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Auf einen Drink mit Arnold Schönberg, Theodor W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Helene Weigel, Max Horkheimer, Vicki Baum – und allen voran: Thomas Mann
MARTIN MITTELMEIER
Heimweh im Paradies/Homesick in Paradise: Thomas Mann in California
ca. 192 pp.
English sample available
""Where I am is Germany. I carry my German culture within me.“
Thomas Mann, 1938 at a press conference after his arrival in New York
Los Angeles in the 1940s: Arnold Schönberg, Theodor W. Adorno, Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertholt Brecht, Helene Weigel, Max Horkheimer, Vicki Baum, Hanns Eisler, Franz and Alma Werfel - and above all: Thomas Mann
“A narrative account that reads like a Who’s Who of German exiles living in Los Angeles in the 1930s. At the centre is the figure of Thomas Mann, who is struggling to finish Doctor Faustus, his
allegory of the rise of the Third Reich. (…)This latest addition to the study of Thomas Mann’s life stands out for its humour, and for its provision of lucid insights into a watershed era of politics.”
NEW BOOKS IN GERMAN
“How can you write about Thomas Mann today? Like this: Witty, funny, with delicate irony and casual seriousness.” Saša Stanišić
Atmospherically dense and true to life, Martin Mittelmeier tells of the hopes, encounters, doubts and successes of the Nobel Prize winner, who had to question his values and identity under the Californian sun at the age of almost 70.
Los Angeles in the 1940s. All those who no longer had or wanted a home in Nazi Germany were stranded here: Arnold Schönberg, Theodor W. Adorno, Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertolt Brecht, Helene Weigel, Max Horkheimer, Vicki Baum, Hanns Eisler, Franz and Alma Werfel - and above all: Thomas Mann, the writer of the century, the most German of the German exiles in California. At cocktail parties, they exchange intellectual, artistic and political ideas. The paradise-like surroundings, palm trees, orange blossom, beach and sun, form a strange contrast to the depressing news from the old homeland. Life here in Pacific Palisades revolves primarily around the question of identity rooted in German culture and language, which seems to be jeopardised with every piece of news from Europe. What can art be, especially German art, in the face of the horror and barbarism of Nazi Germany? Thomas Mann searches for answers and broadcasts a total of fifty-five radio speeches, which he addresses to ‘German listeners’. Above all, however, he traces the cultural-historical and intellectual-historical roots of National Socialism in his novel ‘Doctor Faustus’.
Heimweh im Paradies/Homesick in Paradise: Thomas Mann in California
ca. 192 pp.
English sample available
""Where I am is Germany. I carry my German culture within me.“
Thomas Mann, 1938 at a press conference after his arrival in New York
Los Angeles in the 1940s: Arnold Schönberg, Theodor W. Adorno, Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertholt Brecht, Helene Weigel, Max Horkheimer, Vicki Baum, Hanns Eisler, Franz and Alma Werfel - and above all: Thomas Mann
“A narrative account that reads like a Who’s Who of German exiles living in Los Angeles in the 1930s. At the centre is the figure of Thomas Mann, who is struggling to finish Doctor Faustus, his
allegory of the rise of the Third Reich. (…)This latest addition to the study of Thomas Mann’s life stands out for its humour, and for its provision of lucid insights into a watershed era of politics.”
NEW BOOKS IN GERMAN
“How can you write about Thomas Mann today? Like this: Witty, funny, with delicate irony and casual seriousness.” Saša Stanišić
Atmospherically dense and true to life, Martin Mittelmeier tells of the hopes, encounters, doubts and successes of the Nobel Prize winner, who had to question his values and identity under the Californian sun at the age of almost 70.
Los Angeles in the 1940s. All those who no longer had or wanted a home in Nazi Germany were stranded here: Arnold Schönberg, Theodor W. Adorno, Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertolt Brecht, Helene Weigel, Max Horkheimer, Vicki Baum, Hanns Eisler, Franz and Alma Werfel - and above all: Thomas Mann, the writer of the century, the most German of the German exiles in California. At cocktail parties, they exchange intellectual, artistic and political ideas. The paradise-like surroundings, palm trees, orange blossom, beach and sun, form a strange contrast to the depressing news from the old homeland. Life here in Pacific Palisades revolves primarily around the question of identity rooted in German culture and language, which seems to be jeopardised with every piece of news from Europe. What can art be, especially German art, in the face of the horror and barbarism of Nazi Germany? Thomas Mann searches for answers and broadcasts a total of fifty-five radio speeches, which he addresses to ‘German listeners’. Above all, however, he traces the cultural-historical and intellectual-historical roots of National Socialism in his novel ‘Doctor Faustus’.
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Martin Mittelmeier
Martin Mittelmeier, born in 1971, was an editor and editorial director at renowned publishing houses from 2001 to 2014. He has been a freelance...
Martin Mittelmeier, born in 1971, was an editor and editorial director at renowned publishing houses from 2001 to 2014. He has been a freelance editor and author since 2014. In 2019, he was a visiting scholar at Rutgers University in New Jersey. His most recent publications are "Adorno in Neapel" (Naples 1925), which has been translated into several languages, and "Dada. Eine Jahrhundertgeschichte", and "Freiheit und Finsternis - Wie die Dialektik der Aufklärung zum Jahrhundertbuch wurde.