In what city was thomas mann born. Biography

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

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

The political evolution of Mann. New works

Mann's marriage contributed to the entry of the writer 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 a short story "Death in Venice" - about the sudden outbreak of love of an elderly Munich writer Gustav Aschenbach, who went on vacation to Venice, to a 14-year-old boy.

This position led to a break with brother Heinrich, who had opposing (left-democratic and anti-war) views. Reconciliation between the brothers came only after the assassination by the nationalists in 1922 of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Weimar Republic, Walter Rathenau: Thomas Mann revised 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 in it the “Jewish spirit”, provoked a scandal by scattering tear gas grenades in the hall, Thomas Mann, at that time a correspondent for the New York agency "Dyel", reacted to this action sympathetically. “Munich popular conservatism,” he wrote in the third of his Letters from Germany, “turned out to be on the alert. He does not tolerate Bolshevik art."

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

Emigration

In the last years of his life, he actively published - in the th the novel The Chosen One appears, in the th - his last short story The Black Swan. And at the same time, Mann continues to work on the novel “Confessions of the Adventurer Felix Krul”, which was started even before the First World War. (German)Russian(published unfinished), - about modern Dorian Gray, who, possessing talent, intelligence and beauty, nevertheless chose to become a fraudster 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 cited the Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky as his teachers; the detailed, detailed, unhurried style of writing the writer really inherited 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, are expressionistically heated.

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 (the novels "The Magic Mountain", "Doctor Faustus"), a premonition of the collapse of the old world order, the collapse, leading to the breaking of human destinies and ideas about the world, often a slight homoeroticism can 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).

Artworks

• Storybook / Der kleine Herr Friedemann, (1898)
• "Buddenbrooks" / "Buddenbrooks - Verfall einer Familie", (novel, (1901)
• "Tonio Kroeger" / "Tonio Kröger", 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» / culture and socialism, (1929)
• "Mario and the Wizard" / "Mario und der Zauberer", short story, (1930)
• / "Leiden and Größe Richard Wagners", essay, (1933)
• "Joseph and his brothers" / "Joseph und seine Brüder", novel-tetralogy, (1933-1943)
  • "The Past of Jacob" / 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)
• "Lotta 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 Erwahlte", novel, (1951)
• "Black Swan" / "Die Betrogene: Erzählung", (1954)
• "Confessions of an adventurer Felix Krul" / "Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull", novel, (1922/1954)

Job listings

• Hans Burgin: Das Werk Thomas Manns. Eine Bibliography. 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.

Russian translators

Screen adaptations

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

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Notes

Links

	Thomas Mann at Wikiquote

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

Artworks Thomas Mann Novels Novels stories Other works

Excerpt characterizing Mann, Thomas

The southern spring, the calm, quick journey in a Viennese carriage and the solitude of the road had a joyful effect on Pierre. The estates that he had not yet visited were - one more picturesque than the other; the people everywhere seemed prosperous and touchingly grateful for the good deeds done to them. There were meetings everywhere, which, although they embarrassed Pierre, but in the depths of his soul evoked a joyful feeling. In one place, the peasants brought him bread, salt and the image of Peter and Paul, and asked permission in honor of his angel Peter and Paul, as a token 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 babies met him, thanking him for getting rid of hard work. In the third estate, he was met by a priest with a cross, surrounded by children, whom he, by the grace of the count, taught literacy and religion. In all the estates, Pierre saw with his own eyes, according to one plan, the stone buildings of hospitals, schools, almshouses, which were supposed to be opened soon, erected and erected already. Everywhere Pierre saw the reports of the administrators about corvée work, reduced against the previous one, and heard the touching thanksgiving of deputations of peasants in blue caftans for this.
Pierre just did not know that where they brought him bread and salt and built a chapel of Peter and Paul, there was a trading village and a fair on Peter's Day, that the chapel had already been built long ago by the rich peasants of the village, those who came to him, and that nine 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 babies to corvée, these same children carried the most difficult work in their quarters. He did not know that the priest, who met him with a cross, weighed down the peasants with his requisitions, and that the disciples gathered to him with tears were given to him, and were paid 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 workers and increased the corvée of the peasants, reduced only on paper. He did not know that where the steward pointed out to him, according to the book, that the dues should be reduced by one third at his will, the corvée service 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 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 he was ashamed when he accepted it. This gratitude reminded him of how much more he would have been able to do for these simple, kind people.
The chief manager, a very stupid and cunning person, completely understanding the smart and naive count, and playing with him like a toy, seeing the effect produced on Pierre by prepared methods, more decisively turned to him with arguments about the impossibility and, most importantly, the uselessness of freeing the peasants, who, even without they were completely happy.
Pierre, in the secret of his soul, agreed with the manager that it was difficult to imagine people happier, and that God knows what awaited them in the wild; but Pierre, though reluctantly, insisted on what he thought was just. The manager promised to use all his strength to carry out the will of the count, clearly realizing that the count would never be able to believe him, not only whether all measures had been taken to sell forests and estates, to ransom him from the Council, but he would probably never ask and not learns how the buildings that have been built stand empty and the peasants continue to give with work and money everything that they give from others, i.e., everything that they can give.

