Brothers Thomas and Heinrich Manna. Mann, Thomas - short biography

Merchant Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann (1840-1891), who served as city senator. Thomas's mother, Julia Mann (née da Silva-Bruns) (1851-1923), came from a family with Brazilian roots. The Mann family was quite large. Thomas had two brothers and two sisters: an older brother, famous writer Heinrich Mann (-), younger brother Victor (-) and two sisters Julia (-, suicide) and Karla (-, suicide). The Mann family was wealthy, the brothers and sisters had a carefree, almost cloudless childhood.

Thomas Mann's second novel, The Royal Highness, was begun in the summer of 1906 and completed in February 1909.

Mann's political evolution. New works

Mann's marriage contributed to the writer's entry into the circles of the big bourgeoisie, and this largely strengthened his political conservatism, which for the time being was not manifested in public. In 1911, Mann wrote the short story “Death in Venice” - about the sudden outbreak of love of a middle-aged Munich writer Gustav Aschenbach, who went on vacation to Venice, to visit a 14-year-old boy.

This position led to a break with his brother Heinrich, who had opposing (left-wing democratic and anti-war) views. Reconciliation between the brothers came only after the assassination of the Weimar Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau by nationalists in 1922: Thomas Mann reconsidered his views and publicly declared his commitment to democracy. He joined the German Democratic Party, a liberal-democratic party; however, in May 1923, when at the premiere of B. Brecht’s play “In the Thicket of Cities,” the National Socialists, who saw the “Jewish spirit” in it, provoked a scandal by scattering grenades with tear gas in the hall, Thomas Mann, then a correspondent for the New York agency "Dayel" reacted sympathetically to this action. “Munich popular conservatism,” he wrote in the third of his “Letters from Germany,” “was on the alert. He does not tolerate Bolshevik art."

In 1930, Thomas Mann, increasingly sympathetic to left-wing ideas, gave a speech in Berlin entitled “A Call to Reason,” in which he called for a common anti-fascist front of socialists and liberals to fight a common enemy and celebrated working-class resistance to Nazism.

Emigration

In the last years of his life, he actively published - the novel “The Chosen One” appeared in the novel, and his last short story, “The Black Swan,” appeared in the novel. And then Mann continues to work on the novel “Confessions of the Adventurer Felix Krull”, which he began before the First World War. (German)Russian(published unfinished) - about modern Dorian Gray, who, possessing talent, intelligence and beauty, nevertheless chose to become a swindler and, with the help of his scams, began to rapidly climb the social ladder, losing his human appearance and turning into a monster.

Writing style

Mann is a master of intellectual prose. He called Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky his teachers; The writer actually inherited a detailed, detailed, unhurried style of writing from the literature of the 19th century. However, the themes of his novels are undoubtedly tied to the 20th century. They are bold, lead to deep philosophical generalizations and at the same time expressionistically intense.

The leading problems of Thomas Mann's novels are the feeling of the fatal approach of death (the story "Death in Venice", the novel "The Magic Mountain"), the proximity of the infernal, other world(novels “The Magic Mountain”, “Doctor Faustus”), a premonition of the collapse of the old world order, a collapse leading to a breakdown human destinies and ideas about the world, a slight homoeroticism can often be traced in the features of the main characters (according to I. S. Kon, see the book “ Moonlight at dawn. Faces and masks..."). All these themes are often intertwined in Mann with the theme of fatal love. Perhaps this is due to the writer’s passion for psychoanalysis (the pair Eros - Thanatos).

Works

• Storybook / Der kleine Herr Friedemann, (1898)
• "Buddenbrooks" / "Buddenbrooks - Verfall einer Familie", (novel, (1901)
• "Tonio Kroeger" / "Tonio Kroger", short story, (1903)
• , (1902)
• "Tristan" / "Tristan", short story, (1903)
• "Royal Highness" / "Königliche Hoheit", (1909)
• "Death in Venice" / "Der Tod in Venedig", story, (1912)
• "Reflections of an Apolitical" / "Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen", (1918)
• "Magic Mountain" / "Der Zauberberg", novel, (1924)
• "Two" (Starving) / "Die Hungernden", stories (1927)
• "Culture and Socialism" / "Kultur und Sozialismus", (1929)
• "Mario and the Wizard" / "Mario und der Zauberer", story, (1930)
• / "Leiden und Größe Richard Wagners", essay, (1933)
• "Joseph and his brothers" / "Joseph und seine Brüder", novel-tetralogy, (1933-1943)
  • "Jacob's Past" / "Die Geschichten Jaakobs", (1933)
  • "Young Joseph" / "Der Junge Joseph", (1934)
  • "Joseph in Egypt" / "Joseph in Egypt", (1936)
  • "Joseph the Breadwinner" / "Joseph der Ernährer", (1943)
• "The Problem of Freedom" / "Das Problem der Freiheit", essay, (1937)
• "Lotte in Weimar" / "Lotte in Weimar", novel, (1939)
• “Exchanged heads. Indian legend" / "Die vertauschten Köpfe - Eine indische Legende", (1940)
• "Doctor Faustus" / "Doctor Faustus", novel, (1947)
• "The Chosen One" / "Der Erwählte", novel, (1951)
• "Black Swan" / "Die Betrogene: Erzählung", (1954)
• "Confessions of the adventurer Felix Krul" / "Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull", novel, (1922/1954)

