With his life and his books, Thomas Mann proved that the highest path of self-realization is following the tradition and example of the great predecessors.
The life of the German writer Thomas Mann seems to grow from the 20th century into the XNUMXth century, becoming a witness to world catastrophes, mastering new paths and at the same time carrying an inviolable stock of moral principles. And also – the aristocratic feeling of being chosen, about which the hero of one of the very first short stories of the XNUMX-year-old writer speaks: “There are in the world … radiant people, with a gleam and reflection of the sun in their eyes … As for me, I would like to belong to these people, and again and again it seems to me that I once belonged to them.
There really were a lot of solar “reflections” in his life. He was the son of a senator of the free city of Lübeck, heir to a solid firm with a history of two hundred years. Already at the age of 26, after the release of his first novel, he became widely known, was read and honored all over the world, familiar with the greatest people of his era – suffice it to name Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. For half a century, his wife, numerous children and grandchildren were by his side. And although since 1933 he lived away from home, he did not have to experience the hardships and ordeals of most German emigrants.
And the fact that this man, a Nobel laureate, the spiritual authority of the German nation, the father of six children, all his life, as it became clear from his posthumously published diaries, had a craving for young men and could dream at night about shaking hands with some pretty waiter, in no way least affected neither his image in the history of world culture, nor the course of his life. All his life, in his own special way, he remained the son of a senator. A prince who, in a completely different sphere – the sphere of the spirit – and according to completely different rules – the rules of the game and fantasy – confirmed his right to the throne.
His dates.
- June 6, 1875: born in Lübeck in northern Germany; the writer’s mother was from Brazil.
- 1901: The release of his first novel, The Buddenbrooks, makes him widely known.
- 1905: Marriage to Katja Prinsheim and birth of daughter Erika.
- 1910, 1927: The writer’s sisters committed suicide.
- 1915-1918: work on “Reflections of the apolitical”, where, against the backdrop of the events of the war, Mann discusses Germany’s place in world civilization.
- 1929: Nobel Prize for the novel “Buddenbrooks”; The Magic Mountain has already been published, and Joseph and His Brothers have begun.
- 1933: Trip to Switzerland coincides with Hitler’s rise to power; Mann did not return to his homeland.
- 1938: Moves to the US, lectures at Princeton University.
- 1949: His son Klaus committed suicide.
- 1952: Returns to Europe, to Switzerland.
- 12 August 1955: died in Kilchberg. Shortly before his death, he was awarded the highest German Order of Merit.
Imitate to define yourself
When Thomas Mann got a car (a Horch convertible with a personal driver), he wrote in his diary: “Own departure – at the same age as Goethe.” Mann generally tried to resemble Goethe in many ways, any coincidence was important and significant for him. Some attribute this to vanity, others to envy, some saw this as a “mystical union.” The writer himself called this “an imitation of Goethe” and saw in such an imitation something psychologically necessary for a person: to feel, without fully realizing it, that he is following in someone’s footsteps. In the report “Freud and the Future”, written for the 80th anniversary of the founder of psychoanalysis, Mann, with a surprising combination of irony and seriousness, sings of infantilism – protracted childishness. “Imitation of the father, playing at the father…—how decisively and formatively these infantilisms influence the spiritual life!”
About it
- Thomas Mann Collected works in 8 volumes Terra – Book Club, 2009.
- Thomas Mann “Aristocracy of Spirit” Cultural Revolution, 2009.
- Solomon Apt “Thomas Mann” Young Guard, 1972.
Reflect in higher
It’s not so important who exactly to imitate, although “reflected”, of course, follows in what is larger, more significant than you. Joseph and His Brothers, a XNUMX-page book based on a biblical story, tells the story of a man playing God. Playing, of course, not with the seriousness of the obsessed, but intuitively, on a hunch. As Joseph is thrown into a dry well by jealous brothers, Thomas Mann describes how the parallels between his story and those of the dying and resurrecting gods begin to shine through for his hero. It would be a mistake to assume that under such mortally formidable circumstances, Joseph stopped playing and dreaming … He was deeply convinced that life and events, not certified by higher reality, not reflected in any heavenly affairs and not recognizing themselves in them, are not life at all and not an event at all.
Life as a symbol
Weakness for young men was his painful secret. Although, it would seem, why not take the risk of embodying oneself, one’s own character of sexuality, at the height of the 35th century? Yes, because “a writer, he will say at the age of XNUMX, is one whose life is a symbol.” And that means that he has no maneuver for experiments – he only has actions prescribed by duty, each of which has a symbolic meaning. The writer is not a private person who, outside the desk, is free in words and deeds, but a certain public role that he performed with the dignity of a titled person. “Royal Highness” – that was the title of one of his novels, and that, in essence, was and remained he himself in the literature of the XNUMXth century.