In the happiest state of mind, returning from his southern journey, 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 spruce and birch forests. The manor's yard was at the end of a straight line, along the main road of the village, behind a newly dug, full-filled pond, with banks not yet overgrown with grass, in the middle of a young forest, between which stood several large pines.
The manor's yard 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 a shed stood two fire chimneys and a barrel painted green; the roads were straight, the bridges were strong with railings. On everything lay the imprint of accuracy and thrift. When asked where the prince lived, the courtyards pointed to a small, new outhouse, standing at the very edge of the pond. Prince Andrei's old uncle, Anton, let Pierre out of the carriage, said that the prince was at home, and escorted him to a clean, small entrance hall.
Pierre was struck by the modesty of a small, albeit clean, house after those brilliant conditions in which he last saw his friend in Petersburg. He hurriedly entered the small hall, still smelling of pine, not plastered, and wanted to go further, but Anton ran forward on tiptoe and knocked on the door.
- Well, what is there? - I heard a sharp, unpleasant voice.
“Guest,” answered Anton.
“Ask me to wait,” and a chair was pushed back. Pierre walked quickly to the door and came face to face with Prince Andrei, frowning and aging, coming out to him. 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 did not say anything; he stared at his friend in astonishment, not taking his eyes off him. He was struck by the change that had taken place in Prince Andrei. The words were affectionate, there was a smile on the lips and face of Prince Andrei, but his eyes were dead, dead, to which, despite his apparent desire, Prince Andrei could not give a joyful and cheerful sheen. Not that he lost weight, turned pale, his friend matured; but this look and the wrinkle on the forehead, expressing a 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 such things, about which they themselves knew that it was necessary to talk at a long time. Finally, the conversation began to stop little by little on what was previously said in fragments, on questions about the past life, about plans for the future, about Pierre's journey, about his studies, about the war, etc. That concentration and deadness, which Pierre noticed in the eyes of Prince Andrei, now expressed even more strongly in the smile with which he listened to Pierre, especially when Pierre spoke with animation of joy about the past or the future. As if Prince Andrei would have wished, but could not take part in what he was saying. Pierre began to feel that enthusiasm, dreams, hopes for happiness and goodness were not decent before Prince Andrei. He was ashamed to express all his new, Masonic thoughts, especially those renewed and aroused in him by his last journey. He restrained himself, was afraid to be naive; at the same time, he irresistibly wanted to quickly show his friend that he was now completely different, better Pierre than the one who was in Petersburg.
“I can’t tell you how much I have experienced during this time. I wouldn't recognize myself.
“Yes, we have changed a lot, a lot since then,” said Prince Andrei.
- Well, and you? - asked Pierre, - what are your plans?
– Plans? Prince Andrei ironically repeated. - My plans? he repeated, as if wondering at the meaning of such a word. - Yes, you see, I’m building, I want to move completely by next year ...
Pierre silently, intently peered 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 that 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 in advance what he was telling, as if everything that Pierre did was a long-known story, and listened not only not with interest, but even as if ashamed of what Pierre was telling.
Pierre became embarrassed and even hard in the company of his friend. He fell silent.
- And here's what, my soul, - said Prince Andrei, who was obviously also hard and shy with the guest, - I'm here in bivouacs, and I came only to look. Today I'm going back to my sister. I will 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 leave after lunch. And now you want to see my estate? - They went out and walked until dinner, talking about political news and mutual acquaintances, like people who are not close to each other. With some animation and interest, Prince Andrei spoke only about the new estate and building he was arranging, 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 is nothing interesting here, let's go to dinner and go. - At dinner, the conversation turned to the marriage of Pierre.
“I was very surprised when I heard about this,” said Prince Andrei.
Pierre blushed just as 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 and ever? - said Prince Andrew. “Nothing happens forever.
But do you know how it all ended? Have you heard of the duel?
Yes, you've been through that too.
“One thing I thank God for is that I didn’t kill this man,” said Pierre.
- From what? - said Prince Andrew. “Killing an evil dog is even very good.
“No, it’s not good to kill a person, it’s unfair…