Lists of works

• Hans Burgin: Das Werk Thomas Manns. Eine Bibliographie. unter Mitarbeit von Walter A. Reichert und Erich Neumann. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1959. (Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, ISBN 3-596-21470-X
• Georg Potempa: Thomas Mann-Bibliographie. Mitarbeit Gert Heine, Cicero Presse, Morsum/Sylt 1992, ISBN 3-89120-007-2.
• Hans-Peter Haack (Hrsg.): Erstausgaben Thomas Manns. Ein bibliographischer Atlas. Mitarbeit Sebastian Kiwitt. Antiquariat Dr. Haack, Leipzig 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-031653-1.

Translators into Russian

Film adaptations

• "Death in Venice" is a film by Luchino Visconti, filmed in 1971.
• "Doctor Faustus" ( Doctor Faustus), 1982, production: Germany (Germany), director: Franz Seitz.
• "Magic Mountain" ( Der Zauberberg), 1982, countries: Austria, France, Italy, Germany (Germany), director: Hans W. Geissendörfer.
• Buddenbrooks is a 2008 film by Henry Brelor.

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Notes

Links

	Thomas Mann in Wikiquote

• Mann, Thomas- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
• Solomon Apt// ZhZL
• L. Berenson.

Works Thomas Mann Novels Novels Stories Other works

Excerpt characterizing Mann, Thomas

The southern spring, the calm, quick journey in the Viennese carriage and the solitude of the road had a joyful effect on Pierre. There were estates that he had not yet visited - one more picturesque than the other; The people everywhere seemed prosperous and touchingly grateful for the benefits done to them. Everywhere there were meetings that, although they embarrassed Pierre, deep down in his soul evoked a joyful feeling. In one place, the peasants offered him bread and salt and an image of Peter and Paul, and asked permission in honor of his angel Peter and Paul, as a sign of love and gratitude for the good deeds he had done, to erect a new chapel in the church at their own expense. Elsewhere, women with infants met him, thanking him for saving him from hard work. At the third estate he was met by a priest with a cross, surrounded by children, whom, by the grace of the count, he taught literacy and religion. In all the estates, Pierre saw with his own eyes, according to the same plan, the stone buildings of hospitals, schools, and almshouses that were to be opened soon. Everywhere Pierre saw reports from managers about corvée work, reduced compared to the previous one, and heard for this the touching thanksgiving of deputations of peasants in blue caftans.
Pierre just didn’t know that where they brought him bread and salt and built the chapel of Peter and Paul, there was a trading village and a fair on Peter’s Day, that the chapel had already been built a long time ago by the rich peasants of the village, those who came to him, and that nine-tenths The peasants of this village were in the greatest ruin. He did not know that due to the fact that, on his orders, they stopped sending children of women with infants to corvee labor, these same children carried out the most difficult work in their half. He did not know that the priest who met him with the cross was burdening the peasants with his extortions, and that the disciples gathered to him with tears were given to him, and were bought off by their parents for a lot of money. He did not know that the stone buildings, according to the plan, were erected by their own workers and increased the corvee of the peasants, reduced only on paper. He did not know that where the manager indicated to him in the book that the quitrent was reduced by one third at his will, the corvée duty was added by half. And therefore Pierre was delighted with his journey through the estates, and completely returned to the philanthropic mood in which he left St. Petersburg, and wrote enthusiastic letters to his mentor brother, as he called the great master.
“How easy, how little effort is needed to do so much good, thought Pierre, and how little we care about it!”
He was happy with the gratitude shown to him, but was ashamed to accept it. This gratitude reminded him how much more he could have done for these simple, kind people.
The chief manager, a very stupid and cunning man, completely understanding the smart and naive count, and playing with him like a toy, seeing the effect produced on Pierre by the prepared techniques, more decisively turned to him with arguments about the impossibility and, most importantly, the unnecessaryness of the liberation of the peasants, who, even without They were completely happy.
Pierre secretly agreed with the manager that it was difficult to imagine happier people, and that God knows what awaited them in the wild; but Pierre, although reluctantly, insisted on what he considered fair. The manager promised to use all his strength to carry out the will of the count, clearly understanding that the count would never be able to trust him not only as to whether all measures had been taken to sell forests and estates, to redeem from the Council, but would also probably never ask or learns how the built buildings stand empty and the peasants continue to give with work and money everything that they give from others, that is, everything that they can give.

