Join us for the opening of our exhibition
Thomas Mann: Democracy Will Win! featuring a keynote address by
Mark Lilla titled "Thomas Mann: Artist in Democracy." Please register to attend - proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required, and attendees must wear a mask.
Register Here
About the exhibition
Intellectuals, scientists, and artists bear a special responsibility in a democracy. Their observations, counter-designs, exaggerations, or warnings are an indispensable part of the social debate. "It is a terrible spectacle when the irrational becomes popular," said German writer and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann in 1943 in his famous speech at the Library of Congress. How he countered this is of inspiring topicality. For today we are witnessing that the fundamental values of democracy are once again being called into question, that populism and nationalism are putting our democratic society under massive pressure. The exhibition Thomas Mann: Democracy will win! is intended as a concrete contribution to the current debate on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades forms the spatial and metaphorical center of the exhibition. The world-famous writer promoted a new understanding of democracy from his desk in California. Today, the Los Angeles house is once again at the service of intellectual exchange and transatlantic understanding.
Schedule of events
6:00 - Doors Open
6:20 - Greeting from David Gill, German Consulate New York
6:30 - Keynote by Mark Lilla: "Thomas Mann: Artist in Democracy"
Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities, specializes in intellectual history, with a particular focus on Western political and religious thought. Before transferring to Columbia University in 2007 he taught at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and at New York University. A regular contributor to the
New York Review of Books, he is the author of
The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics (2017),
The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction (2016),
The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007),
The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics (2001),and G.B. Vico:
The Making of an Anti-Modern (1993). He has also edited
The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin (2001) with Ronald Dworkin and Robert Silvers, and
The Public Face of Architecture (1987) with Nathan Glazer. He is currently writing a book titled
Ignorance and Bliss, and another on the history of the idea of conversion.
COVID Policy
In order to protect our staff and guests, we are limiting capacity to 50 guests. Proof of vaccination will be required for admission, and you will be required to wear your mask at all times while in our event space.
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