- Why is it unfair? repeated Prince Andrei; what is fair and unfair is not given to people to judge. People have always been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider just and unjust.
“It’s unfair that there is evil for another person,” said Pierre, feeling with pleasure that for the first time since his arrival, Prince Andrei revived and began to speak and wanted to express everything that made him what he was now.
– And 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 his new view of things to Pierre. 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 only two real misfortunes in life: this is remorse and disease. And the only good is the absence of these evils.] To live for oneself, avoiding only these two evils: that is all my wisdom now.
What about love for one's neighbor, and self-sacrifice? Pierre spoke up. No, I can't 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 I try (Pierre corrected myself out of modesty) to live for others, only now I understand all the happiness of life. No, I do not agree with you, and you do not think what you say.
Prince Andrei silently looked at Pierre and smiled mockingly.
- Here you will see your sister, Princess Marya. You will get along with her,” he said. “Perhaps you are right for yourself,” he continued, after a pause; - but everyone lives in his own way: you lived for yourself and you say that you almost ruined your life by doing this, and you only knew happiness when you began to live for others. And I experienced the opposite. I lived for fame. (After all, what is fame? 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 for myself alone.
- But how to live for oneself? Pierre asked excitedly. “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 Mary call it, this is the main source of delusion and evil. Le prochain [Middle] are those, your Kyiv men, to whom you want to do good.
And he looked at Pierre with a mockingly defiant look. He apparently called Pierre.
“You are joking,” Pierre said more and more animatedly. What error and evil can there be in the fact that I wanted (I did very little and badly), but I wanted to do good, and even did something? What evil can it be that unfortunate people, our peasants, people just like us, growing up and dying without another concept of God and truth, like a ritual and meaningless prayer, will learn in the comforting beliefs of a future life, retribution, rewards, consolation? What is the evil and delusion in the fact 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 an old man? And isn’t it a tangible, undoubted blessing that a peasant, a woman with a child do not have day and night of peace, and I will give them rest and leisure? ... - said Pierre, hurrying and lisping. “And I did it, albeit badly, at least a little, but I did something for this, and you not only won’t disbelieve me that what I did is good, but you won’t disbelieve me that you yourself don’t think so. And most importantly, - continued Pierre, - this is what I know and know for sure, that the pleasure of doing this good is the only true happiness of life.
- Yes, if you put the question like that, then this is another matter, said Prince Andrei. - I build a house, plant a garden, and you are hospitals. 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 down on the porch that served as a balcony.
“Well, let’s argue,” said Prince Andrei. “You are talking schools,” he continued, bending his finger, “teachings and so on, that is, you want to take him out,” he said, pointing to the peasant who took off his hat and passed them, “out of his animal state and give him moral needs , but it seems to me that the only possible happiness is animal happiness, and you want to deprive him of it. I envy him, and you want to make him me, but without giving him my means. You say something else: make his work easier. And in my opinion, physical labor for him is the same necessity, the same condition for his existence, as mental labor is for me and for you. You can't stop thinking. I go to bed at 3 o'clock, thoughts come to me, and I can't fall asleep, I toss and turn, I don't sleep until the morning because I think and I can't help but think, how he can't help plowing, not mow; otherwise he will go to a tavern, or he will become ill. Just as I will not endure his terrible physical labor, and die in a week, so he will not endure my physical idleness, he will grow fat and die. Third, what else did you say? - Prince Andrei bent the third finger.
“Oh yes, hospitals, medicines. He has a stroke, he is dying, and you bled him, cured him. He will walk like a cripple for 10 years, it will be a burden to everyone. 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 gone - as I look at him, otherwise you want to treat him out of love for him. And he doesn't need it. And besides, what kind of imagination is it that medicine has ever cured anyone! Kill like this! he said, frowning angrily and turning away from Pierre. Prince Andrei expressed his thoughts so clearly and distinctly that it was evident that he thought about it more than once, and he spoke willingly and quickly, like a man who had not spoken for a long time. His gaze became the more animated, the more hopeless his judgments were.