In the happiest state of mind, returning from his southern trip, Pierre fulfilled his long-standing intention to call on his friend Bolkonsky, whom he had not seen for two years.
Bogucharovo lay in an ugly, flat area, covered with fields and felled and uncut fir and birch forests. The manor's yard was located at the end of a straight line, along high road located in a village, behind a newly dug, full-filled pond, with the banks still not overgrown with grass, in the middle of a young forest, between which stood several large pines.
The manor's courtyard consisted of a threshing floor, outbuildings, stables, a bathhouse, an outbuilding and a large stone house with a semicircular pediment, which was still under construction. A young garden was planted around the house. The fences and gates were strong and new; under the canopy stood two fire pipes and a barrel painted green; the roads were straight, the bridges were strong with railings. Everything bore the imprint of neatness and thrift. The servants who met, when asked where the prince lived, pointed to a small, new outbuilding standing at the very edge of the pond. Prince Andrei's old uncle, Anton, dropped Pierre out of the carriage, said that the prince was at home, and led him into a clean, small hallway.
Pierre was struck by the modesty of the small, although clean, house after those brilliant conditions in which last time he saw his friend in St. Petersburg. He hurriedly entered the still pine-smelling, unplastered, small hall and wanted to move on, but Anton tiptoed forward and knocked on the door.
- Well, what's there? – a sharp, unpleasant voice was heard.
“Guest,” answered Anton.
“Ask me to wait,” and I heard a chair being pushed back. Pierre walked quickly to the door and came face to face with Prince Andrei, who was coming out to him, frowning and aged. Pierre hugged him and, raising his glasses, kissed him on the cheeks and looked at him closely.
“I didn’t expect it, I’m very glad,” said Prince Andrei. Pierre said nothing; He looked at his friend in surprise, without taking his eyes off. He was struck by the change that had taken place in Prince Andrei. The words were affectionate, a smile was on Prince Andrei’s lips and face, but his gaze was dull, dead, to which, despite his apparent desire, Prince Andrei could not give a joyful and cheerful shine. It’s not that his friend has lost weight, turned pale, and matured; but this look and the wrinkle on his forehead, expressing long concentration on one thing, amazed and alienated Pierre until he got used to them.
When meeting after a long separation, as always happens, the conversation could not stop for a long time; they asked and answered briefly about things that they themselves knew should have been discussed at length. Finally, the conversation began to dwell little by little on what had been said fragmentarily before, on questions about past life, about plans for the future, about Pierre's travels, about his activities, about the war, etc. That concentration and depression that Pierre noticed in the look of Prince Andrei was now expressed even more strongly in the smile with which he listened to Pierre, especially then when Pierre spoke with animated joy about the past or the future. It was as if Prince Andrei wanted, but could not, take part in what he said. Pierre began to feel that enthusiasm, dreams, hopes for happiness and goodness in front of Prince Andrei were not proper. He was ashamed to express all his new, Masonic thoughts, especially those renewed and aroused in him by his last trip. He restrained himself, was afraid to be naive; at the same time, he irresistibly wanted to quickly show his friend that he was now a completely different, better Pierre than the one who was in St. Petersburg.
“I can’t tell you how much I experienced during this time.” I wouldn't recognize myself.
“Yes, we have changed a lot, a lot since then,” said Prince Andrei.
- Well, what about you? - asked Pierre, - what are your plans?
- Plans? – Prince Andrey repeated ironically. - My plans? - he repeated, as if surprised at the meaning of such a word. - Yes, you see, I’m building, I want to move completely by next year...
Pierre silently peered intently into the aged face of (Prince) Andrei.
“No, I’m asking,” said Pierre, “but Prince Andrei interrupted him:
- What can I say about me... Tell me, tell me about your journey, about everything you did there on your estates?
Pierre began to talk about what he had done on his estates, trying as much as possible to hide his participation in the improvements made by him. Prince Andrei several times prompted Pierre ahead of what he was telling, as if everything that Pierre had done had happened a long time ago famous story, and listened not only not with interest, but even as if ashamed of what Pierre was telling.
Pierre felt awkward and even difficult in the company of his friend. He fell silent.
“But here’s what, my soul,” said Prince Andrei, who was obviously also having a hard time and shyness with his guest, “I’m here in bivouacs, and I came just to have a look.” I'm going back to my sister now. I'll introduce you to them. “Yes, you seem to know each other,” he said, obviously entertaining the guest with whom he now felt nothing in common. - We'll go after lunch. Now do you want to see my estate? “They went out and walked around until lunch, talking about political news and mutual acquaintances, like people who are not very close to each other. With some animation and interest, Prince Andrei spoke only about the new estate and building he was organizing, but even here, in the middle of the conversation, on the stage, when Prince Andrei was describing to Pierre the future location of the house, he suddenly stopped. “However, there’s nothing interesting here, let’s go have lunch and leave.” “At dinner the conversation turned to Pierre’s marriage.
“I was very surprised when I heard about this,” said Prince Andrei.
Pierre blushed the same way he always blushed at this, and hastily said:
“I’ll tell you someday how it all happened.” But you know that it's all over and forever.
- Forever? - said Prince Andrei. – Nothing happens forever.
– But do you know how it all ended? Have you heard about the duel?
- Yes, you went through that too.
“The one thing I thank God for is that I didn’t kill this man,” said Pierre.
- From what? - said Prince Andrei. – Kill angry dog very well.
