title: Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth
author:  Hermann Hesse 
description: "An Existentialist intensity and a depth of understanding rare in contemporary fiction." -- <i><i>Saturday Review</i></i>
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  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # A Man by the Name of Ziegler
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Hermann Hesse
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  **There was once a young man by the name of Ziegler,** who lived
  
  
  on Brauergasse. He was one of those people we see every day on the
  
  
  street, whose faces we can never really remember, because they all
  
  
  have the same face: a collective face.
  
  
  Ziegler was everything and did everything that such people always
  
  
  are and do. He was not stupid, but neither was he gifted; he loved
  
  
  money and pleasure, liked to dress well, and was as cowardly as most
  
  
  people: his life and activities were governed less by desires and
  
  
  strivings than by prohibitions, by the fear of punishment. Still, he
  
  
  had a number of good qualities and all in all he was a gratifyingly
  
  
  normal young man, whose own person was most interesting and important
  
  
  to him. Like every other man, he regarded himself as an individual,
  
  
  though in reality