Thomas Mann is an immortal German writer. In 1929 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mann is one of the members of a dynasty of famous authors.

The future master novelist was born in the summer, June 6, 1875, in Lübeck. The boy's family was rich and did not need anything. Children grew up in prosperity, did not know worries. The head of the family - Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann - worked in the Senate. Mother's name was Julia Mann. She was musically educated. The woman had Brazilians in her ancestors.

In addition to Thomas, the family brought up two brothers and two sisters. The elder Heinrich Mann also became an honorary writer. Thomas Sr. passed away in 1891. The farm has been sold.

In the same year, the mother and children moved to Munich. For some time, Thomas and Heinrich lived in Italy, but then returned to Munich again. The essayist stayed there until 1933.

Literature

Mann showed interest in writing while still in Lübeck. Then he created the magazine "Spring Thunderstorm", where he published early sketches. Then he wrote publications in Heinrich's journal "Twentieth Century". From 1898 to 1899 he edited the magazine Simplicissimus. Then he completed military service and, upon returning, published his debut short stories. From that moment came the literary biography of Thomas Mann.

In 1901, the writer presented the first full-fledged novel "Buddenbrooks", which brought fame. The story of a prosperous family became the center of the plot in the book. The actions of family members led to the decline and disappearance of a glorious dynasty. The modern generation did not attach importance to the old traditions and did not continue the work of their fathers. As a result, there was a loss of the meaning of life and a series of deaths in the family.

Following The Buddenbrooks, Thomas published a collection of short stories called Tristan. The best composition of the collection was "Tonio Kröger". The hero of the story abandoned the romantic feelings that once brought him pain and confusion, and devoted himself to the service of art. But, when Hans Hansen and Ingerborg Holm appeared on the young man's life path, for whom Tonio had feelings, he again plunged into a whirlpool of experiences.

In 1905, Thomas married a girl from a professor's family. This contributed to the entry of the writer into the circle of the bourgeoisie. At the same time, the conservative views of the writer were strengthened. The essayist began his subsequent novel, Royal Highness, in 1906 and finished in 1909.

In 1911 he published the novel Death in Venice. The essay described the story of the writer Gustav Aschenbach, who suddenly fell in love with a young man of fourteen. During the First World War, the author supported the fighting.

This position led to a quarrel with an older brother who adhered to completely opposite political aspects. They reconciled only in 1922. Thomas changed his political outlook and spoke out against fascism.

In 1924, the author's essay "Magic Mountain" was published. The hero of the book, Hans Castorp, came to visit his cousin, who fell ill with tuberculosis, in a sanatorium. It so happened that Hans was also ill. The people at the top fascinated the young man with intelligence and the life of intellectuals. As a result, Hans stayed in a medical institution for several years. There he developed his philosophy and became the center of spirituality.

In 1929, Mann's debut work, The Buddenbrooks, was duly appreciated and earned the Nobel Prize. In 1930, Thomas Mann gave a sentimental speech calling for unity against Nazism. He was imbued with the ideas of the left.

In 1933, the writer immigrated to Zurich with his wife and children. There he worked on a collection of writings about Joseph. The writer interpreted the life path of the character of the Pentateuch in his own way. He even traveled to Palestine and Egypt to collect data.

In 1936, Mann's German citizenship was taken away. As a result, he became a resident and citizen of Czechoslovakia. Two years later, the creator moved to the United States and studied with students at Princeton. In 1939, he published the book Lotta in Weimar, where he described his relationship with Charlotte Kestner.