- No, killing a person is not good, it’s unfair...
- Why is it unfair? - repeated Prince Andrei; what is just and unjust is not given to people to judge. People have always been mistaken and will continue to be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider just and unjust.
“It is unfair that there is evil for another person,” said Pierre, feeling with pleasure that for the first time since his arrival, Prince Andrei became animated and began to speak and wanted to express everything that made him what he was now.
– Who told you what evil is for another person? - he asked.
- Evil? Evil? - said Pierre, - we all know what evil is for ourselves.
“Yes, we know, but the evil that I know for myself, I cannot do to another person,” Prince Andrei said more and more animatedly, apparently wanting to express to Pierre his new view of things. He spoke French. Je ne connais l dans la vie que deux maux bien reels: c"est le remord et la maladie. II n"est de bien que l"absence de ces maux. [I know in life only two real misfortunes: remorse and illness. And the only good is the absence of these evils.] To live for yourself, avoiding only these two evils: that is all my wisdom now.
– What about love for one’s neighbor, and self-sacrifice? - Pierre spoke. - No, I cannot agree with you! To live only in such a way as not to do evil, so as not to repent? this is not enough. I lived like this, I lived for myself and ruined my life. And only now, when I live, at least try (Pierre corrected himself out of modesty) to live for others, only now I understand all the happiness of life. No, I don’t agree with you, and you don’t mean what you say.
Prince Andrei silently looked at Pierre and smiled mockingly.
“You’ll see your sister, Princess Marya.” You’ll get along with her,” he said. “Maybe you’re right for yourself,” he continued, after a short silence; - but everyone lives in their own way: you lived for yourself and you say that by doing this you almost ruined your life, and you only knew happiness when you began to live for others. But I experienced the opposite. I lived for fame. (After all, what is glory? the same love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praise.) So I lived for others, and not almost, but completely ruined my life. And since then I have become calmer, as I live only for myself.
- How can you live for yourself? – Pierre asked heatedly. - And the son, and the sister, and the father?
“Yes, it’s still the same me, it’s not others,” said Prince Andrei, and others, neighbors, le prochain, as you and Princess Marya call it, are main source error and evil. Le prochain [Neighbor] are those, your Kyiv men, to whom you want to do good.
And he looked at Pierre with a mockingly defiant gaze. He apparently called Pierre.
“You’re kidding,” Pierre said more and more animatedly. What kind of error and evil can there be in the fact that I wanted (very little and poorly fulfilled), but wanted to do good, and at least did something? What evil can it be that unfortunate people, our men, people just like us, growing up and dying without another concept of God and truth, like ritual and meaningless prayer, will be taught in comforting beliefs future life, retribution, rewards, consolation? What evil and delusion is it that people die from illness without help, when it is so easy to help them financially, and I will give them a doctor, and a hospital, and a shelter for the old man? And isn’t it a tangible, undoubted blessing that a man, a woman and a child have no rest day and night, and I will give them rest and leisure?...” said Pierre, hurrying and lisping. “And I did it, at least poorly, at least a little, but I did something for this, and not only will you not dissuade me that what I did was good, but you will also not disbelieve me, so that you yourself do not think so.” “And most importantly,” Pierre continued, “I know this, and I know it correctly, that the pleasure of doing this good is the only true happiness in life.
“Yes, if you put the question like that, then that’s a different matter,” said Prince Andrei. - I build a house, plant a garden, and you are a hospital. Both can serve as a pastime. And what is fair, what is good - leave it to the one who knows everything, and not to us, to judge. “Well, you want to argue,” he added, “come on.” “They left the table and sat on the porch, which served as a balcony.
“Well, let’s argue,” said Prince Andrei. “You say schools,” he continued, bending his finger, “teachings and so on, that is, you want to take him out of his animal state and give him moral needs,” he said, pointing to the man who took off his hat and walked past them. , but it seems to me that the only possible happiness is animal happiness, and you want to deprive it of it. I envy him, and you want to make him me, but without giving him my means. Another thing you say is to make his job easier. But in my opinion, physical labor is the same necessity for him, the same condition of his existence, as mental labor is for me and for you. You can't help but think. I go to bed at 3 o’clock, thoughts come to me, and I can’t sleep, I toss and turn, I don’t sleep until the morning because I’m thinking and I can’t help but think, just as he can’t help but plow and mow; otherwise he will go to the tavern, or he will become ill. How can I not bear his terrible physical labor, and I’ll die in a week, so he won’t tolerate my physical idleness, he’ll get fat and die. Third, what else did you say? – Prince Andrei bent his third finger.
- Oh, yes, hospitals, medicines. He has a stroke, he dies, and you bled him, cured him. He will be a cripple for 10 years, it will be a burden for everyone. It is much calmer and easier for him to die. Others will be born, and there are so many of them. If you were sorry that your extra worker was missing - the way I look at him, otherwise you want to treat him out of love for him. But he doesn't need that. And besides, what kind of imagination is there that medicine has ever cured anyone! Kill like that! - he said, frowning angrily and turning away from Pierre. Prince Andrei expressed his thoughts so clearly and distinctly that it was clear that he had thought about this more than once, and he spoke willingly and quickly, like a man who had not spoken for a long time. His gaze became more animated the more hopeless his judgments were.

