The story of the German writer Thomas Mann 30/11/21
This is a novel but it is so factual that it covers the history of the first half of the 20C
Colm Toibin born 1955 Writes on Irish society , living abroad, process of creativity and preservation of personal identity.
Antigay laws in Ireland. David Norris Irish MP lobbied the EU against these laws and succeeded in 1993. He was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in Ireland. Rehabilitated James Joyce in disapproving Irish view. He had an Israeli partner Ezra Nawi
The author as well as Henry James and Thomas Mann have to deal with homosexuality. This book is the writers tenth novel.
This is the story of the German writer Thomas Mann born 1875 and died in 1955 he received the Nobel Prize in 1929. The family lived in Lubeck
His older brother Heinrich as well as 3 of his 6 children Erika, Claus and Golo were all writers.
His mother was of Brazilian origin and was always regarded as a foreigner but was respected as the Senators wife.
His father the Senator died in 1891. He had changed his will 3 months earlier instructing his executors to sell the business and properties and trustees were to look after the assets. He did not feel his sons were capable of running the shipping business.
Thomas had thought of himself as the one to take it over and was shocked and insulted. The mother then moved the family to Munich. Thomas remained in Lubeck in digs at a teacher and to complete his schooling. The teachers son Wilfri and him had a mutual gay relationship but not a friendship.
Heinrich was being supported by his mother while he wrote but Thomas whose school reports were bad ,was taken out of school to work at a fire insurance company as a clerk. Because he was not doing his work at school and Heinrich never thought much of his poetry.
He married Katia Pringheim and they had 6 children. By the time he wrote in 1912 Death in Venice about the infatuation with a young boy his reputation was so strong that nobody noticed himself in the book. Katia married him "as her father was a philanderer but Thomas does not run after every women he sees"
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1891 The story starts in Lubeck They were a Catholic family that consisted of Heinrich the oldest brother the Thomas and sister Lula and Carla and the very youngest brother Victor.
. Mann was a friend of the violinist and painter Paul Ehrenburg.
. His first job was to make a copy of the ledger at the insurance company but instead he wrote articles and was fired, but meanwhile sold the article.
His mother now gave him an allowance to go to his brother in Italy where he wrote the book 1901 Buddenbrooks the breakdown of a high family but portayed his mother as a good capable person. The book made him famous and soon a 2nd edition sold.
He gets invited to the Pringsheim family secular Jews a Professor who has inherited a fortune. When Katya wsa asked why she married Thomas she said her father was a philanderer and she had no such problem with Thomas
1909 The book "Royal Highness "was a portrayal of his wife's family which his father in law considered the book anti Semitic.
1912 Katia was at a sanatorium in Davos for tuberculosis and he started writing a novel then about that
1924 wrote the Magic Mountain, in this his wife's role is played by a man.
1929 this book got him the Nobel Prize
His sister is due to marry a man. Was he a married man she was a mistress to and then kills herself, his other sister also took her own life
When WW1 broke out he was basically a patriotic supported the war effort while his brother Heinrich said that there is nothing to be gained but death. He was very friendly with Ernst Bertram a gay who later became a Nazi supporter. He also wrote a book "Reflections on a non Political Man" but in the defeated Germany it did not sell. After the war women were enfranchised.
1919 the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Thomas was terrified that as a known rich person and non socialist views he would be attacked so he stayed home. Eventually the German government with troops suppressed this. Heinrich apparently had protected Thomas and asked for Thomas to vouch for Ernst Toller which he agree to do. After this Thomas and Heinrich renewed their friendship and he met Heinrich young son Heinrich was now married.
This was a period of hyperinflation caused by the reparations and many wealthy people became poor and died of depression. Thomas had an income from publications abroad so this hardly affected him but their were all sorts of shortages.
Mann's books were not among those burnt publicly by Hitler's regime in May 1933, possibly since he had been the Nobel laureate in literature for 1929. In 1936, the Nazi government officially revoked his German citizenship. He then was able to get Czech citizenship.
Thomas an Katya were in Switzerland for the summer and were told not to return home, Their son packed up their stuff in Munich and Thomas was worried about his diaries as they showed that he had erotic feelings about young boys and if a scandle came out his books might not sell.
He was scared to come out straight and say what he thought of Hitler because he was sure Hitler would not last and his publisher would be stopped from selling his books in Germany. Katya's Jewish parents would also be endangered. His American publisher Alfred Knoft took him for a trip to America to promote his books even though he had only just started learning English.
The lesbian daughter Erica asked Christopher Isherwood (Good by to Berlin) to marry her and he suggested that she approach his male partner the poet W H Auden so she was able to get British and American citizenship, this was a good arrangement as they hardly saw each other.