In 1942, Mann moved to the Pacific Palisades. There he hosted anti-fascist programs for German listeners. In 1947, readers saw Thomas' novel Doctor Faustus. The hero of the publication lived his fate, but in the 20th century.

After the end of World War II, Mann was accused of helping the Soviet Union. In 1952, the writer returned to Switzerland. In parallel, he visited Germany, but did not want to go there for permanent residence.

In 1951, he published the novel The Chosen One, and in 1954, the short story The Black Swan. At the same time, he continued to work on "Confessions of the Adventurer Felix Krul", which he began even before the events of the First World War.

The novel was released unfinished. In the book, the hero became a modern one, who, despite his attractiveness and quick wit, became interested in scams and turned into a monster.

Films have been made based on some of the writer's books. In 1971, the film "Death in Venice" was released. In 1982, the audience saw two paintings at once: "Doctor Faustus" and "Magic Mountain". And in 2008, Henry Brelor filmed The Buddenbrooks.

Personal life

In 1905, Mann married Katya Pringsheim. The wife gave her beloved husband six children. Three - Erica, Klaus and Golo - followed in their father's footsteps and became writers.

Katya had Jewish roots. Information about this was carefully hidden from children. This became known from the memoirs of the second son Golo.

Death

The writer died on August 12, 1955. Doctors diagnosed the cause of death as a dissection of the abdominal aorta. Buried in Kilchberg.

After the death of the novelist, diaries were found in which the writer expressed thoughts about a romantic attitude towards men. From the records it followed that Mann was interested in men. He was even in a relationship with the artist Paul Ehrenberg. The connection between men ceased after Thomas married Katya Mann.

Mann's wife was buried next to her husband.

Bibliography

• 1901 - "Buddenbrooks"
• 1903 - "Tonio Kroeger"
• 1909 - "Royal Highness"
• 1912 - "Death in Venice"
• 1922-1954 - "Confessions of the adventurer Felix Krul"
• 1924 - "Magic Mountain"
• 1930 - "Mario and the Magician"
• 1933 - "The Suffering and Greatness of Richard Wagner"
• 1933-1943 - "Joseph and his brothers"
• 1937 - "The Problem of Freedom"
• 1939 - "Lotta in Weimar"
• 1940 - “Exchanged heads. Indian legend"
• 1947 - "Doctor Faustus"
• 1951 - "The Chosen One"
• 1954 - Black Swan

Paul Thomas Mann, the most famous representative of his family, rich in famous writers, was born on June 6, 1875 in the family of a wealthy Lübeck merchant Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann, who served as a city senator. Thomas' mother, Julia Mann, née da Silva-Bruns, came from a family with Brazilian roots. The Mann family was quite numerous. Thomas had two brothers and two sisters: an older brother, the famous writer Heinrich Mann (1871-1950), a younger brother Viktor (1890-1949) and two sisters Julia (1877-1927, suicide) and Carla (1881-1910, suicide) . The Mann family was prosperous, and Thomas Mann's childhood was carefree and almost cloudless.

In 1891, Thomas's father dies of cancer. According to his will, the family firm and the Mann house in Lübeck are sold. The children and wife had to be content with a percentage of the proceeds.

Beginning of a writing career

After the death of their father in 1891 and the sale of the family firm, the family moved to Munich, where Thomas lived (with short interruptions) until 1933. In the mid-1890s, Thomas and Heinrich left for Italy for a while, where they lived for two years in Palestrina. However, back in Lübeck, Mann began to show himself in the literary field, as the creator and author of the literary and philosophical journal "Spring Thunderstorm", and later wrote articles for the journal "XX Century" published by his brother Heinrich Mann. Upon his return from Italy, Mann did not work for long (1898-1899) as the editor of the popular German satirical magazine Simplicissimus, did a year's military service and published his first short stories.

However, fame comes to Mann when, in 1901, the first novel, Buddenbrooks, is published. In this novel, based on the history of his own family, Mannor tells the story of the decline and degeneration of a merchant dynasty from Lübeck. Each new generation of this family is less and less able to continue the work of their fathers due to the lack of inherent burgher qualities, such as thrift, diligence and commitment, and more and more moves away from the real world into religion, philosophy, music, vices, luxury and depravity. . The result of this is not only a gradual loss of interest in commerce and the prestige of the Buddenbrock family, but also the loss of not only the meaning of life, but also the will to live, which turns into ridiculous and tragic deaths of the last representatives of this family.

