(First published in 1918, "Man of Straw" is a sharp indict...)
First published in 1918, "Man of Straw" is a sharp indictment of the Wilhelmine regime and a chilling warning against the joint elevation of militarism and commercial values. The "Man of Straw" is Diederich Hessling, an embodiment of the corrupt society in which he moves; his brutish progression through life forms the central theme of the book.
(Heinrich Mann's most acclaimed work is a spectacular epic...)
Heinrich Mann's most acclaimed work is a spectacular epic that recounts the wars, political machinations, rival religious sects, and backstage plots that marked the birth of the French Republic.
(The novel recounts two decades of chaos and war that led ...)
The novel recounts two decades of chaos and war that led to the triumphant founding of the French Republic and culminated in the King's assassination in 1589.
Heinrich Mann was a German novelist and essayist, a socially committed writer whose best-known works are attacks on the authoritarian social structure of German society under Emperor William II.
Background
Ethnicity:
Heinrich Mann's father was German, while mother came from a German-Portugese-Creole family.
Heinrich Mann was born on March 27, 1871, in Lübeck, Germany. He was the oldest child of Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann and his wife Julia da Silva Bruhns. He was followed by Thomas (1875-1955), Julia ( 1877-1927) and Carla (1881-1910) and his youngest brother Viktor (1890-1949). His brother Thomas Mann was also a novelist. Heinrich spent his childhood in well protected and financially secure familial surroundings. His father was a senator for economics and finance in Lübeck. His father came from an affluent family of grain merchants and was a senator of the Hanseatic city. After the death of his father, his mother moved the family to Munich, where Heinrich began his career as a free novelist.
Education
Mann's education consisted of attendance at a private preparatory school until 1889. After graduating from the Katharineum Gymnasium in his hometown, Mann went to Dresden and then to Berlin. In 1891-1892 he studied at the Friedrich Wilhelm University. During this time he began to write seriously.
While attending lectures at the university, Mann began working for a publishing house in Berlin. He wrote impressions, sketches, novelettes, and some poetry. His first novel, In einer Familie (1894), was published at his mother's expense. It was as a reviewer that he made a name for himself from 1891 to 1896. Between 1895 and 1898 he spent most of his time in Italy, much of it with his brother Thomas.
Mann's first creative phase began with a realistic, even naturalistic novel entitled Im Schlaraffenland (1900; In the Land of Cockaigne). This was followed by two more novels, Die Göttinnen (1903; Diana), a glorification of estheticism, and Die Jagd nach Liebe (1903; Pursuit of Love), another novel of decadence.
In 1905 the book on which Mann's early fame rested was published, the novel Professor Unrat, oder: Das Ende eines Tyrannen (The Blue Angel), followed 2 years later by his novel Zwischen den Rassen. Usually recognized as one of his masterpieces, the novel Die kleine Stadt (1909; The Little Town) told the story of a visit of a company of actors to a small Italian town.
In his next creative phase Mann played a prominent role as a social critic of his country. His first important wartime document was his famous essay on Zola, which appeared in 1915. This caused a complete breakdown of relations between the two brothers, and Thomas composed a reply in which he referred to Heinrich only as the Zivilisationsliterat, the man who represents French spirit and wants to Romanize Germany. This alienation between Heinrich and Thomas lasted until January 1922.
During the war years Mann started his powerful critique of German society, a trilogy entitled Das Kaiserreich, which was to become his greatest success. It was published in November 1918. Its continuation, Die Armen (The Poor), a novel about the proletariat and a bitter indictment of the ruling classes, appeared in 1917. The last volume, Der Kopf (The Chief), a critique of bureaucracy, diplomacy, and industry, came out in 1925.
In 1927 Mann moved to Berlin and reached the climax of his career. Two years later, however, the Nazis, whom he had attacked and publicly warned against, came to power, and on February 21, 1933 he emigrated to France. His historical studies now bore fruit, and his magnum opus appeared: Die Jugend des Königs Henri IV (1935; Young Henry of Navarre) and Die Vollendung des Königs Henri IV (1938; Henry, King of France).
Mann's final creative period was spent in exile in the United States. He wrote four more books in this decade. Lidice (1943) dealt with the annihilation of an entire Czech town; another novel in dialogue form, Die traurige Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen (published posthumously in 1956), remained a fragment. Partly autobiographical were his last two books, Empfang bei der Welt (1943) and Ein Zeitalter wird besichtigt (1945; Review of an Age). He died on March 12, 1950.
Heinrich Mann was considered to be the man who represents the French spirit and wants to Romanize Germany. In many essays, Heinrich Mann expresses his democratic views, which inclined towards idealistic communism, but he was repelled by the totalitarian aspects developed under official Communism. He attacked the authoritarian and increasingly militaristic nature of pre-World War II German society.
Views
Together with Albert Einstein and other celebrities during 1932, Mann was a signatory to the "Urgent Call for Unity", asking the voters to reject the Nazis. Einstein and Mann had previously co-authored a letter during 1931 condemning the murder of Croatian scholar Milan Šufflay. Mann became persona non grata in Nazi Germany and left even before the Reichstag fire of 1933. He went to France where he lived in Paris and Nice. During the German occupation, he made his way through collaborationist Vichy France to Marseille, where he was aided by Varian Fry during 1940 to escape to Spain. He eventually escaped to Portugal and then to America. The Nazis burnt Heinrich Mann's books as "contrary to the German spirit" during the infamous book burning of May 10, 1933, which was instigated by the then Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
Membership
Literary Section of the Prussian Academy of Arts
Interests
Philosophers & Thinkers
Nietzsche, d'Annunzio
Artists
Giacomo Puccini
Connections
Heinrich Mann married Maria Kanova (an actress) in August 1914. They divorced in 1930. He then married Nelly Kroeger (a nurse) in 1939. She died in 1944. He had a daughter from Kanova.