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Bruder Hitler
German
- GenresHistory
233 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published January 1, 1939
About the author
Thomas Mann
2,195 books5,549 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
See also:
Serbian: Tomas Man
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate in 1929, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann, and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became important German writers. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he emigrated to the United States, from where he returned to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur.
See also:
Serbian: Tomas Man
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate in 1929, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann, and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became important German writers. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he emigrated to the United States, from where he returned to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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September 13, 2023In this short essay Thomas Mann reflects on Hitler as a person and Hitler as a phenomenon that has become possible in German society. It was published in 1939, when Hitler held total power in Germany and when Mann already lived in exile.
The writer makes a decision not to look the other way, so to speak. He faces Hitler not as an alien or just an anomaly, but as someone who can be inconveniently, disturbingly close. Mann encourages his readers to do the same.
The essay touches upon the notion of collective responsibility and varying degrees of this responsibility. The author ponders possible correlations between culture and policies that turn out to be crimes. He tries to figure out how he, as a German, should relate to Nazi crimes.
Why has savagery ended up winning out over basic morality and ethical norms?
In this regard, one quote from Horror In The East: Japan And The Atrocities Of World War II comes to my mind.
As the passage below demonstrates, Thomas Mann acknowledges a kind of kinship with the one he hates. Generally speaking, acknowledging this connection may become the first step towards liberation from it.
"A brother — a rather unpleasant and mortifying brother. He makes me nervous, the relationship is painful to a degree. But I will not disclaim it. For I repeat: better, more productive, more honest, more constructive than hatred is recognition, acceptance, the readiness to make oneself one with what is deserving of our hate even though we run the risk, morally speaking, of forgetting how to say no. That does not worry me. Anyhow, the moral sphere, insofar as it derogates from the innocent spontaneity of life, is really not altogether the artist’s concern. It may be annoying, but after all it has its soothing side, to realize that despite all the psychoanalysis, all the progress we have made in learning how the human being’s mind works, there is still absolutely no limit to the extent the unconscious can go in effective projection of itself upon reality."
Although it took me around ten minutes to read this text, I found the writing to be difficult to get into. Overall, this was a good read that raises some relevant points.
P.S. I often have difficulties with rating such texts, so I decided not to rate it.
The writer makes a decision not to look the other way, so to speak. He faces Hitler not as an alien or just an anomaly, but as someone who can be inconveniently, disturbingly close. Mann encourages his readers to do the same.
The essay touches upon the notion of collective responsibility and varying degrees of this responsibility. The author ponders possible correlations between culture and policies that turn out to be crimes. He tries to figure out how he, as a German, should relate to Nazi crimes.
Why has savagery ended up winning out over basic morality and ethical norms?
In this regard, one quote from Horror In The East: Japan And The Atrocities Of World War II comes to my mind.
If there is one lesson to be learnt from all this, then that lesson is also a warning — human beings take considerably more of their ethical values from the particular system they happen to be in at the time than you would ever have thought possible.
As the passage below demonstrates, Thomas Mann acknowledges a kind of kinship with the one he hates. Generally speaking, acknowledging this connection may become the first step towards liberation from it.
"A brother — a rather unpleasant and mortifying brother. He makes me nervous, the relationship is painful to a degree. But I will not disclaim it. For I repeat: better, more productive, more honest, more constructive than hatred is recognition, acceptance, the readiness to make oneself one with what is deserving of our hate even though we run the risk, morally speaking, of forgetting how to say no. That does not worry me. Anyhow, the moral sphere, insofar as it derogates from the innocent spontaneity of life, is really not altogether the artist’s concern. It may be annoying, but after all it has its soothing side, to realize that despite all the psychoanalysis, all the progress we have made in learning how the human being’s mind works, there is still absolutely no limit to the extent the unconscious can go in effective projection of itself upon reality."
Although it took me around ten minutes to read this text, I found the writing to be difficult to get into. Overall, this was a good read that raises some relevant points.
P.S. I often have difficulties with rating such texts, so I decided not to rate it.
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November 20, 2025Wirklich sehr kurz (8S.)
Spannend, wie Mann, der sonst so vielschichtige Charaktere zeichnet und bei dem immer wenn er erzählt mehrere Perspektiven mitschwingen, hier den „Bruder Hitler“ (ein verhunzter Künstler ist immer noch ein Künstler) sehr eindeutig beschreibt („Der Bursche ist eine Katastrophe“) und hier und insgesamt bei politischen Fragen i.d.R. sehr unzweideutig Stellung bezieht.