The Buddenbrocks were followed by the publication of an equally successful collection of short stories called Tristan, the best of which was the short story Tonio Kroeger. The protagonist of this novel renounces love as something that brings him pain and devotes himself to art, however, having accidentally met Hans Gansenoa and Ingerborg Holm - two opposite-sex objects of his unrequited feelings, he again experiences the same confusion that once enveloped him during look at them.

In 1905, Thomas Mann marries the professor's daughter Katya Pringsheim (German: Katharina "Katia" Hedwig Pringsheim). From this marriage they had six children, three of whom - Erica, Klaus and Golo - subsequently proved themselves in the literary field.

The political evolution of Mann. New works

Mann's marriage contributed to the entry of the writer into the circles of the big bourgeoisie, and this largely strengthened Mann's political conservatism, which for the time being did not manifest itself in public. In 1911, the short story Death in Venice was born about the lust of the elderly Munich artist Gustav Aschenbach, who went on vacation to Venice to see an unknown boy named Tadzio, ending with the death of the artist in Venice.

During the First World War, Mann spoke out in support of it, as well as against pacifism and social reforms, as evidenced by his articles, which were later included in the collection Reflections of the Apolitical, and this position leads to a break with brother Heinrich, who advocated opposite goals. Reconciliation between the brothers came only when, after the assassination by the nationalists of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Weimar Republic, Walther Rathenau, Thomas Mann revised his views and began to advocate democracy and even socialism.

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In 1924, Thomas Mann's new major and successful work, The Magic Mountain, comes out after the Buddenbrocks. The protagonist, a young engineer Hans Castorp, comes to visit his cousin Joachim Zimsen, who is ill with tuberculosis, for three weeks and becomes a patient of this sanatorium himself.

In 1929, Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Buddenbrooks.

Emigration

In 1933, the writer emigrated from Nazi Germany with his family and settled in Zurich. In the same year, the first volume of his tetralogy novel Joseph and his brothers was published, where Mann interprets the story of the biblical Joseph in his own way.

In 1936, after unsuccessful attempts to persuade Mann to return to Germany, the Nazi authorities deprive Mann and his family of German citizenship and the writer becomes a citizen of Czechoslovakia, and in 1938 the writer moves to the United States, where he earns a living as a teacher at Princeton University. In 1939, the novel Lotta in Weimar was published, describing the relationship between the aged Goethe and his youthful love Charlotte Kestner, who became the prototype of the heroine of the Suffering of young Werther, who met the poet again many years later.

In 1942, he moved to the city of Pacific Palisades and broadcast anti-fascist programs for German radio listeners. And in 1947, his novel Doctor Faustus was born, the main character of which largely repeats the path of Faust, despite the fact that the action of the novel takes place in the 20th century.

Return to Europe

After the Second World War, the situation in the United States takes on an increasingly less favorable character for Mann: the writer begins to be accused of complicity with the USSR.

In June 1952, the Thomas Mann family returned to Switzerland. Despite the unwillingness to move to a divided country for good, Mann nevertheless willingly visits Germany (in 1949, as part of a visit to the celebration of Goethe's anniversary, he manages to visit both the FRG and the GDR).

In the last years of his life, he was actively published - in 1951 the novel The Chosen One appeared, in 1954 the last short story The Black Swan appeared, and at the same time Mann continues the novel Confessions of the Adventurer Felix Krul (published unfinished), which tells about modern Dorian Gray, which he started before the First World War , who, having talent, intelligence and beauty, nevertheless chose to become a fraudster and, with the help of his scams, began to rapidly climb the social ladder, gradually losing his human appearance and turning into a monster.

writing style

Mann is a master of intellectual prose. He called the Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky his teachers; the detailed, detailed, unhurried style of writing the writer really inherited 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, are expressionistically heated.