Paul Thomas Mann (1875-1955) - German writer and essayist, recognized master of the epic novel, Nobel Prize laureate in literature. He was born on June 6, 1875 in Lübeck, ancient city in northern Germany. There were others in the Mann family famous personalities- brother of the prose writer Heinrich, his children Klaus and Erica. However, it was Paul who became the most prominent representative of this family.

Early years

The future master of epic paintings was born into the family of a wealthy merchant and city senator, Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann. Paul's mother, Julia da Silva-Bruns, was of Brazilian descent, she was talented singer, was interested in music.

The family also had two sons and two daughters. They never had problems with money; the children were raised in a comfortable and comfortable atmosphere. But this idyll did not last long.

WITH early age Mann showed himself as a writer. He helped create the literary and philosophical magazine " Spring thunderstorm", and later sent his articles to the publication "XX Century", founded by his brother Heinrich. After graduating from school, the writer gets a job at an insurance company, but does not forget about his passion for journalism.

In 1891, Thomas's father dies of cancer. In his will he demanded that the Manns' farm and house in Lübeck be sold. His children and wife had to be content with a percentage of the proceeds. After selling the farm, the family moved to Munich, where Paul lived until 1933. There was only one time, when he and his brother went to Italy for a while in the mid-90s.

After returning from Italy, Thomas works in the editorial office of the satirical magazine Simplicissimus. At the same time, he published his first collection of stories entitled “Little Mister Friedemann”.

But the prose writer’s real fame comes from his first novel, entitled “Buddenbrooks.” It was autobiographical in nature; the work told about the fate of a merchant family. The book was published in 1901. Not long after this, a collection of short stories was published, the best of which is “Tonio Kröger.”

In 1911, readers enthusiastically received the short story “Death in Venice” with a dramatic ending. In 1924, the novel “The Magic Mountain” was released, which finally cemented the author’s position in the world of literature. In 1929, the prose writer received the Nobel Prize for his novel about Buddenbrooks.

Marriage and moving

In 1905, Thomas married the professor’s daughter, Jewish Katya Pringsheim. In their marriage they had six children. Three of them later became writers. It was thanks to his marriage that Mann was able to enter the circles of the bourgeoisie. As a result, his conservative views became known to the general public.

The prose writer supported the First World War and sharply criticized paphicism and social reforms. He was going through a serious mental crisis and even dedicated several works to this topic. In 1918, the novel “Reflections of an Apolitical” was published, dedicated to reflections on the war.

Because of his ultra-conservative views, Mann had a falling out with his brother Heinrich. Only after Thomas realized he was wrong and went over to the side of democracy, they managed to make peace. The reason for such dramatic changes in views was the murder of the Minister of the Weimar Republic, Walter Rathenau, by nationalists. This greatly influenced the writer.

In 1933, together with his family, Mann emigrated from Nazi Germany. They settle in Zurich. At the same time, the first volume of his novel “Joseph and His Brothers” was published. In it, Paul interprets the story of a famous biblical character in his own way. Later, three more volumes of this work were published.

Connection with politics

The rulers of Germany tried to return the talented writer to the country, but he flatly refused. At that time, he and his wife traveled a lot and had no intention of returning to their hometown. After several unsuccessful attempts, the authorities took away Mann's German citizenship and doctorate from the University of Bonn. In 1949, his regalia was returned to him.

Against the backdrop of all these events, Thomas pays more and more attention to politics in his writings. At this time, the speech “To the Mind of Nations”, the poetic allegory “Mario and the Wizard” and other works were published. After renouncing German citizenship, the prose writer becomes a citizen of Czechoslovakia.

