Thomas Mann was born in Lübeck. He was son of a wealthy father, who had been elected twice as the burgomaster of Lübeck. His mother, Bruhn da Silva, came from German-Portugese-Creole family.

Mann's father died in 1891 and his trading firm was dissolved. The family moved to Munich. Mann was educated at the Lübeck gymnasium and he spent also some time at the University of Munich. Mann worked with the south German Fire Insrance Company in Munich (1894-95). His career as a writer started in the magazine Simplicissimus. Mann's first book, DER KLEINE HERR FRIEDMANN, was published in 1898.

During these years Mann became immersed in the writings of the philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche as well as in the music of composer Richard Wagner. In Buddenbrooks, Mann's early masterpiece, he used the technique of the leitmotif, which he adapted from the music of Wagner. Mann had started the book in 1897 as a story about one member of the family, but during the writing process it enlarged into a saga of a wealthy family, which declines from strenght to decadence. The book gained immediate success.

In 1902 Mann published the novella TONIO KRÖGER, a spiritual autobiography exploring art and discipline. He married in 1905 Katja Pringsheim, the daughter of a wealthy Munich family, and they had a total six children over the ensuing years. During World War I Mann supported Kaiser's policy and attacked liberalism.

After ten years of work Mann completed his second major work, DER ZAUBERBERG (The Magic Mountain, 1924), which won him the Nobel Prize. It depicted again a fight between liberal and conservative values, conglict of light and dark, enlightened civilized world and nonrational beliefs, Dionysian barbarism. Hans Castorp, the protagonist, goes to the elegant tuberculosis sanatorium in Davos, to visit his cousin. Castorp is not really ill, but he stays for a period of seven years. Two men struggle for his soul, Settembrini, an Italian humanist, and Naptha, who speaks of blind and irrational faith. Naptha kills himself. Clawdia Chauchat, whom Castorp loves, leaves, and Castorp yearns her deeply. She returns with her lover and Castorp leaves the sanatorium to join the army at the outbreak of the war.

Mann's next major work was the trilogy JOSEPH UND SEINE BRÜBER (1933-42), which was based on Genesis 12-50. The first volume recounts the early history of Jacob, and introduces then Joseph, the centran character. He is sold to the Egypt, where he refuses Potiphar's advandes and gains her enmity. During the story Joseph develops into a wise man and the saviour of his people.

On Hitler's accession Mann moved to Switzerland, and settled finally in the United States in 1936, where he worked among others at the Univeristy of Princeton. In 1941 he moved to Santa Monica, California.

Mann lived in the US some ten years. In this time he wrote DOKTOR FAUSTUS, the story of composer Adrian Lewerkühn and the progressive destruction of German culture in the two World Wars. (Faust theme / Pact with the Devil, see J.W. Goethe.)

In 1947 Mann returned to Europe, living mostly in Switzerland, near Zürich, where he died on August 12, 1955.

Mann has also written essays on such persons as J.W. von Goethe, Anton Chechov, Friedrich von Schiller, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud.

SEE ALSO: Elias Canetti, Abraham Polonsky, W.H. Auden who was married to Thomas Mann's daughter. Brother Heinrich Mann was also a noted writer. - Klaus Mann, his son, published several novels, among them KINDERNOVELE (1926), FLUCHT IN DEN NORDEN (Pako pohjoiseen, 1934), MEPHISTO (Mefisto, 1936), DER VULKAN (1939). His autobiography THE TURNING POINT (1942), appeared in Germany in 1952. Klaus Mann was born in Munich. He worked as a theatre critic, actor and journalist. In the 1930s he emigrated in the United States, becoming US citizen in 1943. From 1939 he wrote mostly in English. Klaus Mann died in Cannes. His restless life ended in suicide.

For further reading: Thomas Mann: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Henry Hatfield (1964); Essays on Thomas Mann by G. Lucàcs (1965); Thomas Mann by J.P. Stern (1967); Thomas Mann by Ignace Feuerlicht (1968); Thomas Mann by H. Bürgin and H-O. Mayer (1969); Thomas Mann: The Devil's Advocate by T.E. Apter (1979); The Borthers Mann by N. Hamilton (1979); Thomas Mann by E. Heller (1979); Thomas Mann by M. Swales (1980); The Ironic German by Erich Heller (1981); Thomas Mann by Richard Winston (1981); Thomas Mann and His Family ny M. Reich-Ranicki (1989); Thomas Mann by M.P.A Travers (1992); Thomas Mann: A Life by Donald Prater (1995)

Selected works

• BUDDENBROOKS, 1901 - film 1959, dir. by Alfred Weidenmann
• TONIO KRÖGER, 1903
• TRISTAN, 1903
• KÖNIGLICHE HOHEIT, 1909
• DER TOD IN VENEDIG, 1912 - Death in Venice - film 1971, dir. by Luchino Visconti
• FRIEDRICH UND DIE GROSSE KOALITION, 1915
• BETRACHTUNG EINES UNPOLITISCHEN, 1918
• HERR UND HUND, 1919
• REDE UND ANTWORT, 922
• DER ZAUBERBERG, 1924 - The Magic Mountain film 1982. dir. by Hans W. Geissendörfer
• BEMÜHUNGEN, 1925
• UNORDNUNG UND FRÜHES LEID, 1926 - Early Sorrow
• VON DEUTSCHER REPUBLIK, 1926
• Three Essays, 1929
• DIE FORDERUNG DES TAGES, 1930
• MARIO UND DER ZAUBERER, 1930 - Mario and the Magician
• Past Masters and Other Essays, 1933
• Tetralogy JOSEPH UND SEINE BRÜDER, 1933-43 - Joseph and his Brothers - vol. 1: DIE GESCHICHTEN JAAKOBS - Joseph and his Brothers - DER JUNGE JOSEPH - Young Joseph - JOSEPH IN ÅGYPTEN - Joseph in Egypt DER ERNÄHRER - Joseph the Provider
• LEIDEN UND GRÖSSE DER MEISTER, 1935
• Freud, Goethe, Wagner, 1937
• DIESER FRIEDE, 1938 - This Peace
• ACHTUNG, EUROPA!, 1938
• LOTTE IN WEIMAR, 1939 - The Beloved Returnsfilm 1975, dir by Egon Günter
• DIE VERTAUSCHTEN KÖPFE, 1940
• DIESER KRIEG, 1940 - This War
• Order of the Day, 1942
• DAS GESETZ, 1944 - The Tables of the Law
• DEUTSCHE HÖRER, 1942 - Listen, Germany!
• DOKTOR FAUSTUS, 1947 - Doctor Faustus - film 1982. dir. by Franz Seitz
• Essays of Three Decades, 1947
• NEUE STUDIEN, 1948
• DIE ENTSTEHUNG DES DOKTOR FAUSTUS, 1949 - The Genesis of a Novel
• The Thomas Mann Reader, 1950
• DER ERWÄHLTE, 1951 - The Holy Sinner
• DIE BETROGENE, 1953 - The Black Swan
• DIE BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRUSS, 1954 - Felix Krull - film1957, dir. by Kurt Hoffmann
• VERSUCH ÜBER SCHILLER, 1955
• NACHLESE, 1956
• ALTES UND NEUES, 1956
• Last Essays, 1959
• Letters to Paul Amann, 1960
• Stories of a Lifetime, 1961 (2 vols.)
• WAAGNER UND UNSERE ZEIT, 1963
• Addresses Delivered at the Library of Congress, 1963
• ÜBER DEUTSCHE LITERATUR, 1968
• Letters of Thomas Mann 1889-1955, 1970
• GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1974 (14 vols.)
• The Hesse-Mann Letters, 1975
• An Exeptional Friendship, 1975
• The Correspondece of Thomas Mann and Karl Kerenyi, 1975
• GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1980-90 (13 vols.)
• DIARIES 1918-1939, 1982
• GOETHES LAUFBAHN ALS SCHRIFTSTELLER, 1982
• ESSAYS, 1993 (5 vols. in progress)