»Wie kann man über Thomas Mann heute schreiben? So: geistreich, komisch und mit lässigem Ernst.« SAŠA STANIŠIĆ
MARTIN MITTELMEIER
Heimweh im Paradies/Homesick in Paradise: Thomas Mann in California
ca. 192 pp.
English sample available soon
"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
To a Bloody Mary with 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
“Naples 1925 is a delightful book: a great read about a little-known adventure that brought together Adorno, Benjamin, and Kracauer in Naples and Capri.”
Seyla Benhabib on Naples 1925
“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 Bloody Marys, they exchange intellectual, artistic and political ideas under the Californian sun. The news from their old homeland is depressing. And so life here in Pacific Palisades often revolves around the identity rooted in German culture and language, which seems to be threatened by every piece of news from Europe. What can art be, especially German art, in the face of the horrors and barbarism of Nazi Germany?
Thomas Mann searches for answers and broadcasts a total of 55 radio addresses, which he addresses to ‘German listeners’. At the same time, he is working on his novel Doctor Faustus, in and with which he explores the question of love, art and Germany.
Heimweh im Paradies/Homesick in Paradise: Thomas Mann in California
ca. 192 pp.
English sample available soon
"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
To a Bloody Mary with 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
“Naples 1925 is a delightful book: a great read about a little-known adventure that brought together Adorno, Benjamin, and Kracauer in Naples and Capri.”
Seyla Benhabib on Naples 1925
“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 Bloody Marys, they exchange intellectual, artistic and political ideas under the Californian sun. The news from their old homeland is depressing. And so life here in Pacific Palisades often revolves around the identity rooted in German culture and language, which seems to be threatened by every piece of news from Europe. What can art be, especially German art, in the face of the horrors and barbarism of Nazi Germany?
Thomas Mann searches for answers and broadcasts a total of 55 radio addresses, which he addresses to ‘German listeners’. At the same time, he is working on his novel Doctor Faustus, in and with which he explores the question of love, art and Germany.
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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 2025), which has been translated into several languages, and "Dada. Eine Jahrhundertgeschichte", and "Freiheit und Finsternis - Wie die Dialektik der Aufklärung zum Jahrhundertbuch wurde.