Mann,Thomas b.June 6, 1875; Lubeck d.August 12, 1955; Kilchberg, Switzerland
One of the twentieth century’s most important literary figures who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929, was forced to leave Germany in 1933, and found a new home in the United States.
Mann was born to a wealthy merchant family. His father, Heinrich, was later a senator. Mann had three siblings, Heinrich (also a novelist and playwright), Julia, and Carla. In his first novel, Die Buddenbrooks (1901, The Bud- denbrooks), Mann describes the gradual decay of a family such as his own in the course of three generations. While in school, Mann published poetry under the pseudonym Paul Thomas in a school magazine, Der Fruhlingssturm (The Spring Storm), for which he was also responsible. After the death of his father in 1891, Mann moved with his family to Munich, where he worked as a clerk in an insurance office. His first novella, Gefallen (Favor), appeared in 1894 in the newspaper Die Gesellschaft (The Society). Because of the success of this first publication, Mann decided to work as an independent writer. During the years 1895-1896, he assisted his brother, Heinrich, in the publication of the conservative journal, Das zwanzigste Jahrhundert (The Twentieth Century). In 1896 the brothers traveled to Italy, where they remained until 1898. During the years 1898-1900, Mann worked on the staff of Albert Langes’s satirical journal, Simplicis- simus. The story Der kleine Herr Friedmann (The Little Herr Friedmann) was published in 1898 and the novella, Tonio Kroger in 1899. However, it was not until Buddenbrooks appeared in two volumes in 1901 that Mann achieved true recognition as a writer. For this novel, as well as for his other literary achievements, Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929. Other publications of the period are Tristan (1903), the novel Konigliche Hoheit (Royal Highness, 1909), Der Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice, 1912), Das Wunderkind (The Wonder Child, 1914), the critical essay Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen (Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man, 1918), and the novel Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain, 1913-1924). In these and later works, the place of the artist in society— the tension between bourgeois society and
Thomas Mann,1938. One of the twentieth century's most important literary figures, Mann won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929 and was forced to leave Germany in 1933 to find a new home in the United States. (Library of Congress)
the artist—is questioned and the differences between art and life are explored.
In 1905 Mann married Katia Pring- sheim, with whom he had six children. Three of his children—Erika, Klaus, and Golo—would become authors in their own right. In 1930 Mann gave a speech in Berlin entitled “Deutsche Ansprache—Ein Apell an die Vernunft” (German Address: An Appeal to Reason). His story, Mario and der Zauberer (Mario and the Magician), which warns against fascism, was also published. As Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann was forced to flee Germany. After a short stay in the south of France in 1933, Mann settled with his family in Switzerland. In 1936 his work was banned in Germany and he was officially stripped
of his German citizenship. The honorary doctorate that Mann had received from the University of Bonn in 1919 was revoked. He answered this revocation with his Briefwechsel mit Bonn (Letter Exchange with Bonn), which appeared in almost every European country. In 1938 Mann was invited to serve as a guest professor at Princeton. A year later, his novel Lotte in Weimar (or The Beloved Returns) was published. In 1941 Mann moved with his family to the Pacific Palisades in California, where they remained until 1952.
While in America, Mann wrote numerous anti-Fascist essays and speeches for the BBC (1940—1945, sixty in total). Joseph und Seine Bruder (Joseph and His Brothers), a novel in four volumes, was written between 1933 and 1944. In these novels, Mann attempts to demonstrate the importance of tradition as a source of positive human experience. In 1947, Mann’s last novel, Doktor Faustus (Doctor Faustus) was published. Two years later, Mann’s selfcommentary to the novel Die Entstehung des Doktor Faustus (The Development of a Novel) appeared. In 1949 Mann finally visited Germany, where he was awarded the Goethe Prize in Frankfurt am Main. After Mann was accused before Congress of being a Communist fellow traveler, he left the United States and moved to Switzerland.
Kerri Snead
See also Aufbau; Brecht, Bertolt; Intellectual Exile
References and Further Reading
Hayman, Ronald. Thomas Mann: A Biography. New York: Scribner, 1995.
Kurzke, Hermann. Thomas Mann: Life as a Work of Art: A Biography. Trans. Leslie Willson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2002.