Thomas Mann
(1875-1955) was a German writer
Heinrich Mann
(1871-1950) was a German writer
Thomas and Heinrich were brothers. While they were
young, they were close, although there was also some rivalry between them.
When World War One began in 1914, the two brothers
responded in different ways.
Thomas was a conservative. He supported the war. He
said every German citizen must support the German government and the German
Empire.
Heinrich, on the other hand, was a liberal. He was opposed to the war. He
said the war was wrong and spoke out against it.
The two brothers disagreed with each other. The
conflict was so intense that they did not talk to each other. For a long time,
they could not even be in the same room.
During the war, Thomas worked on a long essay which was
published in September 1918, shortly before the armistice of November 1918, which
ended the war.
In this essay, Thomas tries to defend his position
from 1914. He says Germany has culture and civilization, while France has no
culture and no civilization.
When the war was
over, Thomas realised that it had been a horrible experience - not only for
Germany but also for France. He began to doubt his own point of view.
Perhaps he had been wrong in 1914? Perhaps his brother
Heinrich had been right the whole time?
He began to change his point of view. The
transformation from conservative to liberal was very slow. It took four years.
But in 1922, he was finally ready to accept the Weimar Republic and the democratic
system which had been created in 1918.
When this happened, the two brothers were able to
reconcile. They were friends again.
In the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party
were becoming more and more important, Heinrich used strong words to denounce
the Nazis. The Nazis noticed him. He was regarded as an enemy.
Thomas did not like the Nazis, but he did not speak
out against them in the same way as his brother did.
In January 1933, when Hitler and the Nazi party came
to power, Thomas and his wife Katia went into exile.
His brother Heinrich also left Germany. He knew he had
to get out. He knew he was regarded as an enemy.
In May 1933, when German students who supported the
Nazis organised a ceremony in which books were burned, Heinrich was one of the
writers whose books were thrown into the fire. His German citizenship was
cancelled.
In 1933, while Thomas was outside Germany, he did not
speak out against the Nazis.
His six children were still in Germany. He did not
want to say or do anything to provoke them to arrest his children. He was still
hoping that the Nazis would allow his books to be sold and read in Germany.
In 1933, the children managed to leave Germany.
The family was united in exile.
In Germany, the situation became worse and worse. In
1936, Thomas wrote a statement in which he denounced the Nazis.
His statement
was published in a foreign newspaper. When the Nazis read it, they were
furious. Now his German citizenship was cancelled.
Heinrich saw the danger of the Nazis before his
brother Thomas and he spoke out against them before his brother Thomas.
In 1939, Thomas and his wife moved to the US. Heinrich
and his wife Nelly joined them in 1940.
During World War Two, Thomas recorded several
statements in German. They were handed to the British radio station BBC which
broadcast them in Europe.
From his exile in the US, Thomas appealed to the citizens of Nazi Germany:
** Do not support the Nazis!
** They are criminals!
** They are going to lose the
war!
In the US, Thomas was regarded as the good German. In
the US, he was doing quite well. He was able to continue his career as a
writer.
He was quite well-known in the US, because most of his
books had been translated into English before the war began in 1939.
But one essay had not been translated into English and
Thomas said this essay should not be translated as long as he was alive. Which
essay was this?
The essay which had been published in German in September
1918. The essay in which he tries to defend the German war against France. He
realised that this essay did not make him look good.
An English translation of this essay would damage his
reputation in the US.
He never disowned this essay, but he made sure it was not translated into English in his lifetime. As long as it was only available in German, it was
almost forgotten and almost no American was able to read it and find out what
he had written during World War One.
His brother Heinrich was not doing well in the US. He
was not known in the US. His books were not translated into English.
In
addition, his political point of view was on the left wing of the political spectrum. It was too much for most
Americans.
Heinrich had no friends in the US. He had no job. He
had no income. He had to rely on his brother who offered him financial
assistance.
Heinrich's wife Nelly was also a cause for concern.
She was drinking and driving.
When she was stopped by the police, her driver's
license was suspended, but she kept on driving. She was stopped again, this
time for driving without a licence. In 1944, she killed herself by taking an overdose of
pills.
Heinrich died in the US in 1950.
In 1952, Thomas and his wife returned to Europe. They visited West Germany and East Germany, but Thomas did not want to live in Germany again. He decided to live in Switzerland. He died in Zürich
in 1955.
His wife Katia remained in Switzerland.She lived as a widow for many years. She died in 1980.
PS. The embarrassing essay of 1918 was published in
English in 1983. It was translated by Walter D. Morris. The English title is: Reflections of a Nonpolitical
Man.
REFERENCES
Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man
The Brothers Mann – and Nelly by Adam Kirsh
*****
The German writer
Thomas Mann
(1875-1955)
*****
The German writer
Heinrich Mann
(1871-1950)
*****