In 1938, he moved to America, earning a living by teaching at Princeton University. From 1941 to 1952, Thomas not only taught students the humanities, but also advised the Library of Congress on German literature. A year later, his novel “Lotte in Weimar” appears on bookshelves. In 1942, the Mann family moved to California. There, the writer conducts anti-fascist broadcasts for German radio listeners. In 1947, he published his own interpretation of the novel about Doctor Faustus, calling it Faustus.

After World War II, US government officials accused Thomas of collaborating with the USSR because of his socialist views. Because of this, in June 1952 the family returned to Switzerland. There they live until Mann's death, which occurred on August 12, 1955. The cause of his death was atherosclerosis.

German writer. Born on June 6, 1875 in Lübeck, into a family of wealthy businessmen that played a significant role in Lübeck and other Hanseatic cities in Northern Germany. Mann spent his childhood in Lübeck; he studied in Lübeck and Munich, where the family moved after the death of his father in 1891. As a university student, he independently and enthusiastically studied A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche and R. Wagner. After unsuccessful attempt To make a business career, Mann went to Italy in the mid-1890s, where he stayed for two and a half years, devoting them mainly to working on his first significant novel, Buddenbrooks (1901), which became a bestseller. Upon returning to Munich, Mann, until 1914, led a life common to the prosperous “apolitical” intellectuals of that time. Germany's role in World War I and its subsequent unpopularity abroad sparked Mann's interest in national and international politics. His Reflections of an Apolitical (Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, 1918), as well as short essays from the war, represent an attempt by a German conservative patriot to justify his country's position in the eyes of the democratic West. By the end of the war, Mann had moved closer to the Democratic position. After receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature (1929), he gained recognition throughout Europe and beyond. In the 1920s and early 1930s, the writer repeatedly warned his compatriots against the threat of Hitlerism; in 1933 his voluntary emigration began. Having become a US citizen in 1944, Mann decided not to return to Germany after the war, and a few years later he left the US and settled in Switzerland, in Kilchberg near Zurich. Last years his life was marked by new literary achievements. A few days before his death, which followed on August 12, 1955, he was awarded Germany's highest Order of Merit. Buddenbrooks is based on Mann's observations of his family, friends, and morals. hometown, behind the decline of a family belonging to the hereditary middle class. The book "Royal Highness" (1909), like all of Mann's works, in a certain sense autobiographical. Among the early short stories, “Tonio Kröger” (1903) and “Death in Venice” (1912) are especially noteworthy; Among the later short stories, “Mario and the Wizard” (1931) occupies an outstanding place, where it is about freedom. Perhaps the most important book Manna – novel of ideas “The Magic Mountain” (1924). The monumental tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers (1934–1944) is even more clearly oriented toward “friendliness to life” than The Magic Mountain. The novel Lotte in Weimar (1940) reflected Mann's growing interest in Goethe. This is the story of the second meeting of the aging Goethe with Charlotte Buff, who in his youth inspired him to write the book that brought him European fame - The Sorrows of Young Werther. For creative path Mann wrote a number of large and small essays, drawing themes from the cultural field before the First World War, then including the political sphere. A number of Mann's major essays are dedicated to the three idols of his youth - Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Wagner, as well as I.V. Goethe, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, F. Schiller, Z. Freud and others. His political essays are these are reflections on two world wars and the emergence of Hitlerism.

Thomas Mann is the most famous representative of the Mann family of writers. Outstanding German prose writer, author of "Buddenbrooks", "Death in Venice", "Mario and the Wizard", Nobel laureate 1929, he lived for eight decades, changed several ideologies, raised three talented writers and forever inscribed his name on the tablets of the history of world culture.

The German family of Manns has always been popular. In the 19th century, they were famous as successful merchants, senators, real kings of their hometown. In the twentieth century, they started talking about the Manns as outstanding writers. The elder Henry was actively published (author of the novels “In the Same Family,” “Empire,” “The Young Years of King Henry IV”), Thomas Mann basked in the laurels of worldwide fame, and his children Klaus, Golo and Erica were successfully published. Whatever these people did, they always achieved success. So the prose writer Thomas Mann can rightfully be called the best of the best.

His father Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann was a very wealthy entrepreneur, owner of several industries, an active social and political figure, holding a high position in the Senate. As biographer and translator of the prose writer Solomon Apt writes, Johan was “not just a famous businessman and respected father of the family, but one of the most famous and respected citizens, those who are called the fathers of the city.”

He was a dry, practical man. He saw his sons Heinrich, Thomas and Victor as worthy successors to the century-old company, which was created by his father. However, the children did not show any desire for entrepreneurship. The elder Henry was fond of literature, which provoked constant quarrels with his father. The anxiety of the head of the family regarding the heir is evidenced by the line in the will: “I ask my brother to influence my eldest son so that he does not take the wrong path that will lead him to misfortune.” Here Johann means literary path. Since the eldest son was already causing concern, special hopes were placed on the middle Thomas.

Shortly after writing his will, Senator Mann died of cancer. The company was sold and the large family lived quite successfully on substantial interest from the enterprise. Reality anticipated the fears of the dying father. Henry actually became a writer, but his beloved Thomas achieved even greater success in this field. And even the daughters Julia and Karla turned out to be far from their father’s practicality. The youngest Carla became an actress. Due to failures on stage and in personal life she committed suicide at age 29. The unbalanced, worried Yulia also took her own life two decades later.

On the degeneration of bourgeois society using the example of the decline of its own patriarchal family Thomas Mann will write in the novel Buddenbrooks. Published at the dawn of his creative career, this work brought Mann worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sleek childhood and carefree youth

The story of Paul Thomas Mann begins in Lübeck (Germany) in 1875. “I had a happy, well-groomed childhood,” the writer would later recall. It started in old house his grandmother on a narrow cobblestone street and continued in the elegant mansion that Johann built for his growing family.

Thomas had all the toys his little contemporary could dream of. The writer will remember some of them (the puppet theater, the rocking horse Achilles) in his works. But often young Mann had absolutely no need for toys, because more than anything else he loved to invent. For example, one morning he woke up and imagined himself as the crown prince of a distant power. All day long the boy behaved arrogantly and reservedly, as befits an august person, rejoicing in his soul that none of those around him knew about his secret.

Thomas disliked school with its dictatorial teachers, noisy classmates, and mindless cramming. Moreover, she distracted him from his beloved home. The same fate befell the gymnasium - Mann remained in the second year several times, without receiving a certificate of graduation. It is fundamentally important to understand that he was not burdened by his studies, but by the musty spirit of officialdom and drill that reigned in the Katarineum gymnasium, the one-sided learning process, the stupidity and philistine narrow-mindedness of many teachers, not excluding the director of the educational institution.

The future for high school student Mann was very vague. He was going to leave Lubeck, go travel, reflect, go on the search for himself that is characteristic of the “golden youth”. But everything changed when Wagner’s music burst into his life.

In 1882, Thomas Mann attended a concert where the music of Richard Wagner was played. It was she who became the driving force that awakened literary talent future prose writer. Now young Thomas knows - he will write!

Mann does not languish in anticipation of the muse, but begins to act. Already in his fifth year at the gymnasium, together with his comrades, Mann published the literary magazine “Spring Thunderstorm”, where young editors published their own prose, poetic and critical creations. When "The Thunderstorm" ceased its short existence, Mann began to publish on the pages of the periodical "Twentieth Century", which was headed by his brother Heinrich.

Several samples of the pen, signed under the pseudonym Paul Thomas, a small collection of stories - and Mann published a monumental work - the novel “Buddenbrooks”. The work began in 1896. It took 5 years to create it. In 1901, when "Buddenbrooks" with the subtitle "The Story of the Death of a Family" became available to the general public, Thomas Mann was talked about as outstanding writer modernity.

Almost 30 years later, in 1929, “Buddenbrooks” became the main basis for awarding the writer the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Committee’s formulation stated: “First of all, for great novel“Buddenbrooks,” which has become a classic of modern literature, whose popularity is constantly growing.”

At the beginning of the First World War, the Mann family (in 1905 Thomas married the professor’s daughter Katya Pringsheim) was part of high circles German bourgeoisie. This determined the fact that at first the writer adhered to conservative views and did not share the pacifism of many cultural figures, which he publicly stated in the collection of philosophical and journalistic articles “Reflections of an Apolitical.”

It is fundamentally important to understand that Mann supported Germany, not Nazism. The writer advocated for the preservation of the national identity of European cultures, primarily German - dearly beloved to his heart since early childhood. He was extremely displeased with the “American way of life” being imposed everywhere. The Entente, thus, becomes for the writer a kind of synonym for literature, culture, and civilization.

Over time, when Nazism showed its black face, and his beloved country dipped its hands up to the elbows in the blood of innocent victims, Thomas Mann could no longer justify Germany’s actions under any pretext. In 1930, he gave a public anti-fascist speech, “A Call to Reason,” in which he sharply criticized Nazism and encouraged resistance from the working class and liberals. The speech could not go unnoticed. It was no longer possible to remain in Germany. Fortunately, the Mann family was allowed to emigrate. In 1933, Mann moved to Zurich with his wife and children.

