"Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 in Calw, a small town in the northern region of the Black Forest. His father, Johannes Hesse, born in 1847, was a doctor's son and came from Estland [Estonia, Ed.]. His mother, Marie Gundert, was born in India, the daughter of a missionary. The Hesse family was of Baltic German descent; the Gunderts were Swabians (though Marie Gundert's father married a girl who was part Welsh and part Swiss). The two families had met through their common involvement in missionary work ... In 1873 , after three years in the mission field, he [Hesse's father, Ed.] was forced [for health resons, Ed.] to return to Germany, where he settled in Calw with the job of assisting Dr. Gundert in his publishing projects. In 1874 he married Dr. Gundert's daughter Marie ..." From: Portrait of Hesse by Bernhard Zeller.