturzenegger, were published as an anthology in 1913.
In 1943, shortly after his return from a visit by Hesse to Montagnola, Sturzenegger died in Zurich. Haus Belair has been a youth hostel for 50 years.
Comments