In exile: Switzerland, USA, Switzerland

Emigration did not break the spirit of Thomas Mann, because he still had the enormous privilege of continuing to write and publish in his native language. Thus, in Zurich, Mann finalizes and publishes the mythological tetralogy “Joseph and His Brothers.” In 1939, the novel “Lota in Weimar” was published - an artistic stylization of a fragment of the biography of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, namely his romantic attachment to Lotte (Charlotte Buff), which became the prototype female image"The Sorrows of Young Werther."

In 1947, Doctor Faustus was published, about the composer Adrian Leverkühn, who created a pastiche of his life into medieval history about Doctor Faustus, who sold his soul to Mephistopheles. The fictional world of Leverkühn is intertwined with the realities of modern reality - Nazi Germany, which is poisoned by the ideas of Nazism.

Payback for dissent

Mann never managed to return to his homeland. The Nazis stripped his entire family of German citizenship. Since then, the writer has been visiting Germany on visits as a lecturer, journalist, and literary consultant. Since 1938, at the invitation of the leadership of Princeton University, Mann moved to the USA, where he was engaged in teaching and writing activity.

In the 50s, the prose writer returned to Switzerland. Mann writes until his death. His sunset works were the short story “The Black Swan” and the novel “Confessions of the Adventurer Felix Krull.”

Homoeroticism as a representation of same-sex love was characteristic of a number of works by Thomas Mann. The most a shining example is the short story “Death in Venice,” written in 1912. The short story examines the suddenly flared up feeling of the writer Gustav von Aschenbach for the fourteen-year-old boy Tadzio.

The scandalous fame of "Death in Venice" led to increased attention to privacy Thomas Mann. An exemplary family man, the father of six children, did not compromise himself in public. The path to Mann's spiritual secrets lay through his diaries, which the writer regularly kept throughout his life. The records were destroyed several times and then immediately restored, were lost during unexpected emigration, but were returned to their rightful owner through legal proceedings.

After the death of the writer, his mental anxieties were repeatedly analyzed. It became known about his first innocent passions, intimate affection for his school friend Villeri Timpe (his gift was a simple wooden pencil– Mann kept his whole life), a youthful romance with the artist Paul Ehrenberg. According to Homo Mann (the writer's son), his father's homosexuality never went below the belt. But rich emotional experiences gave rise to images of his short stories and novels.

Another significant work of Thomas Mann is the novel “Death in Venice,” discussions and debates about which are still ongoing among critics and ordinary readers.

Undoubtedly, another unique book is Mann’s novel “The Magic Mountain,” in which the author depicted the life of people undergoing treatment in a mountain sanatorium, and not wanting to delve into the events happening outside the walls of the hospital.

Mann, in fact, knew how to feel more and more subtly. Without this skill there would be no poetic male images Hans Castorp from The Magic Mountain, Rudi Schwerdtferger from Doctor Faustus, Gustav Aschenbach from Death in Venice and many others. Digging into the sources of inspiration is the inglorious lot of contemporaries, chanting its fruits is a worthy privilege of descendants.

Biography of the German prose writer Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann biography short outlined in this article.

Thomas Mann biography briefly

Paul Thomas Mann was born June 6, 1875 in Lubeck, Germany. After his father's death in 1891 and the sale of the family firm, the family moved to Munich, where Thomas lived until 1933.

After graduating from school, Thomas gets a job at an insurance company and engages in journalism, intending to follow the example of his brother Heinrich, at that time an aspiring writer. During 1898-1899. T. Mann edits the satirical magazine Simplicissimus. The first publication dates back to this time - a collection of stories “Little Mister Friedemann”. The first novel is “Buddenbrooks” (1901), which tells about the fate merchant dynasty and was autobiographical in nature - made Mann a famous writer.

In 1905, Mann married Katya Pringsheim, a noble Jewish woman, the daughter of a mathematics professor, who became the mother of his six children.

T. Mann supported the First World War, condemned social reforms and pacifism, experiencing a serious spiritual crisis at that time. A huge difference in beliefs caused a break with his brother Henry, and only Thomas's transition to a democratic position made reconciliation possible. In 1924, the novel “The Magic Mountain” was published, which brought T. Mann world fame. In 1929, thanks to “Buddenbrooks,” he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 1933, the writer and his family emigrated from Nazi Germany and settled in Zurich. In the same year, the first volume of his tetralogy novel “Joseph and His Brothers” was published. The German authorities attempted to return the eminent writer to the country, and in response to his categorical refusal, they deprived him of German citizenship and took away an honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn. Having first become a subject of Czechoslovakia, in 1938 Mann left for the United States, where he made a living teaching at Princeton University. In 1939, the novel “Lotte in Weimar” was published.

In 1942, he moved to the city of Pacific Palisades and conducted anti-fascist broadcasts for German radio listeners. And in 1947 his novel “Doctor Faustus” was published.

In 1949, on behalf of both Germanys, he was awarded the Goethe Prize (in addition, Mann was awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford).