Thomas Mann

Paul Thomas Mann (born 6 June 1875 in Lübeck; died 12 August 1955 in Zürich) was a German author.

Mann was born in 1875, in Lübeck as son of a salesman and senator of the city of Lübeck, into a rich and conservative family. In 1891, his father died. In 1894 Mann left school. He went to Munich, were his mother and his brothers and sister had been since 1893. He worked as an insurance salesman and wrote poems and prose.

In 1898, he published his first works and began Die Buddenbrooks influenced by work of Arthur Schopenhauer, published in 1901. In 1906 he married, although he was not clear about his sexual orientation. In the World War I, Mann agreed with the war, but not enthusiastically. In the time of the Weimar Republic he defended democratic ideas.

In 1929 he won the Nobel Prize for literature. In 1933 the Nazis burned books of his brother Heinrich Mann. Because of this both Thomas and Heinrich and their family moved to the United States in 1934. He lost his German citizenship, but got Czechoslovakian citizenship in the United States. In 1944, he became a US citizen.

He worked for the Allies in the radio during the World War II. In 1952, he had to give a talk to the Committee on Un-American Activities. He was very disappointed in the United States and returned to Europe, to Switzerland, in 1953. In the 1950s he visited Germany sometimes. He died of atherosclerosis in Zürich, Switzerland.

Works

Novels

Buddenbrooks - Verfall einer Familie (1901)
Königliche Hoheit (1909)
Der Zauberberg (1924)
Joseph und seine Brüder – Tetralogie (1933-1943)
- Die Geschichten Jaakobs (1933)
- Der junge Joseph (1934)
- Joseph in Ägypten (1936)
- Joseph der Ernährer (1943)
Lotte in Weimar (1939)
Doktor Faustus (1947)
Der Erwählte (1951)
Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull (1954)

Short stories and short novels

Vision. Prosa-Skizze, 1893
Gefallen, 1894
Der Wille zum Glück, 1896
Enttäuschung, 1896
Der Tod, 1897
Der kleine Herr Friedemann, 1897
Der Bajazzo, 1897
Tobias Mindernickel, 1898
Der Kleiderschrank, 1899
Gerächt. Novellistische Studie, 1899
Luischen, 1900
Der Weg zum Friedhof, 1900
Gladius Dei, Novelle 1902
Tonio Kröger, Novelle 1903
Tristan, Novelle 1903
Die Hungernden, 1903
Das Wunderkind, 1903
Ein Glück, 1904
Beim Propheten, 1904
Schwere Stunde, 1905
Anekdote, 1908
Das Eisenbahnunglück, 1909
Wie Jappe und Do Escobar sich prügelten, 1911
Der Tod in Venedig, 1912
Herr und Hund. Ein Idyll, 1918
Gesang vom Kindchen. Ein Idyll, 1919
Wälsungenblut, 1921
Unordnung und frühes Leid, 1926
Mario und der Zauberer, 1930
Die vertauschten Köpfe - Eine indische Legende, 1940
Das Gesetz, 1944
Die Betrogene, 1953

Dramas

Fiorenza

Essays

Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, 1918
Das Problem der Freiheit, 1937
Versuch über Schiller, 1955
Über Goethe

Related pages

Death in Venice (opera)