Thomas Mann works list. Biography of Thomas Mann

Paul Thomas Mann (1875-1955) - German writer and essayist, recognized master of the epic novel, laureate Nobel Prize in the field of literature. He was born on the sixth of June 1875 in Lübeck, an 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 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, 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 on bookshelves his novel “Lotte in Weimar” appears. 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.

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 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, occupying 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 still great success Beloved Thomas achieved 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 her personal life, she committed suicide at the age of 29. The unbalanced, worried Yulia also took her own life two decades later.

Thomas Mann will write about the degeneration of bourgeois society, using the example of the decline of his own patriarchal family, in the novel “Buddenbrooks.” Published at the dawn of it 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 began in his grandmother's ancient house 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. About some of them ( puppet theater, rocking horse Achilles) the writer will remember 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 repeated the second year several times without receiving a certificate of completion educational institution. 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 one driving force, which awakened the literary talent of the 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 be published on the pages periodical"Twentieth Century", led 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. In the wording Nobel Committee said: “First of all, for great novel"Buddenbrooks", which became a classic 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 the highest circles of the 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 national identity European cultures, primarily German - dearly beloved to his heart with 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 on 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"Suffering 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 - fascist 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.

Scandalous fame"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; they were lost during an unexpected emigration, but after trial returned to the rightful owner.

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 it all his life) youth novel with 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.

One more meaningful work Thomas Mann's novel “Death in Venice”, discussions and debates about which still do not cease 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

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 an 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. 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. Buddenbrooks is based on Mann's observations of his family, friends, the morals of his hometown, and 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 we're talking about 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 whole line large and small essays, before the First World War, drawing on themes in the field of culture, then including the sphere of politics. 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 a German writer, essayist, master of the epic novel, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1929), brother of Heinrich Mann, father of Klaus Mann, Golo Mann and Erica Mann.

Thomas, the most famous member of his family, a wealthy famous writers, was born on June 6, 1875 in the family of a wealthy Lübeck merchant, Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann, who served as city senator. Thomas's mother, Julia Mann, née da Silva-Bruns, came from a family with Brazilian roots. The Mann family was quite large. Thomas had two brothers and two sisters: older brother Heinrich (1871-1950), younger brother Victor (1890-1949) and two sisters - Julia (1877-1927) and Karla (1881-1910).

The Mann family was wealthy, and Thomas's childhood was carefree and almost cloudless. In 1891, Thomas's father dies of cancer. According to his will, the family company and the Mann house in Lübeck are sold. The children and wife had to be content with a percentage of the proceeds. The family moved to Munich, where Thomas lived (with short breaks) until 1933. In the mid-1890s, Thomas and Heinrich went to Italy for a while. However, even in Lübeck, Thomas began to show himself in literary field as the creator and author of the literary and philosophical magazine “Spring Thunderstorm”, and later wrote articles for the magazine “XX Century” published by his brother Heinrich.

Upon returning from Italy, Thomas worked briefly (1898-1899) as editor of the popular German satirical magazine Simplicissimus, completed a year of army service and published his first short stories.

However, fame came to Thomas Mann when his first novel, Buddenbrooks, was published in 1901. In this novel, which was based on the history of his own family, Thomas describes the history of the decline and degeneration of the 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 their inherent burgher qualities, such as thrift, diligence and commitment - and more and more moves away from real world into religion, philosophy, music, vices, luxury and debauchery. The result of this is not only a gradual loss of interest in commerce and the prestige of the Buddenbrook family, but also a loss of the meaning of life, the will to live, turning into absurd and tragic deaths last representatives of this kind.

The Buddenbrooks were followed by the publication of an equally successful collection of short stories called Tristan, the best of which was the short story Tonio Kröger. The main character of this short story renounces love as something that brings him pain and devotes himself to art, but having accidentally met Hans Hansen and Ingeborg Holm - two opposite-sex objects of his unrequited feelings - he again experiences the same confusion that once gripped him when looking at them.

In 1905, Thomas married the professor's daughter Katya Pringsheim. From this marriage they had six children, three of whom - Klaus, Golo and Erica - subsequently showed themselves in the literary field. According to Golo Mann, Jewish origin the mother carefully hid it from the children. The marriage contributed to Thomas'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, the short story “Death in Venice” appeared - about the lust of the elderly Munich writer Gustav Aschenbach, who went on vacation to Venice, for an unknown boy named Tadzio he saw there, ending in the death of the artist in Venice.

During the First World War, Thomas 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 an Apolitical.” This position leads to a break with his brother Henry, who had opposing views. Reconciliation between the brothers came only when, after the assassination of the Weimar Republic Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau by nationalists

Thomas reconsidered his views and began to advocate democracy and even socialism. In 1924, Thomas Mann’s new major and successful work, “The Magic Mountain,” after “Buddenbrooks,” was published. The main character, a young engineer Hans Castorp, comes to visit his tuberculosis patient for three weeks. cousin Joachim Ziemssen himself becomes a patient of this sanatorium, where he spends seven years of spiritual apprenticeship and maturation.

In 1933, Thomas Mann emigrated with his family from Nazi Germany and settled in Zurich. In the same year, the first volume of his tetralogy novel “Joseph and His Brothers” was published, where he interprets the story of the biblical Joseph in his own way. In 1936, after unsuccessful attempts to persuade Thomas to return to Germany, the Nazi authorities deprived him and his family of German citizenship, and he became a subject of Czechoslovakia, and in 1938 he left for the United States, where he made a living teaching at Princeton University.

In 1939, the novel “Lotte in Weimar” was published, describing the relationship between the aged Johann Wolfgang Goethe and his youthful love Charlotte Kästner, who became the prototype of the heroine of “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, who met the poet again many years later.

In 1942, Thomas moved to Pacific Palisades and conducted anti-fascist broadcasts for German radio listeners. In 1947, his novel Doctor Faustus was published. main character which largely follows the path of Faust, despite the fact that the novel takes place in the 20th century. There are no two Germanys, good and evil... Evil Germany is the good one, which has taken the wrong path, fallen into trouble, mired in crimes and is now facing a catastrophe. That is why it is impossible for a person born German to completely renounce evil Germany, burdened with historical guilt, and declare: “I am a good, noble, just Germany; look, I'm wearing a snow-white dress. And I give the evil one to you to be torn to pieces.”

After World War II, the situation in the United States took on an increasingly less favorable character for Thomas Mann: the writer began to be accused of collaborating with the USSR. In June 1952, Thomas's family returned to Switzerland. Despite his reluctance to move to a divided country permanently, he nevertheless willingly visits Germany (in 1949, as part of the celebration of Goethe’s anniversary, he managed to visit both the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR).

IN last years Throughout his life, he actively published: in 1951 the novel “The Chosen One” appeared, in 1954 - his last short story “The Black Swan”. And then Thomas continues to work on the novel “Confessions of the Adventurer Felix Krull”, which he began before the First World War - about the modern Dorian Gray, who, possessing talent, intelligence and beauty, chose to become a swindler and, with the help of his scams, began to rapidly climb the social ladder, losing human form and turning into a monster. Thomas Mann died on August 12, 1955 in Zurich from atherosclerosis.

Thomas Mann was born on June 6, 1875 in Lübeck, northern Germany, into the family of a wealthy merchant. But in 1891, his father died, and his shipping company went bankrupt.

When Thomas was 16 years old, his family moved to Munich. Here future writer worked in an insurance company and was engaged in journalism. After some time, he became an editor at a satirical weekly and began trying to write books.

In 1901, Mann's first novel, Buddenbrooks, was published. In 1903, the short story “Tonio Kroeger” was published. These works were a great success.

In 1905, Mann married Katya Pringsheim, the daughter of a prominent mathematician, a descendant of an old Jewish family of bankers and merchants. They had six children, three girls and three boys.

Thomas Mann and his wife Katja Pringsheim. Photo 1929

In 1913, the short story “Death in Venice” was published. During First World War Mann authored the book Discourses of the Apolitical (1918). In this work, he criticized liberal optimism and opposed rationalistic Enlightenment philosophy.

After the war, Mann again took up literary activity. In 1924, the novel “The Magic Mountain” was created.

Literary Nobel. Thomas Mann

In 1929, Mann received the Nobel Prize for Literature “primarily for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has become a classic of modern literature and whose popularity is steadily increasing.”

After receiving the Nobel Prize, Mann began to pay a lot of attention to politics. He advocated the creation of a common front of socialist workers and bourgeois liberals to fight against the Nazi threat. In 1930 it was created political allegory"Mario and the Wizard" Mann was a sharp critic of the Nazis.

When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Mann and his wife, who were in Switzerland at the time, decided not to return home. In 1938 they moved to the United States. For about three years, Mann lectured in the humanities at Princeton University, from 1941 to 1952. he lived with his wife in California.

In 1936, Mann was stripped by the Nazis of his German citizenship and his honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn (awarded to him in 1919). But in 1949, at the end of World War II, the honorary degree was returned to him.

For many years (1933-1943) Mann worked on a tetralogy about biblical Joseph. In 1939, the novel “Lotte in Weimar” (1939) was created, in 1947 – “Doctor Faustus”, in 1954 – “The Adventures of the Adventurer Felix Krul”.

In 1949 Mann received the Goethe Prize. This prize was awarded to him jointly by Western and East Germany. In addition, he held honorary degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Mann loved his wife, but marriage could not save him from homosexual desires that haunted the writer all his life.