150 Years of Thomas Mann

Literature
150 years of Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann was one of Germany's most important writers, a Nobel Prize winner and political commentator. He left behind an enduring literary legacy. On the occasion of his 150th birthday, we take a look at his life and work.

Thomas Mann 1916, portrait at desk, colored

Celebrating 150 years of Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann Revisited

Why is Thomas Mann still regarded today as one of the most important German storytellers of the 20th century? Literary scholar and Thomas Mann expert Friedhelm Marx offers insights into the life and legacy of this iconic author.

Friedhelm Marx

Even America feels today that democracy is not an assured possession, that it has enemies, that it is threatened from within and from without, that it has once more become a problem. America is aware that the time has come for democracy to take stock of itself, for recollection and restatement and conscious consideration, in a word, for its renewal in thought and feeling.

Thomas Mann, 1938

Film Streaming

“Lotte in Weimar”

How do Thomas Mann’s characters come across on the big screen? Stream the film “Lotte in Weimar” free of charge right here! In this film adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novel, Lotte travels to Weimar to reunite with her young love, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Will they rekindle the feelings they once shared?

Film still from “Death in Venice” by Luchino Visconti (Björn Andresen and Dirk Bogarde)

Between two Worlds
Bourgeois and Artist Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann grappled with it his entire life – this inner tension between bourgeois existence and his calling as an artist. We explore a conflict that shaped his literary work more than anything else.

Gina Arzdorf

For beginners
Reading tips for the “Magic Mountain”

Thomas Mann’s novel “The Magic Mountain” has the reputation of being a book for “true intellectuals”. It need not be quite so daunting, however: we have some tips for the less scholarly inclined and for Thomas Mann novices determined to give this literary classic a chance.

Hernán D. Caro

Mann's life
Nobel laureate in literature and “late” democrat

Thomas Mann wrote great literature all his life. Almost three decades after the publication of "Buddenbrooks", the writer received the Nobel Prize for Literature for his debut novel on 10th December 1929.

Stefanie Grossmann

Katia Mann with her children Klaus, Erika, Golo and Monika (1916)

The Buddenbrooks Family Affairs

In the summer of 1900, Thomas Mann sent a handwritten copy of Buddenbrooks to the publisher Samuel Fischer. Małgorzata Łukasiewicz takes a close look at this work and deciphers it to uncover Mann’s ideas.

Małgorzata Łukasiewicz

Mann and Kafka An interrupted round of golf

Thomas Mann never met Franz Kafka, but he was an avid reader of his works. How, then, did Mann discover Kafka, how did he interpret him, and what role did an interrupted round of golf have in it all? Find out in this article by writer and philosopher Grzegorz Jankowicz.

Grzegorz Jankowicz

Anti-fascist Radio Addresses 1940–1945
Thomas Mann’s "Listen, Germany!"

From 1940 to 1945, Mann appealed directly to the German public in a series of anti-Nazi radio addresses, "Deutsche Hörer!" (Listen, Germany!). In moving philosophical counternarratives, Mann wages a war on the airwaves against Hitler, Goebbels, and the Nazis — in his own “German” voice — “the voice of a friend.”

Jeffrey L. High

Elaine Chen

Photo: dark birds in front of a light backgroundmonstrators protest in New York against the Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The inscription on their protest signs refers to a quote by the writer Thomas Mann against the war

Position
Thomas Mann and the struggle against the enemies of freedom

For democracy to triumph, it must fight, declared Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann over 80 years ago. Even today, merely invoking the values of tolerance and freedom is not enough.

Rainer Hank

The Magic Mountain
A trick of self-development

Theodor W. Adorno recommended that readers of Thomas Mann's novel should forego the arduous task of deciphering the symbols and instead read the work three times. The author Katarzyna Trzeciak writes about why it is worth considering this suggestion.

Dr. Katarzyna Trzeciak

Reading experience
“The Magic Mountain” as bedtime reading

The Polish literary critic Justyna Sobolewska describes how she sinks into the plot of the novel “The Magic Mountain”.

Justyna Sobolewska

Spotify Playlist
„Thomas Mann’s favorite records“

The American music critic and author Alex Ross has published a list of the music titles that Thomas Mann called “his favourite records“ in the Saturday Review of Literature in 1948. Listen to recent recordings of these works here!

Illustrations of Mann's novel characters: (from left) Felix Krull, Hans Castorp, Sesemi Weichbrod, Imma Spoelmann

Psychological test
Which Thomas Mann novel character are you?

Impostors, dreamers, unconventional free spirits and crazy dogs. There are many exciting characters in Thomas Mann's novels. Which character are you? Find out with our psychological test.

Marta Krus

Bea Davies

Graphic in shades of grey, showing a drawing by Thomas Mann on the left and a section of a world map in the remaining part of the image. In North America and Europe, Thomas Mann's places of residence (Lübeck, Munich, Zurich, Princeton and Los Angeles) are labelled and lines indicate the route Thomas Mann took from one place to another.

Slideshow
At home with Thomas Mann

From Lübeck to Los Angeles: Thomas Mann’s life story took him from Europe to the USA and back again. Our slideshow gives you an insight into the many different places where the Mann family lived.

Jonas Radunz

A reading from the margins of Europe's literary playing field
Thomas Mann's echo in Latin America

Though Thomas Mann’s works may appear distant from the Latin American context, they were studied with great care by writers such as Carlos Fuentes, Julieta Campos, and Blas Matamoros. For them, Mann’s texts served as inspiration, provocation, and a vital point of reference.

Ricardo Roa

You might also be interested in

Global Thomas Mann Event Calendar

The “Mann 2025” website is the global platform for festivities and critical reflections on Thomas Mann’s enduring literary and political legacy.

Literature 150 years of Thomas Mann

Celebrating 150 years of Thomas Mann Thomas Mann Revisited

“Lotte in Weimar”

Between two Worlds Bourgeois and Artist Thomas Mann

For beginners Reading tips for the “Magic Mountain”

Mann's life Nobel laureate in literature and “late” democrat

The Buddenbrooks Family Affairs

Mann and Kafka An interrupted round of golf

Anti-fascist Radio Addresses 1940–1945 Thomas Mann’s "Listen, Germany!"

Position Thomas Mann and the struggle against the enemies of freedom

The Magic Mountain A trick of self-development

Reading experience “The Magic Mountain” as bedtime reading

Spotify Playlist „Thomas Mann’s favorite records“

Psychological test Which Thomas Mann novel character are you?

Slideshow At home with Thomas Mann

A reading from the margins of Europe's literary playing field Thomas Mann's echo in Latin America