Thomas Mann

Paul Thomas Mann (born 6 June 1875 in Lübeck; died 12 August 1955 in Zürich) was a German author.

Mann was born in 1875, in Lübeck as son of a salesman and senator of the city of Lübeck, into a rich and conservative family. In 1891, his father died. In 1894 Mann left school. He went to Munich, were his mother and his brothers and sister had been since 1893. He worked as an insurance salesman and wrote poems and prose.

In 1898, he published his first works and began Die Buddenbrooks influenced by work of Arthur Schopenhauer, published in 1901. In 1906 he married, although he was not clear about his sexual orientation. In World War I, Mann agreed with the war, but not enthusiastically. In the time of the Weimar Republic he defended democratic ideas.

In 1929 he won the Nobel Prize for literature. In 1933 the Nazis burned books of his brother Heinrich Mann. Because of this both Thomas and Heinrich and their family moved to the United States in 1934. He lost his German citizenship, but got Czechoslovakian citizenship in the United States. In 1944, he became a US citizen.

He worked for the Allies in the radio during the World War II. In 1952, he had to give a talk to the Committee on Un-American Activities. He was very disappointed in the United States and returned to Europe, to Switzerland, in 1953. In the 1950s he visited Germany sometimes. He died of atherosclerosis in Zürich, Switzerland.

Works

Related pages

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Thomas Mann

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Mann.

• Death in Venice (opera)