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 (the novels "The Magic Mountain", "Doctor Faustus"), a premonition of the collapse of the old world order, the collapse, leading to the breaking of human destinies and ideas about the world, often a slight homoeroticism can be traced in the features of the main characters. 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).

German writer. Born June 6, 1875 in Lübeck, in a family of wealthy merchants, who played a significant role in Lübeck and other Hanseatic cities in Northern Germany. Mann's childhood passed 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 an unsuccessful attempt at 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 the first significant novel, The Buddenbrooks (1901), which became a bestseller. Upon his return to Munich, Mann until 1914 led the life usual for 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 Meditations of the Apolitical (Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, 1918), as well as short wartime essays, are 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 moved closer to the Democratic positions. After receiving the Nobel Prize in 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 United States and settled in Switzerland, in Kilchberg near Zurich. The last years of his life were 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. The Buddenbrooks are based on Mann's observations of his family, friends, the customs of his native city, the decline of a family belonging to a hereditary middle class. The book "Royal Highness" (1909), like all the works of Mann, is in a certain sense autobiographical. Among the early novels, Tonio Kröger (1903) and Death in Venice (1912) are especially noteworthy; Mario and the Magician (1931), which deals with freedom, occupies an outstanding place among later novels. Perhaps Mann's most important book is The Magic Mountain (1924), a novel of ideas. The monumental tetralogy "Joseph and his brothers" (1934–1944), even more clearly than the Magic Mountain, is oriented towards "friendliness to life". The novel Lotta in Weimar (1940) reflected Mann's growing interest in Goethe. This is a story about 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 Sufferings of Young Werther. Throughout his creative career, Mann wrote a number of large and small essays, drawing on topics in the field of culture until the First World War, then connecting the sphere of politics. A number of major essays by Mann are devoted to 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 - it is a reflection on the two world wars and the rise of Hitlerism.

Thomas Mann is an outstanding German writer, author of epic paintings, Nobel Prize winner in literature, the most eminent representative of the Mann family, rich in creative talents. Born June 6, 1875 in Lübeck. At the age of 16, Thomas finds himself in Munich: the family moves there after the death of his father, a merchant and city senator. In this city he will live until 1933.

After graduating from school, Thomas gets a job in an insurance company and is engaged 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 short stories "Little Mr. Friedeman". The first novel - "Buddenbrooks", which tells about the fate of the merchant dynasty and was autobiographical in nature - made Mann a famous writer.

In 1905, an important event took place in Mann's personal life - his marriage to Katya Pringsheim, a noble Jewish woman, the daughter of a mathematics professor, who became the mother of his six children. Such a party allowed the writer to become a member of the society of representatives of the big bourgeoisie, which contributed to the strengthening of the conservativeness of his political views.

T. Mann supported the First World War, condemned social reforms and pacifism, while experiencing a serious spiritual crisis at that time. A huge difference in beliefs caused a break with Henry, and only the transition of Thomas to the position of democracy made reconciliation possible. In 1924, the novel "Magic Mountain" was published, which brought T. Mann world fame. In 1929, thanks to the Buddenbrooks, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The period of Thomas Mann's biography following the award is marked by an increase in the role of politics in his life and in his work in particular. The writer and his wife did not return to Nazi Germany from Switzerland when Hitler came to power in 1933. Having settled not far from Zurich, they spend a lot of time traveling. The German authorities made attempts 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 citizen of Czechoslovakia, Mann emigrated to the United States in 1938, where for three years he taught humanities at Princeton University and advised the Library of Congress on German literature. During 1941-1952. his life path is connected with California.

After the end of World War II, life in the United States was complicated by the fact that T. Mann, who was fond of the ideas of socialism, was accused of complicity with the Soviet Union. In East and West Germany, he is met extremely cordially, but the writer decides not to return to his homeland that has turned into two camps. In 1949, on behalf of both Germanys, he was awarded the Goethe Prize (in addition, Mann was awarded honorary degrees from Cambridge and Oxford universities).

The most significant works of art of this period are the novel "Doctor Faustus" and the tetralogy "Joseph and his brothers", on which he worked for more than ten years. The last novel, The Adventures of the Adventurer Felix Krul, remained unfinished.

In the summer of 1952, T. Mann and his family came to Switzerland and lived there until his death in 1955.