Thomas Mann (June 6, 1875 - August 12, 1955) was a German writer.
Born in Lübeck. He lived in Munich, from 1891 until 1933. He emigrated from Nazi Germany to Küsnacht near Zürich, Switzerland in 1933, then in 1942 to Pacific Palisades, California, USA, returned to Europe in 1952, and lived in Kilchberg near Zürich where he died in 1955.
He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929.
Younger brother of Heinrich Mann.
Father of Klaus, Erika, Golo (full Angelus Gottfried Thomas), Monika, Elisabeth and Michael Mann.
Gay themes are prominent in his writings, especially Death in Venice. Mann's diaries, unsealed in 1975, speak movingly of his own struggles with his homosexual desires, which found reflection in his works. Mann described his feelings for young violinist and painter Paul Ehrenberg the "central experience of my heart". Mann was married for fifty years and had six children.
His works include:
- Little Herr Friedemann (1898) = Der kleine Herr Friedemann
- Buddenbrooks (1901)
- Tonio Kröger (1903)
- Royal Highness (1909) = Königliche Hoheit
- Death in Venice (1912) = Der Tod in Venedig
- Reflections of an Unpolitical Man (1918) = Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen
- The German Republic (1922) = Von deutscher Republik
- The Magic Mountain (1924) = Der Zauberberg
- Disorder and Early Sorrow (1926) = Unordnung und frühes Leid
- Mario and the Magician (1930) = Mario und der Zauberer
- Joseph and His Brothers (1933-43) = Joseph und seine Brüder
- The Problem of Freedom (1937) = Das Problem der Freiheit
- Lotte in Weimar or The Beloved Returns (1939)
- The Transposed Heads (1940) = Die vertauschten Köpfe - Eine indische Legende
- Doctor Faustus (1947) = Doktor Faustus
- The Holy Sinner (1951) = Der Erwählte
- Confessions of Felix Krull Confidence Man, The Early Years (1922/1954) = Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull. Der Memoiren erster Teil
see also Western canon
