Recurrent themes in the works of thomas mann

Citation preview

tyOVM Of IHoMKS

UMI Number: U453969

All rights reserved INFO RM ATIO N TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.

Dissertation Publishing

UMI U453969 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346

0 0 Page

1

■ Introduction^

'T

S

■

Chapter 1

Mann and the Bttrgertum ~ from the ■'bourgeois milieu of Suddenhroolcs to the conception of an intellectual and cultural trad­ dition.

Chapter 3

The Artist and the Conflict ~ Hann*s increasing confidence'in the value of his role as literary artist and his ultimate convict­ ion that the artist is represent­ ative of the people among whom he lives.

Page 41 : .Chapter 3

Preoccupation with Sickness and Death - a feature of nearly all Mann's works, shown in "Der Zauberberg1' to be a means towards achieving fulness of life1*;

Page 69

Chapter 4

The Stars in his Heaven. ~ Goethe*’ Schopenhauer*, Wagner and Nietz-p sche - growing understanding and knowledge with the passage iSf time.

Page 111:

Chapter 5

Page 140:

Chapter 6

The' Idea of Humanity, especially in the Joseph cycle.

Page 161:

Chapter 7

Doktor Faustus - Mann's last novel regarded as a work made up of the recurrent themes discussed in' earlier chapters.

Page 180:

Chapter 8

Page 196:

Bibliography*,

Page 34 :

.Thomas Mann as European - from.' German Nationalist to European Democrat.

: Conclusion ~ summary of findings in- earlier chapters - the growth that characterises Mann1s work from 1900 to 1948*

\v-

-;.;y

1

Intr^idtion. This study is an attempt to follow the develop­ ment of certain frequently recurrent themes in the works of Thomas Mann, From his youngest days certain themes have held his attention; it is as if he had laid the foundations in his youth and had steadily ‘built on then ever since. To the casual reader there may not seem to he a great deal in common between "Budderibrooks M and "Doktor Faustus”; and yet close inspection does reveal similarities of theme and treatment; anyone who has read the intervening works cannot fail to see that there are striking resemblances between those two extremes of Mann’s production, works separated by close on half a century of time and all the changes that so long a period can bring with it in the life of an author. That iB not to say that there has been little change or development in Mann* s work over a period of fifty years. Such a conclusion would be manifestly untrue’, as we have already acknowledged ( b y saying that the resemblances between MBudderibrooks** and "Doktor Faustus” are not at once apparent. Thomas Mann has grown and developed during his long life as a novelist; that is one of the points on which attention will be focussed in the course of this study. It is not difficult to say what are the themes that have most consistently engaged Thomas Mann. One

need only .think of his last important worky “Doktor' Faustus”, in the light of what has gone before, and they spring to one's mind. In “Doktor Faustus" we find the artist, Leverktthn, the last and most interesting representative of a long line, and the Bttrger, Zeitblcm, in whom it is not difficult to see features shared by Dr. Riemer in “Lotte in Weimar”, the professor in “Unordnung und frtthes Leid”, and even the Budderibrooksv Wagner's music is expressly mentioned in “Doktor Faustus” and the mention of his name sets a whole train of thought in motion; for the reader of Mann's work, it is impossible to think of Wagner without thinking of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche as well. It is clear that Leverktthn is largely a portrait of Nietzsche. The title, “Doktor Faustus”, reminds us of the frequency with which Goethe appears in Mann’s works from the “Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen” onwards. And, finally, this is a book about Germany, and Germany’s relation to the rest of Europe has been a subject of continual interest to Thomas Mann at least since the First World War. From the realisation that Mann in this last work gives us the final development of themes that have occupied him for many years, we learn much about his nature. He broods for years upon an.. idea that appeals to him. and treats it again and again*. If we want to find our way inside Thomas Mann’s mind, we must watch that

mind at work, linger over and return to thoughts which have often occupied him, and theni perhaps, Thomas Mann will “become a part of us and we of him in a way pf

.

which the superficial, hasty reader knows nothing. It is worth while tlooking twice at anything that Thomas Mann says twice, because he is much too self-conscious an artist to indulge in repetition for no good reason. Thomas Mann does not only treat the same themes more than once in his works; he also frequently repeats literally a turn of phrase that has pleased him. His works are full of literal repetitions, some of which may occur after as long as twenty years# For instance, the tall woman with frequent migraines, a musical dis­ position, eyes that lie too close together and the name Gerda occurs first of all in "Der kleine Herr Friedemann" and then a year or two later in "Budderibrooks" • Again, Thomas Mann’s Wagner criticism is full of literal self­ quotations. A happy turn of phrase first uttered in 1911 pleases him so much that he repeats it almost verbatim in a lecture, "Leiden und Gr&sse El chard Wagners" in 19S3 and then quotes his own words again in 1937 in the lecture "Eiehard Wagner und der ’Ring des Nibelungen* "# The original passage from an essay "Ueber die Kunst Eiehard Wagners" (1911) began* "Wunderbare Stunden tiefen, einsamen Glileks inmitten der Theatermenge" and it occurs in only slightly modified form in the later works. Another passage in which both Ibsen and Wagner are

......'

..

• r,

referred to

..

... ,. ....

; -... . r,

., T. ...

*4

ii as "northern wizards is first used in the

essay "Ibsen und Wagner" (Die Forderung des Tages) and occurs again in "Leiden und Grttsse Richard Wagners" years later, A thought from Carlyle’s biography of Frederick the Great that impressed him, the idea that the Reform­ ation was offered to all countries* but accepted by some only, seems to have stayed in his mind, because he mentions it twice in exactly the same words, once in a passage in "Rede und Antwort" (Carlyle’s ’Friedrich’) and again in the chapter entitled "Glauben" of the "Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen". The above examples have been cited - and others could be found - to show how this author loves to dwell on the same ideas and to come back to them after a period of years. Mann finds no satisfaction in springing from one idea to another; the whole of his life’s work has been built up on foundations laid in his early days. The literal repetition of words used in one work in a later one is of course less important than the recurrence of the major themes which we have mentioned;/ but it is symptomatic of the larger repetition and interesting on that account* The recurrence of certain themes throughout the life work of an important author like Thomas Mann at once suggests that it would be profitable to take the most significant of those themes and study their

development from their earliest appearances to thev present day. That is in fact what has "been done in the following study. I have not discussed every single appearance of each theme in Mann1s work, because that would result in too elaborate treatment, but have attempted' to select typical and important manifestations from every period of his literary activity, from the early short stories and “Buddenbrooks” to the ”Neue Studien” which appeared in 1948. There are other reeurriakg themes in the works of Thomas Mann in addition to those discussed in the following pages. For instance, Mann has for long dis­ played considerable interest in Tolstoi and Dosto-jewski, and has written more than one critical essay on each of those great Russians. But Tolstoi and Dostojewski cannot be said to occupy anything like the same position in Mann’s work as Goethe and Wagner. They are discussed several times, but do not have the same determining effect as the four great Germans whose place in Mann’s works is dealt with in Chapter 4. Similar observations apply to other themes in Mann’s works. Only the most significant are dealt with here, because it seems more profitable to discuss a few important themes thoroughly than to say a little about a great many. Chapter 7 is devoted entirely to Mann’s last novel, ’’Doktor Faustus”. This work is allotted a separate chapter because, to the best of my knowledge,

6 it has not been discussed at length in England and also because, in a study of recurrent themes in the works of Thomas Mann, it seemed only right that a hook illustrating the latest stage of development of so many of these should receive separate treatment. It also seemed to me that something should he said in protest against the very unjust review given in the "Times Literary Supplement" of May 6th, 1949. The reviewer says, among other things: ‘*Zeitblom is portrayed as a bore of the first water". "...J&eitblom, shocked but loyal to Hitler (until made rather forcibly aware of the letter’s crimes) seems to exemplify that figure, famed in song and .story, the "good German1* misled by his leaders." "The book’s failing is that none of these characters - Leverktthn, Zeitblom, and the rest ~ ever comes alive." It is a pleasure to record that other English reviewers, like Goronwy Rees, in the "Spectator" of May 6th, 1949, and Giles Romilly in the "Hew Statesman and Nation" of September 10th, 1949, appreciate "Doktor Faustus" at something like its true worth. Romilly calls it "his greatest book". Edwin Muir, too, gives an excellent short review in the "Observer" of 1st May, 1949. Of the reviews mentioned here, this is perhaps the most moderate and the truest evaluation of this controversial book. It is worth while noting that EQWIn Muir calls the character of Zeitblom an "indisputable

triumph". It is the more regrettable that a paper of the standing of the "Times Literary Supplement" should allow a review to appear which contains statements which are complete misrepresentations of the truth about "Doktor Faustus"', and which show that the reviewer has either not understood the character of Zeitblom, or has not read the whole of the book. As far as I am aware, no one has written any critical work on Thomas Mann which deals with his production from "Buddenbrooks" to ’’Doktor Faustus";. It seemed to me hecessary that some one should write such a work. The recurring themes that I have dealt with have been recognised by other writers, but I have enjoyed the advantage of seeing them at a later stage of develop­ ment than my predecessors', and have been able to lead the study of each theme to a definite conclusion. The publication of "Doktor Faustus" has made it possible to see the whole of Thomas Mann*s work in better per­ spective than hitherto. This is particularly true when one regards his production from the point of view pf the dominant themes. If this study serves to show the unity that exists In Thomas Mann1s writings from the first short stories to "Doctor Faustus", its purpose will have been achieved*,

8 Chapter 1; Mann and the ’’Blirgertum1’•

There can he no doubt that his relation to the Btlrgertum is one of the most important of the recurring themes in Mann’s works. From the earliest times, Mann; has concerned himself to a great extent with the class in which he had his origina it might truthfully he said =fehat this theme and that of his relation to Germany are the two which occur most frequently in his work* It might for that reason have been more logical to group, the discussi@n of Matin’s relation to the Btlrgertum along With that of his relation to Germany and Europe* But that would have disturbed the chronological order whichll have attempted to observe in this study; the different themes are discussed in the order in which they first appear in Mann’s works, as far as possible* Mann first deals with the German Btlrgertum in '‘Budderibrooks”. Yet perhaps that statement is too general to be completely true. The people he deals i with in that work are mostly his own family and close family connexions; all of them-are citiaens of Lhbeck# He is not yet thinking of the Btirger as the heir of a long tradition, the tradition that produced Mrer, Goethe, Wagner and Schopenhauer* He is thinking of particular manifestations of the tradition rather than of the tradition itself* Perhaps he has not become conscious enough of his origin to do more than record what he has seen and read of his own

family1*] ' Thomas Mann is very ironical in his treatment of the Bttrger in '‘Baddenhrooks*’* We are shown all the

'

weaknesses of those people in this "book* We see how Johann Buddehbrook is prepared to sacrifice his daughter* happiness to the demands of ■the family and the firm*!-We see the little falsehoods of the bourgeois life* the determination to do things correctly, and we watch successive generations of the family having greater and greater difficulties in fulfilling their obligations to this tradition. We smile at the piety of Johann Buddehbrook the younger, knowing that it conceals a great deal of business acumen; he feels that it is perfectly right and natural that his stepbrother Gotthold should be partly disinherited because he has married into a family of shopkeepers; we can see that Johann the younger lacks the poise and self-assurance of his father. His religion and his business instinct often make a comical combination, as i# the scene with his father in Part 1, Chapter 10, when he tries in the namejaf flfhristian charity to persuade his father to give his brother his full share of the family fortune, and closes his plea by saying that

would be cheaper

in the long run to do so. As time goes on, it becomes harder and harder for individual Buddenbrooks to live up to the family tradition. Christian does not attempt to do so; Thomas

10 tries hard for a long time-, Tout it goes against his nature to do so, and, although, he is outwardly success­ ful; he destroys himself in the attempt. Toni4, Thomas* s sister, is the only member of the family; who, in spite of all the blows she has suffered in life, retains all the hardiness and resilience of her grandfather. She feels that it is right and natural for her to marry a merchant, who must be rich, so that she can carry on in the way to which she is accustomed. She is twice married and both marriages are failures; but Toni remains essentially unaffected. She is the real Buddenbrook among the younger generation. We see that Thomas Mann smiles at a great deal ih the behaviour of the Btlrger in MBudderibrookeHi. He sees through all their pretence, their love of keeping up appearances, their insistence On material comfort, their elgnnishness, their little snobberies; and yet, in spite of it all, he is never hostile to them;.: We feel that he admires the virtues of those people, that he looks on their way of life as a good way of life on the whole, with its moments of dignity and grace; every now and then we do see them in a situation where they5 are shown up to great advantage. It is not difficult to see that Thomas Mann was himself of the milieu described in uBudderibrooksuf he sees through it so thoroughly, and yet gives the impression all the time that he views it with a kindly, indulgent eye?*; His attitude is very different when he comes

to deal in HBuddenbrc>oksu with the upstart "bourgeois Hagenstrttms. They do not belong; they are trying to assimilate centuries centuries' of tradition in a few years, and the result is not a happy one. The real patrician families of the city can only view theii* attempts with scorn, although the HagenstrUms have every financial advantage behind them. From the above we can gather thailf'Bttrgerlichkeit", even in ’‘Buddenbrooks”, was not so much depend­ ent on the size of one's income as on the tradition in which one had grown up. This is a feeling that gains ground in Mann’s writings with the passage of time. In HToiJo Krttger”, written only a few years later than nBuddenbrooksM, we see Tonio’s artist’s nature and his "BUrgerlieftkeit'* in a tense relation to one another, which is sometimes that of conflict and sometimes that of a great longing of the one for the other. Tbnio is never tired of emphasising his origin; he is "kein Zigeuner im grttnen WagenH; his father is an important merchant and a consul; his family means something in the towm; his teachers have to handle him carefully for that reason; in spite of his artistic endowment Tonio is proud of his lineage and likes to think of his father; dresses in the good old family tradition because it is bad enough to be conscious of his artist’s nature within; he is de­ termined not to look Bohemian in the eyes of the world.

12 In ’’Tonio Krttger” Thomas Mann is already soften­ ing in his attitude to the Btlrger# We have tried to show that, at its sharpest, his irony against his own milieu is never unkind; hut in ’’Tonio Erttger", that work of intense personal confession, Mann reveals the deep desire in his heart to belong to the ’’Btlrgertum” that produced him. The ordinary, successful, handsome child at school, Hans Hansen, who was completely unproblematical, became the object of Tonio’s longing#, ItjLs becoming very clear that if Thomas Mann poked fun at the ’’Btlrgertum” in ’’Budderibrooks” he did so wishing all the time that he could feel himself as part of it# In his ’’Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen” (1917), Mann devotes a whole long chapter to the analysis of German ’’Btlrgerliehkeit”, with special reference to himself# In this work he sees himself as the late heir of a long tradition. His predecessors were men like Goethe, Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche, all examples of great artists originating from the ’’Btlrgertum”. The artist born into this tradition is a specifically German phenomenon, he says, and goes on to establish his own origin in the following words: ’’Man forscht in den Btlchern, man forscht in der Not der Zeit nach den fernsten Ursprflngen, den legltimen Grundlagen, den ftltesten seelischen Ueberlieferungen des bedr&ngten,Ich, man forscht nach Rechtf ertigung# .. -

15 ”Wer bin ich, woher komme ich, dass ich bin.', wie leli bin, und mieh nicht anders machen noeh v/llnschen kann? Danaeh forscht man iii Zeiten seelischer Bedr&ig&isi -• Ich bin St&dter, Bttrger, ein Kind und Urenkelkind deutschbtlrgerlieher Kultur, Waren meine Ahnen nicht Ntlrriberger Handworker von jjenem Schlage, den Deutschland in alle Welt und bis in den fernen Osten entsandte, zum ZBichen, es sei das Land der St&dte? Sie sassen als Ratsherren im Meclcleriburgischen, sie kamen nach Liibeck, sie waren ’’Kaufleute des rtSmischeh Reiches”, - und indem ich die Gesc£ichte ihres Hauses, eine zum naturalistischen Roman entwickelte st&dtische Chronik schrieb, ein deutsches Buch, das man wohl auf ein Bord mit den Schriftwerken der biirgerlichen Vorzeit stellen mag, erwies ich mich als viel weniger aus der Art geschlagen-, als ich selber rnir tr&umen lietrsV” * Mann has now established his own origin and nature* One can hear the note of pride in these lines* As he has grown older, he has come to see iriore and more that he is born into a great tradition. He may have poked fun fct the class he originated from in ’’Budderibrooks” , but he is coming to think more and more of it. in the pages that follow he thinks of great German artists who were born into this same . tradition - Storm, Wagner, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. In “Der Zauberberg”, his next important work, Mann again created a hero from the same ’’Btlrgertum” as he had described in ’’Budderibrooks”. Hans Gastorp has all the virtues and all the little vices of the class he comes from. No attempt is made to idealise him; all his little foibles and sillinesses, his love of comfort, his esteem of hard work that is not quite sufficient to make him go and do any - all those things are portrayed b y one who knows only too well what he is describing. * Betrachtungen, ”Btirgerllchkeit”.

14 But Hans Gastor^p is not as. simple as we might at first ‘be inclined to think; he has an independent and thorough mind when he has once 'been shaken out of the first lethargy that attacks him in Berghof, and his intellectual develop­ ment calls for our admiration* Yet? although the hero is a Btlrger, we cannot say that the "Btlrgertum" as a whole is a major theme of "Der Zauberberg",. Thomas Mann delivered a speech on the occasion of the seventh centenary celebrations of the city of Lilbeck in 1926, It is reprinted in "Die Forderung des Tages" and it is called "Lilbeck als geistige lebensform". As might be guessed from the title the contents are largely autobiographical. Mann sees himself in it as the artistic representative of a line of Lilbeck Biirger, lie has come to realise that the fact of his being an artist does not make him as different from his forebears as he had at one time imagined. He says that it took the war and his wartime ponderings to teach him that: "Kilnstie© turn 1st etwas Symbolisch.es, Sis ist die' Wiederverwirklichung einer' ererbten und. blutstiberliefer ten Existenzform auf anderer Ebene,,,. Indem man ein Denker Oder Kilnstier wird, "entartet" man weniger, als die Umwelt, von der man'sich emanzipiert, und als man selber glaubtj man h6rt nicht a.uf, zu sein, was die V&ter waren, sondern ist ebendies in anderer, freierer, vergeistigter, symbolisch darstellender Foma nur noch eiiimal." * Mann has come store and more to the realisation that he is still essentially a German Biirger in spite

*

Lilbeck als geistige Lebensform, 1926,

15 of the fact that he has become a literary artist..The result of this realisation is that he now takes the way of life represented by the German Btlrger a good deal more seriously. To continue to mock too cruelly would amount to self-negation. later in the same speech Mann expresses the view that German ”Bilrgerlichkeitu is something much too enduring to be destroyed by mere social revolution. He sayss u...»» ein anderes ist es, die Weltrevolution anerkennen und ein anderes, zu meinen, die lebensform deutscher Blirgerllchkeit sei durch sie im Ernste gerichtet und vernichtet. VIel zu eng ist diese Lebens­ form verbunden rnit der Idee der Menschlichkeit, der Humanit&t und aller menschlicher Bildung selb'st, urn in irgendeiner Menschenwelt je fremd und entbehrlich sein zu kttnnen, und eine irrefuhrende Ueberbetonung von Wirtschaftlich-Klassenm&ssigem ist hier im Spiel, eine Verwechselung bourgeoiser Klassenmitte mit deutschbtlrgerlicher Geistes- und Weltmitte liegt dem Xrrtum zugrunde«” We can see how his estimation of German ''Btlrger^ lichkeit" is rising,, It is no logger something to laugh at, but something to take seriously, part of his own heritage, which has been halided down to him through generations of Liibeck Biirger. It is something good and enduring, not bound up so closely with class interests as with an intellectual outlook,

s.

manner of life.

In the troubled years between the two wars Thomas Mann showed his belief in the fundamental good­ ness and decency of the German Biirger by appealing to them to 'aid him in his fight against dangerous tendencies which were manifesting themselves within Germany during

those years* The speech ’’Appell an die Vernunft", delivered in 1930 in the Beethoven-Saal in Berlin; is an example of this kind of thing; in it he asks his fellow-BtLrger to join forces with the Social Democrats if they want to prevent the advent of something far worse than mere socialism* , An important speech delivered in 1932 on the centenary of Goethe’s death, "Goethe als Repr&sentant des hiirgerlichen Zeitalters", shows that Mann’s esteem for the virtues of the Biirger is growing. In this essay, Mann says there are three ways of looking at Goethe; one ban regard him as the greatest master of the classical period of German literary culture, and that is the most limited view one can take of him. It is also possible, says Mann, to regard Goethe as one of the greatest men who have' ever lived, one whose influence will be felt, not only for centuries, but for thousands of years. But perhaps the most natural .way of regarding Goethe is as the great representative of the age of the Biirger. Mann develops this idea and shows in what respects Gaethe can well be regarded as a Biirger his reasonableness, his love of good food and drink,

'

his protestaniism, which, however, would have nothing to do with popular revolutionary movements, his love of the Italian Renaissance, his keen business instinct love of order and hard work, distaste for politics,

17 economy of time - all these features are marks of the Biirgei% Even his style Betrays his origin, says Mann, and quotes Novalis, who did not like Goethe and once used the word "Btirgerlich" to describe the style of "Wilhelm Meister". Hear the end of this essqy Mann says: "Es ist diegrosse Heimatwelt, deren ZBglinge wir sind^die Biirgerliche Geisteswelt, die eben als Geisteswelt zugleieli eine iiberbllrgerliche ist und durch Nietzsche, den Goetheschiiler, in neue, nachBtirgerliche , noch namenslose Zukunftswelten hiniiberfllhrt. Das Bttrgerliche Besitzt eine gewisse geistige Transzdndenz* in der es sich sel'bst aufhebt Und verwandelt* Goethe's Spruch: fWo k&m die schBnste Bildung her, und wenn sie nicht vom Biirger w&r. •.' bewBhrt einen _ grBsseren Sinn, als das heute.so altfi’Bnkischjg .wirkende Wort 'Bildung' fassen zu kBnnen scheint. Ich habe gefragt und ich frage wieder: Wo sind die grossen Befreiungstaten des umw&lzenden Geistes denn hergekommen *und wenn. sie nicht vom Biirger gewesen w&ren?*" * It would have Been unthinkable that Mann should have spoken in such terms of the Biirger in 1900 when he wrote "BuddenBrooks"• He had to go through his period of wondering and doubt during the war. Ihen he had made up his mind that the men he admired most, Goethe-, Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche all Belonged to this tradition, he could claim all the more proudly that he did, too;. The essay closes with a reminder to the reader that these great Biirger of the past were able tp Burst the Bounds of their tradition: "Die grossen SBhne des Biirgertums, die aus ihm *

See M e l des Geistes, p. 141.

is hinaus ins Geistige und Ueberbtirgerliche wuchsen, sind Zeugen daftlr, dass im Bilrgerliehen grenzenlose MBglichkeiten liegen, Mttglichkeiten unbesehr&nkter Selbstbefreiumg und Selbstttberwindung. Die Zeit ruft das Biirgerturn auf, sieli seiner eingeborenen Mttglichkeiten zu erinnern, und sich geistig und sittlic.il zu ilinen zu entschliessen*" To regard the fact of being a Biirger as a challenge is something new in Thomas Mann's outlook. His pride in his origin is beginning to be accompanied by a new element - that of responsibility* In 1939 Thomas Mann published "Lotte in Weimar" , the description of a visit of the former Charlotte Buff to Weimar- as an old lady. During her stay there she meets various people who are in more or less close contact with Goethe* One of these is Dr. Riemer, Goethe's secretary- and famulus. He is another example of Mann's treatment of the Biirger in the last few years* Drf§ Riemer is not portrayed as a particularly admirable character. He had in his youth had ambitions to become a university professor, but had been attracted by the offer of a post as tutor in Goethe’s household. It had turned out that* the post was more that of a secretary to Goethe himself than that of a tutor to his son* Ever since that time he had stayed in Weimar* He had often wished to leave the place', but could not bring himself to break away from Goethe. He had finally compromised by taking a position as a schoolmaster in Weimar, so that he could be of service to Goethe to some extent and yet maintain a separate household. Riemer, it turns out, has himself

19 got literary ambitions; lie confides this information to Hofrfttin Kestner during their conversation. Lotte herself is also of the "B&ggertum", of course* Mann portrays her as a charmingly naive old lady, who could still sometimes loolc for a moment like the girl G-oethe had fallen in love with some forty years before. She is full of common sense and ordinary virtues; she has her little vanities, as when she resents the suggestion that she may not have been in all respects the model for Werther’s Lotte, but the fundamental impression we receive is that of a good, thorough, dependable person, who remembers with affection the strangely attractive poet-friend of her youth, but who was glad to take the more stolid and dependable Kestner* as her husband* The picture of the Biirger given in “Lotte", then, is rather a dull one in'some ways, but there can be no doubt of the high esteem in which he is held by Thomas Mann* The emphasis has moved from the Biirger* s weaker points in "Budderibrooks" to his positive qualities in the works of the last twenty years* In the essay "Goethe als Keprlsentant des biirgerlichen Zeitalters" the Biirger is valued not only for what he is, hut also because of the latent gifts he possesses* We turn now to the last Btlrger-por trait Mann has given us, that of Serenus Zeitblom in "Doktor Faustus"* Serenus, like Dr. Memer, whom he resembles in more than one respect, is a scholar, a retired

,

.

-

so

teacher* from a Hgymnasium” near* Munich. He,, is a »an ofnconsiderable culture ana obviously more than ordinary musical endowment; he keeps up to date withr,.the' intellectual life of the day, as can he judged from the accounts of his activities throughout the hook,: He had lost his position as a schoolmaster because he did not like the Nazi regime* Serenus Zeitblom is often treated ironically, but he is never a figure of fun. We smile at his little pedantries here ana there, and, in the first /

chapters, we wonder what manner of man this is, who introduces himself so apologetically, saying that he knew nothing of the demonic frenzies that visited his unfortunate friend Leverktthn, and that his main justification for writing his biography is that he loved the man. Then, in the subsequent course of the book, we see that, even if Serenus Zeitblom knew nothing of demonic frenzies by direct experience', he took an active enough interest in those of his fiJiend. Serenus shows himself to be a good man, though we cannot help feeling that a person capable of building up so striking a portrait as that of Leverklihn should have had more confidence in himself. His devotion to Leverkllhn does seem sometimes to border on idolatry. He is by no means an insignificant person himself, for only a man of very high intellectual endowment could have drawn so fine a picture of Leverkiihn’s complicated

personality and given us such a searching analysis of his age* He is a man of strong character, who never allows his interest in Leverkilhn to affect the normality of his own life* He is a good hush and and father, and, one would imagine, a good teacher* His role in the 1914-18 war was at first that of the jubilant, patriot; with the passage of time came disillusionment. In this respect he resembled Mann himself* Btit when Hitler came to power and the Second World War began, Zeitblom could not approve what he saw the new regime do* At the very outset of ”Doktor Faustus” he is convinced thait his country is doomed; he says that he does not know whether to wish for a German victory or a German defeat; on the whole, he thinks he wishes for the latter, because then there might be a slender hope of having his friend*s works published; he shrinks at the thought of what would happen if his sons saw him writing they would consider it their duty to report him to the Gestapo* Zeitblom is a not unworthy successor of the line of Biirger depicted in the works of Thomas Mann. We do not expect him to be a supreme example of that class, like Goethe in the fine essay we have just discussed; but he is a man who conceals great intellectual gifts and high moral qualities behind amrnodest, often awkward exterior. His virtues are manifest - loyalty to friend and country, when loyalty seems le.ast appreciated, a

great concern for "both when they seem to have none for themselves* He may lack the fire of creative genius', hut his honesty and conscientiousness are of more value to his country than the misguided brilliance of Leverkilhn'*; The world would be a better place if there were more men like Zeitblom in it. We are now in a position to look back over Mann’s production and see how the idea of the Biirger has developed from the beginning of the century to the present day* We have seen how the sharp irony of his treatment in "Buddenbrooks" is tempered by the knowledge that he is describing the milieu from which he sprang. When the 1914 war came, Mann thought a great deal about his own relation to the problems of the day'|! and one result of his ponderings.was a greatly increased confidence in himself; he discovered that the heritage of the Biirger was his heritage, that the German artist or thinker often had his origin in the uB3ttrgertumu and that he was the heir of a tradition to which men like Goethe, Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche had also belonged. The knowledge that this was largeIs an intellectual and artistic tradition gave him confidence in its ability to survive in face of social disruption. This confidence.is shown in the Liibeck speech. The day came when he could regard Goethe as the great represent­ ative of the German Btlrgertum. The idea of uBiirgerlichkeit has gained greatly in universality since he wrote

“Buddenbrooks’*. In Serenus Zeifblom, M s last Biirger, we see an

ordinary man, very different from the great

Bilrger of Weimar, "but with the same sound fundamental qualities. It is significant that Zeifblom survives the war of 1939 to 1945 and is even able to contemplate the possibility of resuming his interrupted professional life. Gould it be that Thomas Mann sees in the survival of Zeifblom, who contains so much of what is good in Germany and in himself, the possibility of Germany1s revival?

■ '< ■

24 Chapter 2: The Artist and the Conflict1*

In this chapter I propose to depart from the procedure observed in the preceding one and in the rest of this study — namely, studying appearances of themes from Mann’s works in strict chronological orddr, Mann’s artists will he de a lt with according to the features which they have in common with one another* This will sometimes mean that two characters separated by a long period will show more in common with one another than either does with characters originating at about the same time. At the end of the chapter we shall be able to look back ovex» the various artists discussed and to indicate the general trend in Mann’s view of the artist from 1900 till the present day, thought it may not be possible to reach any such definite conclusion as we reached in the last chapter about the "Btirgertum”, where we noticed a growing respect for the civic virtues and the cultural tradition of the German Bttrger'* Thomas Mann does not as a rule ti*eat his artists very kindly. As early as 1907 he had something to say on the subject of the literary artist. The following passage is quoted from an autobiographical essay called ”Im Spiegel” : ’’Bin Diehter ist, kurz gesagt, ein auf alien Gebieten ernsthafter T&tigkeit uribedingt uribrauch,barer, dem Staate nicht nur nicht niitzlicher, sondern sondern sogar aufs&ssig gesirmter hump an, der nicht einmal sonderliche Verstandesgaben zu besitzen braucht, sondern so langsamen und undcharfen Geistes sein magi

25 wie ieh es iraraer gewesen "bin, - tibrigens ein innerlich kindischer, zur Ausschweifung geneigter und in jedem Betrachte anrtichiger Scharlatan, der von der Gesellschaft nichts anderes sollte zu gew&rtigen haben - und ini Grande auch nichts anderes gew&rtigt - als stille Verachtung. Tatsache aber ist, dass die Gesellschaft diesem Menschensehlage die MBglichkeit gewfihrt, es in ihrer Mitte zu Anselm und httchstem Wohlleben zu bringen." * The above utterance is typical of many in Mann’s writings of the earlier period. Allowing that there is a great deal of irony in these words, it would not appear from them that Mann has any very high confidence in the importance of his mission as an artist. When we look at the artists in Mann’s works', we find that they are not very different from the picture he draws of himself lntthe passage quoted above. We need only think of people like Spinell, Cipolla, Hanno Buddenbrook, the Bajazzo and Felix Krull to realise that Thomas Mann’s opinion of the artist is not a very high one. Tonio Kroger, of all Mann’s characters the one who is most lovingly and sympathetically drawn, is rather an exception, probably because he contains so much more of Thomas Mann himself. Even so, not a few readers would classify Tonio'along with the artists mentioned above, whom indeed he resembles in many respects. What are the characteristics of these people?

*

Reprinted in Rede und Antwort.

It is not easy to find the highest common factor, for they show numerous differences from one another*: Of most it might he said that they share the same uselessness and incompetence in everyday life, hut in the cases of the Bajazzo and Felix Krull, that is not enough; those two have definite criminal tendencies* With Gustav von Aschenhach and Adrian Leverldihn, Thomas' Mann goes further. Aschenhach, the gifted musician-novelist of “Der Tod in Venedig” , is heset hy a fatal passion for the beautiful hoy Tadzio. Leverldihn is deliberately and consciously in league with the devil, and the fictitious narrator of “Doktor Faustus”, Serenus Zeifblom, a decent, retired schoolmaster, trembles at the recollection of the horrors that he wrought, the tortures he inflicted on himself and others. Aschenhach and Leverldihn are extreme cases, hut they do serve to bring out the preoccupation of Thomas Mann’s artists with the un­ natural, unclean', sick and ’’Death-bound”, even with the sinful and diabolical* It could he objected that the very special circumstances of Adrian Leverktihn’s case make it unfair to take him as a typical specimen;,of Thomas Mann’s artists. ’’Doktor Faustus'’ is the work of an old man and an exile - it would not he surprising if the bitter­ ness of exile determined Leverktihn’s character to a great extent* Such an objection does not seem valid tp me. Leverldihn is the intensified incarnation of qualities

possessed toy artists in Mann1s earlier works* His diabolical possession and madness are foreshadowed in several of .Mann1s other characters* His high intellectual and artistic gifts make the tragedy of his life more terrible than anything Thomas Mann had previously described. Yet the differences between Adrian Leverkiihn and artists like Aschentoach and. Gipolla are of degree rather than of kind.* Thomas Mann draws Leverkiihn, as he draws all his main characters, from within himself* Knowing this, we cannot expect Leverkiihn to toe essentially very different from his predecessors• The author’s inner growth has made it possible for him to carry a stage further in "Doktor Faustus" thoughts which had long occupied him. Thomas MannVs artist, then, always has the possibility, at least, of great evil within him. In many eases, he is an ineffectual creature. Sometimes he is even ineffectual in his own sphere* Detlev Spinell*, in "Tristan", is such an artist. He is unsatisfactory as an artist and as a man; even his beard does not grow* (This is one of the clever little symbolical touches at which Thomas Mann excels.) Spinell had carious teeth and enormous hands and feet, and any one who saw him writing would have thought that an author , was a man who found writing more difficult than any one else. He .had managed to write one novel, and had rested on his laurels ever since. Spinell, then, is a

clumsy, uncomfortable person. Tonio KrBger is not un­ pleasant to look upon, but he is different from other people. Sometimes this causes him sorrow and makes him feel lonely. Sometimes it only makes him despise others. His feelings towards Hans Hansen are a s'trange mixture of affection and contempt. He admires the healthy, handsome body and open-air life of Hans Hansen, but sees that his own joy in^reading Schiller, playing the violin, and making verses is something that Hans Hansen will never be able to appreciate. Likewise with Ihgeborg Holm - he is struck for a moment by one particular attitude of the pretty, ordinary little girl, but he despises her, in a way, and himself for falling in love with her • There is so much in his life that she could never enter into. We have seen that in "Tonio Kroger” Thomas Mann recognises a certain superiority of.the artist over the ordinary, unproblematical people of his acquaintance. This consciousness of superiority is more sincere than the self-denigration of the passage,quoted from the essay 11 Im Spiegel’1. In at least one work this superiority is demonstrated by the actual rank he gives to his artist©character. Klaus Heinrich, in ’’Kttnigliche Iioheit”, has a physical disability, it is true, but he is a prince, and he is raised to a position of power and influence in the world by his marriage with the world in the shape of the millionaire’s daughter.

