Heinrich Mann

Luiz (Ludwig) Heinrich Mann (German: [ˈhaɪ̯n.ʁɪç ˈman] (listen); 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950) was a German novelist who wrote works with social themes. From 1930 until 1933 he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy of Arts. His numerous criticisms of the growth of National Socialism forced him to flee Germany after the National Socialist German Workers Party came to power during 1933.

Heinrich Mann, 1906

Early life

Born in Lübeck, as the oldest child of Senator Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann, grain merchant and finance minister of the Free City of Lübeck, a state of the German Empire, and Júlia da Silva Bruhns. He was the elder brother of novelist Thomas Mann.[1] The Mann family was an affluent family of grain merchants of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. After the death of his father, his mother relocated the family to Munich, where Heinrich began his career as a freier Schriftsteller (free novelist).

Work

Mann's essay on Émile Zola and the novel Der Untertan (first published 1905) earned him much respect during the Weimar Republic, since they satirized Imperial German society. Later, in 1930, his book Professor Unrat was freely adapted into the movie Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel). Carl Zuckmayer wrote the script, and Josef von Sternberg was the director. Mann wanted his paramour, the actress Trude Hesterberg, to play the main female part as the "actress" Lola Lola (named Rosa Fröhlich in the novel), but Marlene Dietrich was given the part, her first sound role.

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 to Marseille, where he was aided by Varian Fry during 1940 to escape to Spain. With him were his wife Nelly Kröger, his nephew Golo Mann, Alma Mahler-Werfel and Franz Werfel. After arriving in Portugal, the group stayed in Monte Estoril, at the Grande Hotel D’Itália, between 18 September and 4 October 1940.[2] On 4 October 1940, they boarded the S.S. Nea Hellas, headed for New York City.

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.

Later life
Mann's grave in Berlin

During the 1930s and later in American exile, Mann's literary popularity waned. Nevertheless, he wrote Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre and Die Vollendung des Königs Henri Quatre as part of the Exilliteratur. The two novels described the life and importance of Henry IV of France and were acclaimed by his brother Thomas Mann, who spoke of the "great splendour and dynamic art" of the work. The plot, based on Europe's early modern history from a French perspective, anticipated the end of French–German enmity.

His second wife, Nelly Mann (1898–1944), committed suicide in Los Angeles.

Heinrich Mann died on March 11, 1950, sixteen days before his 79th birthday, in Santa Monica, California, lonely and without much money, just months before he was to relocate to East Berlin to become president of the German Academy of Arts. His ashes were later taken to East Germany and were interred at the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery in a grave of honor.

Mann was portrayed by Alec Guinness in the 1992 television adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play Tales from Hollywood.

In Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman (2001) he was played by Jürgen Hentsch.

Film adaptations
  • The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg (Germany, 1930, based on the novel Professor Unrat)
  • Der Untertan, directed by Wolfgang Staudte (East Germany, 1951, based on the novel Der Untertan)
  • The Blue Angel, directed by Edward Dmytryk (USA, 1959, based on the novel Professor Unrat)
  • Madame Legros, directed by Michael Kehlmann (West Germany, 1968, TV film, based on the play Madame Legros)
  • Man of Straw, directed by Herbert Wise (UK, 1972, TV miniseries, based on the novel Der Untertan)
  • Im Schlaraffenland, directed by Kurt Jung-Alsen (East Germany, 1975, TV film, based on the novel Im Schlaraffenland)
  • Belcanto oder Darf eine Nutte schluchzen?, directed by Robert van Ackeren (West Germany, 1977, based on the novel Empfang bei der Welt)
  • Die Verführbaren, directed by Helmut Schiemann (East Germany, 1977, TV film, based on the novel Ein ernstes Leben)
  • Le Roi qui vient du sud, directed by Marcel Camus and Heinz Schirk (France, 1979, TV miniseries, based on the novel Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre)
  • Im Schlaraffenland, directed by Fritz Umgelter (West Germany, 1981, TV film, based on the novel Im Schlaraffenland)
  • Suturp – Eine Liebesgeschichte, directed by Gerd Keil (East Germany, 1981, TV film, based on the short story Suturp)
  • Die traurige Geschichte von Friedrich dem Großen, directed by Alexander Lang (East Germany, 1983, TV film, based on the unfinished Die traurige Geschichte von Friedrich dem Großen)
  • Varieté, directed by Martin Eckermann (East Germany, 1985, TV film, based on the play Varieté)
  • Endstation Harembar, directed by Rainer Wolffhardt (Germany, 1992, TV film, based on the novel Ein ernstes Leben)
  • Henri 4, directed by Jo Baier (Germany, 2010, based on the novels Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre and Die Vollendung des Königs Henri Quatre)

See also

References
  1. Liukkonen, Petri. "Heinrich Mann". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013.
  2. Exiles Memorial Center.

Further reading
  • Gross, David: The Writer and Society: Heinrich Mann and Literary Politics in Germany, 1890–1940, Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1980, (ISBN 0-391-00972-9)
  • Juers, Evelyn: House of Exile: The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann, Giramondo Publishing Co., Australia, 2008, (ISBN 978-1-920882-44-0)
  • Mauthner, Martin: German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940, Vallentine Mitchell, London, 2007, (ISBN 978-0-85303-540-4).
  • Walter Fähnders/Walter Delabar: Heinrich Mann (1871–1950). Berlin 2005 (Memoria 4)
  • Heinrich Mann's life in California during World War II, including his relationship with Nelly Mann, Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, is a subject of Christopher Hampton's play Tales from Hollywood, where he was played in film by Jeremy Irons (BBC Video Performance: “Tales from Hollywood”, 1992) and on stage by Keir Dullea (Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2012).
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