Mann's life Nobel laureate in literature and “later” democrat

Thomas Mann wrote great literature all his life. Almost three decades after the publication of "Buddenbrooks", the writer received the Nobel Prize for Literature for his debut novel on 10th December 1929.
 

Thomas Mann is born on 6th June 1875 in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, as the second eldest son. He grows up with four siblings. His parents couldn't be more different: The father, a Hanseatic patrician, represents bourgeois Lübeck. As a businessman, he successfully runs the family business, serving as consul and finally senator. The mother is quite different: she embodies the exact opposite of the father. Thomas Mann describes his mother as “... extraordinarily beautiful, of unmistakable Spanish style, ...”. Her southern temperament and her interest in music and literature form a contrast to her father's commercial presence.

Thomas Mann's aversion to school

Thomas Mann describes his childhood as "cherished and happy". Like his brother Heinrich however, he does not like attending school: “Even in Year 10, I was as lazy as the Westerwald: lazy, stubborn and full of wanton scorn about the whole thing, hated by the teachers of the venerable institution ...”. Like his brother Heinrich, he leaves school before sixth form. He also shows his aversion to the bourgeois town of Lübeck. Thomas Mann rejects the narrowness of the gloomy Gothic buildings, which are depicted again and again in his novels, but also the narrowness of the school, which leaves no space for idleness and reading.

Moving to Munich

Two years after her husband's death in 1891, her mother moves to Munich with her three youngest siblings. The Bavarian metropolis is the “City of the Arts” and is considered cosmopolitan as well as being a meeting place for bohemians. Thomas Mann follows his mother in 1893 and begins a traineeship at a fire insurance company. In addition, he publishes his first novella. Since Thomas Mann receives a monthly income from his father's estate upon reaching adulthood, he does not have to pursue a regular profession. He can devote himself entirely to writing.
Thomas Mann's novel is published in 1901 and initially causes upset in Lübeck. On 10th December 1929, the author receives the Nobel Prize for Literature for his book.

The “Buddenbrooks” originate in Italy

In 1896 he follows his brother Heinrich to Italy. Here he begins writing his most widely-read novel Buddenbrooks. The Decline of a Family. To do this, he not only uses excerpts from salon conversations from his time in Lübeck, he also collects cooking recipes and the CVs of all family members, friends and enemies. Many characters in this “ancestral chronicle” bear traits of family members or Lübeck citizens.
Because of the ironic depiction of the characters portrayed and the detailed description of the city of Lübeck, although he never mentions it by name, the work is considered by many Lübeckers to be a “nest-soiler” novel. Some, however, feel that not mentioning the name of the city is an affront in itself. This is one of the reasons why the relationship with the famous poet remains tense for a long time.
In 1900 he completes the work, which is published in 1901 by Fischer Verlag. The two-volume first edition meets with only sparse approval. The one-volume second edition of 1903 brings the breakthrough and makes Thomas Mann famous. In 1929 he receives the Nobel Prize for Literature for Buddenbrooks.  The jury justifies its decision by saying that the work “has established a progressively stronger following over the years as a classic work of contemporary literature.”

Marriage to Katia Pringsheim

Back in Munich, Thomas Mann works for the satirical magazine Simplicissimus for a year in 1898. He enjoys the life of an artist in Schwabing and from 1899 onwards maintains a close relationship with the artist Paul Ehrenberg, for whom he cultivated homoerotic feelings. But the painter remains unreachable for Thomas Mann. He later uses literature to process his experiences in Death in Venice. In 1905 he marries Katharina “Katia” Pringsheim, who comes from a respected Munich family. But from his perspective there is more will than desire behind this marriage. As a result of the union, his life runs like clockwork – he and Katia have six children.

After a long creative crisis, “The Magic Mountain” follows

Despite starting a family and being successful as a writer, Mann is unstable. Outwardly, he maintains his façade as a patriarch, he confides feelings only to his diary. He doubts himself and his abilities, which also has an impact on his literary output. Although his own standards are high, his next great successful novel, The Magic Mountain, is not published until a good 20 years after Buddenbrooks. It is published in November 1924. There is varying information as regards the exact day: WDR refers to 20th November in its Zeitzeichen series, while S. Fischer Verlag mentions 28th November as the publication date.

Development into a "late" democrat and exile

In terms of politics, Mann is late to declare an allegiance. Initially, he defends the First World War and welcomes the growing influence of right-wing parties from 1920 onwards. But with the murder of Rathenau in 1922, there is no longer any doubt in his mind: over the years, he develops from an apolitical reactionary to a “late” democrat. By the end of the 1930s, anti-fascism and socialism are anchored in his work. In 1933, on the advice of his children Erika and Klaus, Thomas Mann does not return to Germany from a lecture tour. But emigration is difficult for the Manns. They lose their German citizenship and almost all of their belongings.

From Princeton to California in the USA

Their path leads them via Sanary-sur-Mer in France, on to Zurich and finally the USA in 1938. The first stop is Princeton, where Mann gives lectures at the university. Three years later, they relocate to the Pacific Palisades, California. Thomas Mann is granted American citizenship in 1944. During these years, he writes his late-life masterpiece Doctor Faustus - a symbol of Germany's fate. Thomas Mann is particularly productive in these years, with the publication of numerous autobiographical works in which he takes a political stand – as he does in his radio speeches to the Germans.

Mann speaks to the Germans during the war

From October 1940, Thomas Mann gets verbally involved in the Second World War from afar. In a total of almost 60 radio addresses, which are elaborately transmitted via gramophone record and telephone from California to New York and finally to London, the British BBC broadcasts the speeches – each lasting five to eight minutes – about once a month. In them, the Nobel Prize winner for literature argues emotionally and movingly with the Nazis – and speaks to the conscience of the Germans, calling on them to liberate themselves from the Nazi regime. One of the most significant speeches in the German Listeners series is Mann's speech of 27th September 1942, in which he speaks very directly for the first time about the systematic mass murder of European Jews and asks the Germans probing questions about it. Mann ends the series with the end of the Second World War – the last episode is broadcast on 10th May 1945.

Return to Europe

In 1949, he visits Germany for the first time after the Second World War. The occasion is the award ceremony for the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt to the poet on 28th August. Thomas Mann is enthusiastically cheered and is henceforth regarded as a symbolic figure of a reconciled new beginning.
His son Klaus takes his own life, which casts a shadow over the triumphant return. Thomas Mann does not blame a third party for the suicide, but instead justifies it with his son’s “compulsion to die”. He stays away from the funeral. Once again he confides family problems, such as the accumulation of suicides in his own family, only to his diary.

When Mann comes under suspicion of Communism in the USA during the McCarthy era, he returns to Europe permanently in 1952. He makes peace with the old continent, and also with Germany. During a spa stay, he seeks permanent residence in Switzerland. At first he first settles in Erlenbach, later in the familiar town of Kilchberg near Zurich. Mann works tirelessly to the last: The Confessions of Felix Krull was published in 1954, and he gives two speeches about Schiller as late as 1955.

The honorary citizenship

Thomas Mann's biographer Klaus Schröter describes 20th May 1955 as a “great, touching moment of his ending life”: it is the day on which Lübeck grants the almost 80-year-old honorary citizenship. With this award, his hometown finally recognises the great writer’s merits – an important gesture of reconciliation, according to Schröter: “He had this reunion to thank for finally establishing peace with his homeland.” Just a few weeks later, on 12th August 1955, Thomas Mann dies at the University Hospital in Zurich.

This article was taken from NDR and has been slightly edited. Many thanks to NDR for providing the original article. Status: 10.12.2024