Finally the Manns left to live in the States, where he was given a position in Princeton, Elizabeth was going to marry Borgese a man a bit younger than her father.
The Mann's later went for a holiday to Sweden and while they were there the war broke out. They were on the phone to get out when Agnes Meyer phoned from Washington and told them she had made all the arrangement and they flew to Amsterdam but the route went over German terretory and they were worried. The got a ferry and went to Southampton. The ship was a vacation ship, turned into a evacuation ship and they were packed into it 4 men in a cabin.
Agnes arranged that Michael would get a visa as a musician with Thomas giving a financial guarentee, Heinrich would get a contract for a year at Warner brother as he had written the Blue Angle in which Marlene Detrich acted 1930 her first talkie..
Varian Fry had helped Heirich his wife Nelly , Franz Werfel and Alma Mahler. Nelly was low class bar maid but she really loved Heinrich struggled to get him over the Pyrenees. Alma Mahler had also been married to Walter Gropius (Bauhouse architect) before she went of with Franz Werfel and yet she showed herself as an anti-Semite.
Thomas was warned not to say anything to get America into the war as that had to come from Americans and Roosevelt was standing for election. He was also told that sooner or later America would be forced into war and he was the most suitable person to represent America in the post Hitler Germany. Both his brother Herman or son had taken political views that were not suitable.
Erika was haveing a relationship with Bruno Walter. Klaus was both gay and an addict to morphine. Intended joining the US Army.
Agnes Meyer told Thomas about a visitor he would get an a young man wearing a yarmulke came and told him the the Nazi's had been wiping out European Jewry, Thomas phoned Washington and confirmed this that it was worse than they knew.
Heinrich's wife Nelly dies of an overdose of sleeping pills.
The FBI want to know from Thomas if Brecht is a communist but Thomas won't reveal any knowledge of that.
The war has now ended and Klause became the correspondent for the Stars and Stripes in Germany as the war ended. Erika worked as a BBC correspondent and met the Nuremburg detainees. Goering told her that he would have handled the Mann family differently.
In Prague, Heinrich first wife and daughter are found, they survived but suffered very badly.
Thomas wrote a book called Dr. Faust which is about a composer who invented the 12 tone music and had syphilus Arnold Chernberg could sue him for that, but didn't. He learns that Cherberg saw a spiritual side to music and and converted back to Judaism.
On the French Riviera their son Claus finally dies of an overdose at the same time as they are touring Europe.
They go on a tour of Germany and he talks about Goethe and is awarded the Goethe prize. He is warned by the American consul not to got to the Eastern sector. However they do go.
Heidrich is offered a stipend to live in East Germany but died before he managed to move. Back in the States they figure out that the US no longer need them and so they move to Switzerland. Erika still had not received US citizenship and if she leaves might not be allowed to return. She is asked about her Lesbianism and the later Red scare made the US unwelcome.
They settle in Switzerland but he goes to Lubeck and sees the Bruderbud house. He is awarded the key to the city and the book now has readers that appreciate it
Diedricht Buxtehude1637 to 1707 was the organist at the Mariar Kirsch in Lubeck had a student Johan Sabastian Bach
Thomas Mann 1875 to 1955 married 1904 Katja Pringstein 1883 to 1980
Klaus Pringstein 1883- 1972 leading musician brother to Katja.
1929 Received Nobel prize
Henrich Mann 1871 - 1950 The nazi's burned his books.
| Name | Birth | Death |
|---|---|---|
| Erika # | 9 November 1905 | 27 August 1969 |
| Klaus # | 18 November 1906 | 21 May 1949 |
| Golo # | 29 March 1909 | 7 April 1994 |
| Monika | 7 June 1910 | 17 March 1992 |
| Elisabeth | 24 April 1918 | 8 February 2002 |
| Michael | 21 April 1919 | 1 January 1977 |
# became significant writers, all three were homosexual and with Klaus it came out in his writings, a morphine addict he commited suicide.
Monica was also a writer, her husband drowned when a Uboat struck his ship.
Michael became a well known musician had married with 2 children and an adopted child, died possibly on barbiturates.
Elizabeth married a man her fathers age, had children 2
Golo adopted a son.
1901Buddenbrooks on his parents and family.
1909 The book "Royal Highness "was a portrayal of his wife's family which his father in law considered the book anti Semitic
1912Death in Venice on homosexual tendencies
1924 Magic Mountain Inspired by his wife being at a hospital to recover from tuberculosis in Davos.
1943 Dr Faustus on a German composer and religion (Arnold Chernberg)
