Thomas Mann in Exile 1933–1938
1963; Routledge; Volume: 38; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/19306962.1963.11787150
ISSN1930-6962
Autores ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesSee Briefe 1889–1936, ed. Erika Mann ([Frankfurt], 1961), p. 328; Thomas Mann an Ernst Bertram, ed. Inge Jens (Pfullingen, 1960) p. 176.Only a small selection of the literature on Mann and politics can be given here. Kurt Sontheimer’s book, Thomas Mann und die Deutschen (München, 1961), is valuable in some respects but is far from settling all problems. Its treatment of the period of 1933–1938 leaves much to be desired. Sontheimer’s earlier essay “Thomas Mann als politischer Schriftsteller,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, VI (1958), 1–44 is still valuable. Sontheimer, a political scientist, gives a summary of Thomas Mann’s stated opinions. The literary critic, however, is more interested in knowing whether or not Thomas Mann’s thought underwent a fundamental change which might have influenced his work, and whether motifs of his fiction find reflection in his political utterances. A good characterization of Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen as the basis of Thomas Mann’s political thought is found in Max Rychner’s essay “Thomas Mann und die Politik,” in M. Rychner, Welt im Wort (Zürich, 1949), pp. 351–394, and “Von der Politik der Unpolitischen” in M. Rychner, Antworten (Zürich, 1961), pp. 243–266. Martin Flinker’s book, Thomas Mann’s politische Betrachtungen im Lichte der heutigen Zeit (‘sGravenhage, 1959), was the first to refute the general opinion that Thomas Mann had completely reversed his political thinking after Betrachtungen. Cf. also: Heinz Politzer, “Thomas Mann und die Forderung des Tages,” Monatshefte, XLVI, 65–79. Some biographical information is found in Walter H. Perl, Thomas Mann 1933-1945 (New York, 1945). For more literature see Klaus Jonas, Fifty Years of Thomas Mann Studies (Minneapolis, 1955) and the appropriate sections of Eppelsheimer..Passages by Thomas Mann are quoted, wherever possible, from the edition: Gesammelte Werke in zwölf Bänden, ([Frankfurt, Main], 1960). Volume and page are given in parentheses in the text.Thomas Mann an Ernst Bertram, pp. 186, 188.One of the most striking examples of Thomas Mann’s wish to have the position of Betrachtungen appear reversed are his words about Wilhelm Herzog’s Der Kampf einer Republik, die Affäre Dreyfus (Zürich, 1933). Herzog, in his book Menschen, denen ich begegnete (Bern, 1959), quotes (pp. 276–277) from a letter, dated March 4, 1933. Here, Thomas Mann sees a direct parallel between the Dreyfus-affair and Germany, while in Betrachtungen he had denied such a parallel. However, it is a parallel with a later Germany than that of Betrachtungen. Appeals like those of Zola, now physically impossible under the Nazi dictatorship, “waren unmöglich in dem Deutschland meiner Jugend aus bürgerlich-geistigen Gründen.” That means that he did not really withdraw from the position of the Betrachtungen, after all.Thomas Mann was writing Joseph in Ägypten since 1932, see letter to Bertram July 23, 1932, p. 175. The idea of balance in his political attitude is expressed especially well in his letters to Harry Slochower Briefe 1889–1936, pp. 397–399 and Karl Kerenyi, ibid., pp. 353–354. In the speech to Vienna workers he speaks of “Materialismus des Geistes” after having quoted from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra. He calls socialism “die Gewissensempfindlichkeit für den Widerspruch … zwischen dem was noch immer ist, und dem was sein sollte, der Wille zum, wenn auch immer nur annähernden Ausgleich dieser Spannung” (XI, 899). In “Bekenntnis zum Sozialismus,” part of which is taken verbatim from the Vienna speech, this sentence is omitted. However, in other parts (in both documents) he equates art and socialism because of their “Durchgeistigung der Natur” (XI, 897–899; XII, 679–680). This is in spirit, if not in words, the idea of Thomas Mann’s humanistic balance as expressed in the Slochower letter and in the foreword of “Maß und Wert” (XII, 800), where this “Durchdringung” is connected with the idea of the mediating irony of art.Large portions of this article were taken from Thomas Mann’s address to Vienna workers (XI, 890–910), which was not published at the time.Cf. in the “Maß und Wert” foreword (XII, 800–801). For a party line view on the National Socialists cf. Bertolt Brecht’s Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe which was begun in 1932 and first performed in 1936.Cf. especially “Leiden an Deutschland,” XII, 684–766. This diary of 1933 and 1934 was edited by Thomas Mann, probably in 1938. See XII, 980 and 991 (notes by Hans Bürgin).In Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, the sense for tragedy is explained by an example where it is hardly possible to follow Thomas Mann (XII, 444–445). He notes the absence of that sense in a British nurse who faints at her military execution. This example shows only that the sense of tragedy is a wholly artistic concept which should not be applied to social life at all. Thomas Mann was not fully aware of the artificiality of his position in Betrachtungen. Although Mann had become more realistic, there is some evidence during this period of a somewhat similar artificial world to which Thomas Mann tends to adhere.The case of loving irony, the irony of Eros, is presented in “Goethe und Tolstoi,” IX, 99; an irony connected with gratitude IX, 100–101. Cf. also X, 350.Cf. IX, 368 Psychology and Myth; 372 Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysos, Christus, Siegfried Joseph und seine Brüder); 384 relation between works; 387 his work is present from the beginning; 387 Wagner’s frailty (“Leistungsethiker”) 389 art and disease; 403, 414 ambiguity; 411 bourgeois working discipline; 412 working in the morning; 426 the conclusion is also applicable to Thomas Mann’s works.Cf. in Betrachtungen: XII, 448 where Tonio Kröger is quoted; the case of loving irony is made especially in Hans Castorp’s vision in Der Zauberberg, III, 685. Cf. also X, 353.lt is no surprise, therefore, to find literal quotations from Betrachtungen in “Leiden und Größe Richard Wagners.” Cf. XII, 108: “seine Selbstinszenierung und Kostümierung als deutscher “Meister” hatte ihre gute innere und natürliche Berechtigung”; IX, 410: “seine spätere Selbstinszenierung als ‘Deutscher Meister’ mit der Dürermütze hatte ihre gute innere und natürliche Berechtigung.” IX, 422: “schon früher einmal habe ich auf das Buch … des Schweden Wilhelm Peterson-Berger ‘Richard Wagner als Kulturerscheinung’ hingewiesen…” the summary is then taken verbatim from Betrachtungen, XII, 76. Many more passages agree in content, though not in words, e.g., XII, 109 and IX, 401, 404.Since “Leiden an Deutschland” was published in 1946, the possibility cannot be excluded that the passage concerned was written after 1934 or 1938. However, some criticism of German intellcctuals is to be expected from a writer who was viciously attacked in a statement against his Wagner essay, published by a Munich newspaper and bearing the signatures of Richard Strauß, Hans Pfitzner and others. See Kurt Sontheimer, Thomas Mann und die Deutschen (Munich, 1961), pp. 109–110. Thomas Mann’s answer: XI, 785–787.Briefe 1889–1936, p. 357, 370, 371, 372; also to Käte Hamburger, August 8, 1934, unpublished. The original is in Bibliothek der Hansestadt Lübeck. These letters were written between April and September, 1934. On September 13, he wrote to Lion that he intended to continue Joseph: Briefe 1889–1936, p. 373.Cf. Briefe 1889–1936, p. 329, March 13, 1933: “Ich bin ein viel zu guter Deutscher, mit den Kulturüberlieferungen und der Sprache meines Landes viel zu eng verbunden, als daß nicht der Gedanke eines jahrelangen oder auch lebenslänglichen Exils eine sehr schwere, verhängnisvolle Bedeutung für mich haben müßte.” A similar passage is found in a letter to Einstein May 5, 1933, Briefe 1889–1936, pp. 331–332; Cf. also Ren Schickele, Werke in drei Bänden, (Cologne, 1959), 111, 1050, 1060.To Helen Lowe-Porter, Lugano, April 28, 1933, unpublished. The original is in the Sterling Library, Yale University. Cf. Briefe 1889–1936, p. 332.Briefe 1889–1936, p. 392, 394; Thomas Mann an Ernst Bertram, p. 187; to Käte Hamburger, Riverside, Conn. June 22, 1935, unpublished. The original is in the Bibliothek der Hansestadt Lübeck. Inge Jens reports that a similar passage occurs in almost all letters which Thomas Mann wrote at that time (Die Zeit, February 2, 1962, p. 13).This was done at the request of the Fischer Verlag. Cf. the letter to Arbeiter Zeitung, Vienna, see fn. 21, and René Schickele’s letter to Josef Roth (René Schickele, Werke in drei Bänden, III, 1186–1191). Schickele had sent a similar telegram. Thomas Mann lived at that time in Sanary sur Mer near the Schickeles.Arbeiter Zeitung, Wien, October 28, 1933. The quotation was made from a typewritten copy of the article which Dr. Hans Bürgin was kind enough to place at my disposal. Cf. also the last sentence of Thomas Mann’s reply to the Munich protesters against his Wagner essay: “Aufrichtig bitte ich die stillen Freunde meiner Arbeit in Deutschland, sich an meiner Verbundenheit mit deutscher Kultur und Oberlieferung, an meiner Verbundenheit mit ihnen nicht irremachen zu lassen” (XI, 787). Cf. furthermore XII, 787, in his letter to Bonn.Briefe 1889–1936, pp. 342–343.Unpublished, Yale library; quoted by permission of Mrs. Mann and Dr. Weigand.Briefe 1889–1936, p. 399. Cf. also to Otto Basler October 29, 1933 (Altes und Neues [Frankfurt], 1953), p. 732.Die Neue Zeitung, August 8, 1937, pp. 3–4.The Saturday Review of Literature, X, 749–750.Harry Slochower, Three Ways of Modern Man (New York, 1937), p. 100. See Thomas Mann’s reply, Briefe 1889–1936, pp. 397–399.The text of the interview, a typewritten copy taken from Modern Thinker’ s and Author’s Review, August 1934, was made available to me by Dr. Hans Bürgin. See his bibliography Das Werk Thomas Manns ([Frankfurt], 1959), item V, 429. Bürgin’s bibliography has been used for this article extensively.Briefe 1889–1936, pp. 405. Cf. p. 406 from a letter to René Schickele: “Die Kritik über den Henri IV [by Heinrich Mann] war ein recht typischer Streich der ‘Züri Zitig,’ sie paßte nur allzu gut in das Blatt” to Paul Amann, October 14, 1936, he recommends the Basler Nationalzeitun g to Amann as a place for publishing an article, because it is sincerely antifascist in contrast to the NZZ (original Jetter in Bibliothek der Hanse stadt Lübeck).Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2. Sonntagsausgabe, January 26, 1936. The article is titled “Deutsche Literatur im Emigrantenspiegel.” Korrodi was not altogether wrong. A certain skepticism about the activities of the German emigrants is shown by the letter to Weigand quoted above, and by some other letters such as that to Otto Basler of October 26, 1935 (Altes und Neues, pp. 733–734). In his interview with The Modern Thinker’s and Author’s Review of 1934 (see fn. 28), Thomas Mann is skeptical about the efforts of his brother to call the exiled German writers up for united action. Opposition to radical emigrant circles in Paris is also found in the diary and letters of René Schickele, who was close to Thomas Mann during this time. Cf. René Schickele, Werke in drei Bänden, III, 1074, 1078–1079, 1181, 1188–1190, 1207.XI, 788–793; also Briefe 1889–1936, p. 409–413. Cf. Kurt Son theimer, Thomas Mann und die Deutschen (Munich, 1961), p. 112–113.Thomas Mann an Ernst Bertram, p. 178.After the Nobel peace prize was awarded to Ossietzky in the fall of 1936, Thomas Mann wrote an appeal to dissolve the concentration camps in Germany based on the usefulness of this action in creating trust for the declarations made by the regime. Place of publication is not known to me. A copy is in the Thomas Mann Archiv bei der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Earlier, another, similar one was published in Prager Tageblatt, July 1, 1936. These actions were motivated by humane considerations. They also served as challenges to the regime. The open letter “Warum braucht das jüdische Volk nicht zu verzweifeln” written October, 1936 and published in November in a Czechoslovakian Jewish review was perhaps the strongest such challenge (XII, 783–784). Another was Thomas Mann’s letter to the New York Times of December 1, 1936, published December 12 under the title “Seeking to preserve German Cultural Freedom.” It was written before and published after the “Ausbürgerung.”XII, 785–792. The dean at that time was not the Germanist Karl Justus Obenauer, as has been maintained, but Friedrich Oertel, Professor of Ancient History.Thomas Mann an Ernst Bertram, p. 175, July 23, 1932.Social Research, IV (1937), 265.Social Research, IV, 266; very similar XII, 794.Religion, incidentally, is also an element in Betrachtungen, see e.g., XII, 230. The connection of religion with Thomas Mann’s humanism is nothing new. In the Ietter to Jules Rais of October 15, 1933, containing a message for Comité français de co-operation européenne, he says: ”… das Humane ist auch das Religiöse.” (The letter is unpublished.) Also in this case, the message is directed to persons who might not understand what the name Schopenhauer means. In “Vom kommenden Sieg der Demokratie,” he mentions specifically original sin as an expression of a feeling that man is basically at fault, a feeling which challenges the spirit to strive for higher goals (XI, 918). The similarity with Schopenhauer is obvious. Cf. “The Coming Humanism,” The Nation, CXLVII, 617–619 (December 10, 1938), reprinted various times in English. Here the above passage (see fn. 37) is also used in another translation.Thomas Mann spoke on two other occasions in New York in April 1937, addressing the American League for German Cultural Freedom (XI, 941–945; the date in the bibliographical appendix must be changed to read April 1937) and an assembly honoring the victims of Nazi persecution (printed in the emigrant periodical Das Wort [Moscow, June 1937], pp. 3–5). Both times he mentions the applause given Marquis Posa in German theaters as a sign of resistance.Letter to Agnes Meyer, November 30, 1937, unpublished, Yale Library.Letter to Agnes Meyer, January 22, 1938.See Briefe 1889–1936, pp. 395–396.A typescript is in the Lowe-Porter collection in the Yale Library. (Quotations from it are given here with the kind permission of Mrs. Mann and Yale University.) Apparently it was intended for publication in its original form. In a letter to Agnes Meyer, Beverly Hills, Calif. April 13, 1938, Thomas Mann mentions a small very personal article for “Cosmopolitan.” A note by Helen Lowe-Porter on the typescript reads: “Appeared in Life,” which is probably mistaken for Esquire..Hans Bürgin, Das Werk Thomas Manns, item V, 503.The following phrase “ich nannte sie ‘Demokratisierung’” is crossed out. Thomas Mann apparently felt that this phrase was unsuitable. But it does reflect an awareness that the mistakes in Betrachtungen are more in definition than in substance.Especially in “Adele’s Erzählung,” II, 495–558.Unpublished letters from Jamestown, R. I. written during late May to late June, 1938, tell of working on Lotte in Weimar. The essay “Schopenhauer” written for an American Schopenhauer selection had been begun in January, 1938 (letter to Käte Hamburger, January 2, 1938, in Bibliothek der Hansestadt Lübeck) but probably was not completed until his stay in Jamestown since Thomas Mann reports its being copied on June 19, 1938.Cf. XII, 130. Cf. also XII, 854, “Kultur und Politik.”
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