Das Wort „verhunzt“ hat mir Spaß gemacht. Das dürfte man öfter gebrauchen, finde ich.
Spannend, wie Mann, der sonst so vielschichtige Charaktere zeichnet und bei dem immer wenn er erzählt mehrere Perspektiven mitschwingen, hier den „Bruder Hitler“ (ein verhunzter Künstler ist immer noch ein Künstler) sehr eindeutig beschreibt („Der Bursche ist eine Katastrophe“) und hier und insgesamt bei politischen Fragen i.d.R. sehr unzweideutig Stellung bezieht.
Das Wort „verhunzt“ hat mir Spaß gemacht. Das dürfte man öfter gebrauchen, finde ich.
October 3, 2017
"In ogni umanesimo c'è un elemento di debolezza che va di pari passo con il suo odio verso il fanatismo, la sua indulgenza e il suo amore per il dubbio, in breve, con la sua naturale bontà, e che in determinate circostanze può diventare la sua condanna. Ciò che oggi sarebbe davvero necessario è un umanesimo militante, un umanesimo che scoprisse la propria virilità e si riempisse della convinzione che il principio della libertà, della tolleranza e del dubbio non può lasciarsi sfruttare e sopraffare da un fanatismo che è senza vergogna e senza dubbi." (Attenzione, Europa! [1935], pp. 60, 61)
January 1, 2026
Ha envejecido regular apoyar la creación de un estado judío por la zona de Palestina...
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January 6, 2025 "Ein Bruder… Ein etwas unangenehmer und beschämender Bruder; er geht einem auf die Nerven, es ist eine reichlich peinliche Verwandtschaft. Ich will trotzdem die Augen nicht davor schließen, denn nochmals: besser, aufrichtiger, heiterer und produktiver als der Haß ist das Sichwieder-Erkennen, die Bereitschaft zur Selbstvereinigung mit dem Haßenswerten, möge sie auch die moralische Gefahr mit sich bringen, das Neinsagen zu verlernen."
Instinktiv widerstrebt es mir, dass eine Auseinandersetzung mit Hitler zu einer Zeit, in der jüdische Menschen schon seit Jahren unter unmenschlichen Repressionen Leiden mussten, die schreckliche Reichskristallnacht schon stattfand und die ersten Juden schon in Konzentrationslager verschleppt worden sind, aus explizit ästhetischer anstatt aus moralischer Sicht geschieht. Dass "heiter" überhaupt eine Kategorie ist, die mitbedacht wird, und dass Hitler als "etwas unangenehmer, beschämender Bruder" verniedlicht wird, erscheint mir unangemessen. Und auch, dass das Unmenschlichste nicht zuvorderst als was "haßenswertes" und somit unbedingt bekämpfenswertes wahrgenommen wird, sondern als Impuls zur Selbstreflexion zu instrumentalisiert wird, erscheint mir instinktiv erstmal fragwürdig, denn - und da teile ich Manns Befürchtung - bringt das nicht wirklich die Gefahr mit sich nicht entschieden genug Nein zu sagen, wenn es darauf ankommt?
Aber vielleicht liege ich komplett falsch. Hat jemand Gedanken zu der Aussage von Mann oder zu seinem Text?
Instinktiv widerstrebt es mir, dass eine Auseinandersetzung mit Hitler zu einer Zeit, in der jüdische Menschen schon seit Jahren unter unmenschlichen Repressionen Leiden mussten, die schreckliche Reichskristallnacht schon stattfand und die ersten Juden schon in Konzentrationslager verschleppt worden sind, aus explizit ästhetischer anstatt aus moralischer Sicht geschieht. Dass "heiter" überhaupt eine Kategorie ist, die mitbedacht wird, und dass Hitler als "etwas unangenehmer, beschämender Bruder" verniedlicht wird, erscheint mir unangemessen. Und auch, dass das Unmenschlichste nicht zuvorderst als was "haßenswertes" und somit unbedingt bekämpfenswertes wahrgenommen wird, sondern als Impuls zur Selbstreflexion zu instrumentalisiert wird, erscheint mir instinktiv erstmal fragwürdig, denn - und da teile ich Manns Befürchtung - bringt das nicht wirklich die Gefahr mit sich nicht entschieden genug Nein zu sagen, wenn es darauf ankommt?
Aber vielleicht liege ich komplett falsch. Hat jemand Gedanken zu der Aussage von Mann oder zu seinem Text?
November 26, 2025
“the lazy vegetating existence and the depths of a moral and mental bohemia.. the fundamental arrogance that thinks itself too good for any sensible and honourable activity”
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews