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Diaries 1918-1939
English, German (translation)
471 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
15 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Mann
2,075 books5,279 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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January 22, 2009I got a copy of this tonight for ten dollars. My copy is the Harry N. Abrams hardcover edition published in 1982. I've just spent about an hour and a half looking though it. Thomas Mann is one of my heroes. He was a man of erudition, dignity and imagination.
When a diary has an index, a chief pleasure is looking at the names and seeing what the author said about a particular person. Mann knew Einstein, had dinner with FDR and Eleanor at the White House, had a party thrown for him by Jack Warner in Hollywood and was greeted in New York, Chicago, Boston and Salt Lake City as if he were a statesman. A lot of this was arranged by Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher, himself.
Mann was an ultimate example of the lionized intellectual. His anti-Nazi stance made him, indeed, a political figure. This diary ends on December 31st, 1939. Mann writes from Princeton, New Jersey. Hitler has invaded Poland in September. Mann is appalled at the devastation he knows Hitler is about to inflict on Europe.
This diary shows an outspoken humanitarian author, exiled from the country of his birth, touring the world and encountering world leaders, international authors and his fellow German exiles.
Mann lived until 1955, and I imagine there exists a book of his later diaries. But this particular diary, from 1918 through 1939, interests me because that is an era I've studied. The movies, music and history of that time loom large in my mind. To think of Mann going to the movies (which he did a lot in America), playing bocce (which he did in Kansas City, if the caption to the picture showing him doing it is correct) and being interviewed in front of large audiences in almost every major American city, is a little disorienting. He is the 20th century's great 19th-century European. He is too urbane to betray much discomfort, but one gets a sense of a man who finds his good fortune a little perverse.
When a diary has an index, a chief pleasure is looking at the names and seeing what the author said about a particular person. Mann knew Einstein, had dinner with FDR and Eleanor at the White House, had a party thrown for him by Jack Warner in Hollywood and was greeted in New York, Chicago, Boston and Salt Lake City as if he were a statesman. A lot of this was arranged by Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher, himself.
Mann was an ultimate example of the lionized intellectual. His anti-Nazi stance made him, indeed, a political figure. This diary ends on December 31st, 1939. Mann writes from Princeton, New Jersey. Hitler has invaded Poland in September. Mann is appalled at the devastation he knows Hitler is about to inflict on Europe.
This diary shows an outspoken humanitarian author, exiled from the country of his birth, touring the world and encountering world leaders, international authors and his fellow German exiles.
Mann lived until 1955, and I imagine there exists a book of his later diaries. But this particular diary, from 1918 through 1939, interests me because that is an era I've studied. The movies, music and history of that time loom large in my mind. To think of Mann going to the movies (which he did a lot in America), playing bocce (which he did in Kansas City, if the caption to the picture showing him doing it is correct) and being interviewed in front of large audiences in almost every major American city, is a little disorienting. He is the 20th century's great 19th-century European. He is too urbane to betray much discomfort, but one gets a sense of a man who finds his good fortune a little perverse.
April 25, 2025
Hablar de Thomas Mann es difícil. No estamos ante un hombre simple, su mente era compleja así como lo son sus pensamientos y sus emociones, pero principalmente, Mann era un hombre que no era dado al sentimentalismo o a la burda sensiblería. Él era firme en sus opiniones, era tenaz y elocuente con sus ideas. Todo esto viene dado por lo que podemos leer de él en sus diarios de entreguerras. Aunque faltan 12 años, 12 años en los que las páginas de sus diarios fueron destruidas, en estas páginas podemos notar y ver las fuentes y alimentos intelectuales (y literales) que el autor alemán haría en vida.
La vida de Thomas Mann en los círculos académicos e intelectuales fue notable. Tan notable que sería Doctor Honoris causa y un reputado escritor de fama mundial. Sus hijos Erika y Klaus seguirían su camino y su esposa Katia estaría con él siempre. No es de extrañar que el autor llevase un diario para expresar sus cosas más cotidianas, más intrínsecas a la vida. Le encantaría el té y el café, los huevos pasados por agua, pasear por los lagos y escribir desde bien temprano en la mañana. Sería adicto al Phanodorm, un somnífero común de aquella época, y tendría numerosos achaques de salud que se verían curados con el tiempo. Padecía ciática y problemas gastrointestinales. Pero esto no es lo que importa de sus diarios. Lo que importa aquí es la profunda alevosía por la vida que tiene. Sus ganas de vivir. De escribir. De ser él en sus aspectos más notables.
No es de extrañar que sus diarios conformen un retrato único de la época que vivió, tanto en Alemania como en Zurich o en Estados Unidos, no serían pocos los intelectuales que le visitaban. Mann era muy amigo de sus amigos, los veneraba, los invitaba y los hacía parte de su vida más íntima. Invitándoles a numerosas tardes de té, cenas y salidas. Mann era un asiduo de la ópera y el teatro, de escuchar música como solo una persona sensible como él puede hacer. Adoraba escuchar música por las noches, escribir por las mañanas, hablar y estar con su esposa Katia y sus hijos, tomar el té a la tarde o los perros. Era un hombre profundamente humano y profundamente sensible por lo que le rodeaba, a tal punto que tuvo que exiliarse en 1933 a Suiza. Debido al profundo rechazo ante la ascensión de Hitler en Alemania, a quien nombraba como “anticristo”. Tendría una gran influencia de otros artistas, sobre todo y especialmente de Goethe, de quien era un fervoroso investigador y estudiante.
Sin duda estamos ante unos diarios que destacan por su sutileza ante lo cotidiano, lo que rige al hombre moderno y a su vez interesado en lo más mítico, lo que simboliza a un hombre que ante todo tenía ya su vida recorrida y solo debía pensar en escribir. Él tuvo esa suerte, como muy pocos la tuvieron antes y ahora. Vemos que en aquellos años escribió José y sus hermanos, Carlota en Weimar, y su La montaña mágica ya era famosa en un orden internacional. Mann se trabajó su suerte, hizo de su destino algo por lo que valió la pena luchar. El arte aquí tiene forma, nutriéndose de sus vivencias diarias, sus temores y sus deseos. Estamos aquí ante todo con las palabras de alguien que luchó por seguir su camino. Al margen pero totalmente imbuido por la política de aquella época. Thomas Mann era un hombre valeroso, de alto poder de palabra e influyente en los círculos más académicos.
La vida de Thomas Mann en los círculos académicos e intelectuales fue notable. Tan notable que sería Doctor Honoris causa y un reputado escritor de fama mundial. Sus hijos Erika y Klaus seguirían su camino y su esposa Katia estaría con él siempre. No es de extrañar que el autor llevase un diario para expresar sus cosas más cotidianas, más intrínsecas a la vida. Le encantaría el té y el café, los huevos pasados por agua, pasear por los lagos y escribir desde bien temprano en la mañana. Sería adicto al Phanodorm, un somnífero común de aquella época, y tendría numerosos achaques de salud que se verían curados con el tiempo. Padecía ciática y problemas gastrointestinales. Pero esto no es lo que importa de sus diarios. Lo que importa aquí es la profunda alevosía por la vida que tiene. Sus ganas de vivir. De escribir. De ser él en sus aspectos más notables.
No es de extrañar que sus diarios conformen un retrato único de la época que vivió, tanto en Alemania como en Zurich o en Estados Unidos, no serían pocos los intelectuales que le visitaban. Mann era muy amigo de sus amigos, los veneraba, los invitaba y los hacía parte de su vida más íntima. Invitándoles a numerosas tardes de té, cenas y salidas. Mann era un asiduo de la ópera y el teatro, de escuchar música como solo una persona sensible como él puede hacer. Adoraba escuchar música por las noches, escribir por las mañanas, hablar y estar con su esposa Katia y sus hijos, tomar el té a la tarde o los perros. Era un hombre profundamente humano y profundamente sensible por lo que le rodeaba, a tal punto que tuvo que exiliarse en 1933 a Suiza. Debido al profundo rechazo ante la ascensión de Hitler en Alemania, a quien nombraba como “anticristo”. Tendría una gran influencia de otros artistas, sobre todo y especialmente de Goethe, de quien era un fervoroso investigador y estudiante.
Sin duda estamos ante unos diarios que destacan por su sutileza ante lo cotidiano, lo que rige al hombre moderno y a su vez interesado en lo más mítico, lo que simboliza a un hombre que ante todo tenía ya su vida recorrida y solo debía pensar en escribir. Él tuvo esa suerte, como muy pocos la tuvieron antes y ahora. Vemos que en aquellos años escribió José y sus hermanos, Carlota en Weimar, y su La montaña mágica ya era famosa en un orden internacional. Mann se trabajó su suerte, hizo de su destino algo por lo que valió la pena luchar. El arte aquí tiene forma, nutriéndose de sus vivencias diarias, sus temores y sus deseos. Estamos aquí ante todo con las palabras de alguien que luchó por seguir su camino. Al margen pero totalmente imbuido por la política de aquella época. Thomas Mann era un hombre valeroso, de alto poder de palabra e influyente en los círculos más académicos.
February 14, 2021
These were not very introspective diaries, nor were there particularly heart-rending confrontations between artist and world, etc. He wrote about his day and his thoughts on politics at the time; it's advertised as 1918-1939 but theres a gap between 1921 and 1931, such that the book covers the end of World War 1, and the long beginnings of World War 2. Very plain slice-of-life, with the additions then of those political commentaries, which are primarily of use as a third-degree exposition of Mann's thought (first degree being the novels themselves, second being his essays and his Nonpolitical Reflections book). As such, they provide interesting companions; his almost completely erroneous predictions for Europe as the Treaty of Versailles was being signed play as a natural conclusion to the many errors underpinning the Non-Political Reflections, and also as an interesting analog to the Magic Mountain, where Mann seems to espouse the same delusions and tragic faith that his characters are hold in the novel (which seemed deliberate, but now it's not so clear). The World War 2 stuff is no doubt the confused and pained pregnancy for the destruction of German culture, inverse-mirrored in the latter half of the Joseph Tetralogy and very strikingly given in Faustus. No doubt anyone interested in the rise of Fascism, at least in Germany, would be interested in Mann, one of the leading representative humanitarian intellectuals in his country, giving his immediate and detailed thoughts on the desperate string of domestic evils in Weimar as the Nazi party settled into power. As for the rest, a reader who's not acquainted with the extremely political and class centric focus of Mann's thought about his work may be surprised, but this can be found more interesting elsewhere; the rest is mostly amusing for a look into the modest and cheeky language of his daily life. (By the way, in this edition at least, there's not terribly much about Mann's homosexuality; a few brief reflections and more than a few pointed comments on beautiful men he saw in his day, but nothing saucy.)
June 9, 2024
Intrigerende dagboekaantekeningen over een lange, veelbetekenende periode. Steeds vormt de actuele politieke situatie de achtergrond van wat Mann dagelijks meemaakt en bezighoudt. Je ziet hem in zijn denken en levenshouding veranderen: van een man die liever beschouwend en op afstand van de politiek blijft, tot een man die keuzes maakt en in het nazisme zijn belangrijkste front vindt en tenslotte Duitsland zal verlaten.
Indrukwekkend is de brief die aan het eind is opgenomen. Mann reageert daar op het besluit van de universiteit van Bonn hem het eredoctoraat dat eerder verleend werd, te ontnemen. Zijn lange en felle antwoordbrief besluit hij met:
'Het lijden is groot. En zoals een mens, die uit religieuze schroom de naam van de Allerhoogste gewoonlijk moeilijk over de lippen, of zelfs maar uit de pen brengt, toch in ogenblikken van diepe ontroering deze naam niet kan ontberen om het allerlaatste uit te drukken, zo vraag ik u mij toe te staan - daar alles toch niet kan worden gezegd - dit antwoord te besluiten met de bede:
God moge ons verduisterd en misbruikte land helpen en het leren vrede te sluiten met de wereld en met zichzelf.'
Het is dan 1937. Er zullen nog vele verschrikkelijke jaren volgen.
Indrukwekkend is de brief die aan het eind is opgenomen. Mann reageert daar op het besluit van de universiteit van Bonn hem het eredoctoraat dat eerder verleend werd, te ontnemen. Zijn lange en felle antwoordbrief besluit hij met:
'Het lijden is groot. En zoals een mens, die uit religieuze schroom de naam van de Allerhoogste gewoonlijk moeilijk over de lippen, of zelfs maar uit de pen brengt, toch in ogenblikken van diepe ontroering deze naam niet kan ontberen om het allerlaatste uit te drukken, zo vraag ik u mij toe te staan - daar alles toch niet kan worden gezegd - dit antwoord te besluiten met de bede:
God moge ons verduisterd en misbruikte land helpen en het leren vrede te sluiten met de wereld en met zichzelf.'
Het is dan 1937. Er zullen nog vele verschrikkelijke jaren volgen.
November 26, 2021
Een kleine selectie uit de dagboeken waaruit ik beduidend meer over het dagelijks leven te weten kwam, maar belangrijker vond ik de strijd die er in te lezen valt met de veranderende wereld, het veranderend Duitsland. Soms vond ik de beschreven tweestrijd haast herkenbaar in het hier en nu.
De beide teksten van Mann die als aanhangsel toegevoegd zijn, de brief aan dhr Korrodi en de brief aan de deken van de universiteit van Bonn zijn alleen al voldoende om het belang van deze auteur te voelen
De beide teksten van Mann die als aanhangsel toegevoegd zijn, de brief aan dhr Korrodi en de brief aan de deken van de universiteit van Bonn zijn alleen al voldoende om het belang van deze auteur te voelen
October 24, 2018
Large book but a small part of Mann's lifelong diary, most of which he destroyed. He holds nothing back, whether the topic is politics or his sexual feelings or his family. It's pretty easy to follow despite the light hand of the editor.
November 7, 2022
Prachtige inkijk in het dagelijks leven van één van de grootste 20ste eeuwse Europese schrijvers in één van de meest woelige periodes van de recente geschiedenis.
March 23, 2024
Prachtig inkijkje
Read
January 22, 2009I got a copy of this tonight for ten dollars. My copy is the Harry N. Abrams hardcover edition published in 1982. I've just spent about an hour and a half looking though it. Thomas Mann is one of my heroes. He was a man of erudition, dignity and imagination.
When a diary has an index, a chief pleasure is looking at the names and seeing what the author said about a particular person. Mann knew Einstein, had dinner with FDR and Eleanor at the White House, had a party thrown for him by Jack Warner in Hollywood and was greeted in New York, Chicago, Boston and Salt Lake City as if he were a statesman. A lot of this was arranged by Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher, himself.
Mann was an ultimate example of the lionized intellectual. His anti-Nazi stance made him, indeed, a political figure. This diary ends on December 31st, 1939. Mann writes from Princeton, New Jersey. Hitler has invaded Poland in September. Mann is appalled at the devastation he knows Hitler is about to inflict on Europe.
This diary shows an outspoken humanitarian author, exiled from the country of his birth, touring the world and encountering world leaders, international authors and his fellow German exiles.
Mann lived until 1955, and I imagine there exists a book of his later diaries. But this particular diary, from 1918 through 1939, interests me because that is an era I've studied. The movies, music and history of that time loom large in my mind. To think of Mann going to the movies (which he did a lot in America), playing bocce (which he did in Kansas City, if the caption to the picture showing him doing it is correct) and being interviewed in front of large audiences in almost every major American city, is a little disorienting. He is the 20th century's great 19th-century European. He is too urbane to betray much discomfort, but one gets a sense of a man who finds his good fortune a little perverse.
When a diary has an index, a chief pleasure is looking at the names and seeing what the author said about a particular person. Mann knew Einstein, had dinner with FDR and Eleanor at the White House, had a party thrown for him by Jack Warner in Hollywood and was greeted in New York, Chicago, Boston and Salt Lake City as if he were a statesman. A lot of this was arranged by Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher, himself.
Mann was an ultimate example of the lionized intellectual. His anti-Nazi stance made him, indeed, a political figure. This diary ends on December 31st, 1939. Mann writes from Princeton, New Jersey. Hitler has invaded Poland in September. Mann is appalled at the devastation he knows Hitler is about to inflict on Europe.
This diary shows an outspoken humanitarian author, exiled from the country of his birth, touring the world and encountering world leaders, international authors and his fellow German exiles.
Mann lived until 1955, and I imagine there exists a book of his later diaries. But this particular diary, from 1918 through 1939, interests me because that is an era I've studied. The movies, music and history of that time loom large in my mind. To think of Mann going to the movies (which he did a lot in America), playing bocce (which he did in Kansas City, if the caption to the picture showing him doing it is correct) and being interviewed in front of large audiences in almost every major American city, is a little disorienting. He is the 20th century's great 19th-century European. He is too urbane to betray much discomfort, but one gets a sense of a man who finds his good fortune a little perverse.
April 14, 2019
I picked up this book to learn more about the man who wrote one of the most challenging books I've ever read (The Magic Mountain). I gained a lot from this look at his everyday life--his daily routines, health, relationships, literary projects, and of course his anger, frustration, and grief at what was happening in his beloved Germany and the slowness of outside nations to react. I am definitely now moved to read his other works.
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