;;v

This book’s charming atmosphere of lightness and happi-

29 ness can only tie ascribed to the happiness of Thomas Mann’s private life at.this time. He had just married Katja Pringsheim, the daughter of a cultured and prosperous family. Perhaps it would not he too far-fetphed to say that "Mario und der Zauberer" is an example of the same sort of thing. The '’artist*1 there (a mere artiste in this case) is not a particularly pleasant character - his person is anything hut refined, and he is a confirmed toper, an unpleasant enough character in his way, hut he has power over other people and can play on them Yirith his hypnotic ability. The fact that this power leads to his death at the hands of the outraged and wounded Mario is only a further demonstration of the danger incurred hy the possession of such special gifts. Mario stands as the symbol of life, honest, almost brutally simple, disappointed by a girl and very sensitive about his misfortune. When Oipolla chooses to play on this mis­ fortune and exploit it for the amusement of the people in the audience he goes too far and brings disaster on himself. Gipolla is, however, not only an artist; it is impossible to read "Mario und der Zauberer" without thinking that he must have been intended as a caricature of the Italian dictator. Sensitivity and lack of adaptability are other features of Thomas Mann’s artist. Tonio Krttger, like his creator, was very fais from being able to appreciate the

healthy, open-air way of life. He did not like company either. Thomas Mann quite frequently admits that he is not a social success, and that it has always been a matter for surprise to -him that he should have won so many friends in the world when he had done nothing to deserye them. Tonio is quick to take offence. He ¥/ould like Plans Hansen to sacrifice something of his individuality and read I

Schiller, hut he (Tonio) is not prepared to ask his father if he may have riding lessons, which would he the equivalent sacrifice on his part. And yet he cleaves to Hans Hansen, and, later on, to Inge Holm, in exactly the same way. They are so completely different from him that he regards them

as legitimate objects of his

longing. His devotion id critical and appra&feing - he is either not prepared or not ahle to submerge his own personality a little and meet those whom he would have for his friends half way. He squirms when Hans Hansen addresses him.:by his surname in presence of the other hoy, although;.., of course, Hansen means no harm by it* Perhaps the reaction og the ordinary reader is to feel rather sorry for Tonio, hut to feel secretly that he has only himself to blame for much of his unhappiness. This is not, however, a fair verdict on Tonio; his nature does not allow him to act otherwise. Hanno Buddenhrook is an example of the same sort of sensitivity, intensified until it reduces its subject to a physical and nervous wreck. It is clear

31 from the moment of his appearance that Hanno is not long for this world. Once again one experiences the same feeling of impatience with Hanno as a schoolboy as one had with Tonio griJger. He lacks robustness of character, and, one might truthfully say, humour;*! If Hanno Buddenbrook had been able to laugh at his teachers like any normal schoolboy, he would not have died as a neurotic wreck. For it is only too clear that he does not die of typhoid fever so much as of a complete lack of the will to live. Life is necessarily brutal, is necessarily Cruel,' and to attempt to deny that is to incur endless unhappiness. Again, Thomas Mannfs artist is often a danger to other people and to himself. This is, of course, most apparent in extreme cases like that of Adrian Leverkiihn’ , who brings about his own ruin and that -of the gifted young violinist, Rudolf Schwerdtfeger. But do we not see something similar happen in ,,BuddenbrooksH;?l Thomas Buddenbrook, the last and ablest member of this merchant family, is already an artist at heart. This element in his make-up leads to his marriage with the mysterious and dangerous Gerda, whosO blue-shadowed» close-set eyes, frequent migraines and dark beauty all combine as symbols of the unhealthy'and destructive. She appeals to the artistic side of Thomas Buddenbrook1s nature. Perhaps even his death is tqjjae interpreted m the light of this marriage. Hanno, the child of such

32

a union, has little hope of survival* It is part of Thomas Mann’s artistry to imply that Gerda is a fatal influence. A tall, dark woman with "bXue-shadowed eyes and the name G-erda seems to have held a certain fascination for Thomas Mgnn* Was not such a woman the instrument of little Herr Friedemann’s death? Mann never says explicitly that G-erda was the cause of Thomas* s ruin. We have to read that "between the lines if we want to* But we cannot help feeling that Thomas might have survived if the artistic streak in his make-up had not led him into the marriage with the old Dutch musician’s daughter*, Thomas Mann’s artists are often musicians’* Sometimes, though not musicians "by profession, they are very fond of music, and it is their real form of artistic expression* In a foreword to Ludwig Lewisohn’s novel, “Der Fall Herbert Grump”, Thomas Mann says: “Schriftsteller lieben oft eine andere Kunst2 mehr als die eigene; sie sind meistens eigentlich etwas anderes: versetzte Maler Oder Bildhauer Oder Graphiker oder sonst etwas; deutsche sind vorwiegenfl ’eigentlich’ Musiker." * That is certainly true to a large extent of Thomas Mann himself, and he makes many of his characters amateur or professional musicians* Spinell does not play,; "but he understands “Tristan und Isolde" and can interpret and explain it to Frau Klbterjahn; Tonio Kr tiger loves music and plays the violin at home; so does little Herr

*

Reprinted in Die Fouderung des Tages*

Friedemann; Gerda Budderibroolc is a musician; Hans Gastorp does not play', But understands the power of music - for him it is a sea of forgetfulness, a way of escape from the hard realities and responsibilities of life, something immoral, '‘death-bound11 and dangerous* Settembrini, the "Zivilisat3onsliterat"warns him against it* It is strange how Thomas Mann keeps emphasing this aspect of music. He must have found it or imagined it to be such an influence in his own life.#! Aschenbach, in "Der Tod in Venedig",, is an author, not a musician, but Thomas Mann, as he admits himself in "Bede und Antwort", had the composer Gustav Mahler in mind when he described Aschenbach* s features* Adrian Leverldihn is a composer*, and Thomas Mann* s own deep understanding of music becomes apparent in "Doktor Faustus", where we find lengthy descriptions of musical works, sometimes too complicated to be understood by anyone who is not a competent musician. It is perhaps not an accident that the musician Leverkiihn should come to such a dreadful end, in view of opimions expressed by Thomas Mann through Settembrini in "Der Zauberberg". Thomas Mann* s own love of music and his particular preoccupation with a certain type of musicijt the type that reaches its climax in "Tristan und Isolde" are dealt with at some length in Dr|j R. Peacock* s essay on "Das Leitmotiv bei Thomas Mann" (Berne, 1934). In general, Thomas Mann’s artists, as we have

34 seen, are not Promethean heaven-stormers. Often, they avoid combat with rough, "barbarous, "brutal life "by shrinking away and letting life take its course. Then /

we cannot talk of conflict in any proper sense, for no resistance is offered - life simply ignores the artists and sweeps past or over theiji. In "Tristan”, life is represented "by. the noisy, self-assertive Herr KlBterjahn and his equally bc&sterous, healthy child. The artists are Detlev Spinell and Frau KIBterjahn, whose artistic feelings gre first aroused or released "by her meeting with Spinell. The meeting with Spinell "brings "back memories to her and almost blots out the more recent past, so. that, when some one questions her about her husband and child, she is momentarily at a loss for a reply, for she has forgotten them. But the lusty, sturdy child and the noisy, good-humoured husband have been too much for her; liff takes its toll; Frau KlBterjahn dies, and Spinell is left with the memory of the afternoon when she played the ’Liebestod1 from "Tristan und Isolde" and he explained it to her. Or we can turn again to "Tonio KrBger", the

,

book of all his books,- which, said Thomaw Mann, lay nearest his heart. There ag&in, Tonio^mugt^’SUff,er,„.suppressiQn at every turn; life must prevail; the healthy, open-air boys will enjoy themselvel^oieffi^'^sn^lIIjSr with the blue-eyed, golden-haired girls, and he will be left out in the cold, he who would like to participate

(

35 in the life and laughter, love ana merrymaking, "but would somehow despise himself if he did* Tonio, like Hanno before him, is miserable and unpopular at school* He says in his long conversation with Lisaweta that one begins to be conscious of the "curse of literature" only too early: "Wann beginntjer filhlbar zu werden, dieser Flueh? Frtth, schrecklifih frtth* Zu.einer Zeit, da man billig noch in.Frieden und Eintraeht mit Gott und der Welt leben sollte* Sie fangen an, sich gezeichnet, sich in einem r&tselhaften Gegensatz zu den anderen, den gewBhnlichen, den- ordentlichen, zu ftthlen, der Ab grand vonlron&e, Unglaube', Opposition, Erkenntnis, Geftthl, der Sie.von den Menschen trennt, ,klafft tiefer und tiefer, Sie sind einsam, und fortpn gib.t es keine Verst&ndigung raehr. Was ftir ein chicksali: Gesetzt, dass das Herz lebendig genug, iebevoil genug geblieben ist, es als furchtbar zu empf indent •. •****Ihr Selbsfbewusstsein entzttndet sich, weil Sie unter Tausenden das Zeiehen an Ihrer Stirnes sptiren und ftthlen, dass es niemandeai entgeht."

f

He goes on to tell how his humanity, his very manhood seems impaired by this awful endowment: "Die Begabung fttr Stil, Form und Ausdruck setzt berei.ts dies kipUfce und wlihlerische Verh<nis zum Menschlichen, 3 a, eine gewisse-menschliche Verarmung und Verttdung voraxis* Denn das gesunde und starke Geftthl, dabei bleibt es, hat keinen Geschmaek. Es ist aus mit dem Kttnstler, sobald er Mensch wird und zu enrpfindeh beginnt*" Ordinary, healthy, sincere feeling is not possible for.him; in "Tomio Krttger", as in "Tristan", we find the thought that full and normal manhood is not possible for the artist* Sometimes the conflict between the artist and the world assumes physical form, as for example in "Mario und derjzauberer", when Oipolla’s "art" costs

36 M m M s life, or in "Tonio Kroger", where the' hero is once almost arrested as a suspicious character# This episode has, of course, symbolical significance, as is shown by the fact that Tonio Krttger allows it to happen to himself without protesting: waren diese M&nner der biirgerlichen Grdnung nicht im G-runde ein wenig im Eecht? G-ewissermassen war er ganz einverstanden mit ihnen*.• Er zuckte die Achseln und blieb stumm.". As an artist he feels that such treatmeiit is only what he deserves. "Tonio Krfiger" is the work of a very young man*#; Written in 1901 when the author was only twenty-six, it could hardly Toe expected to he perfectly consistent with the works of a later day, let us say of the period between 1930 and 1949. Yet to a large extent the differ— n

ences of viewpoint between the young Thomas Mann and the mature sage of the present d.ay are differences of degree rather than of kind. Tonio KrBger is part of Thomas Mann himself, but so is Lisaweta, even when she tells Tonio that he is a Bilrger and qualifies her state­ ment a moment later by saying that he is a "verirrter Bilrger."

From this opinion we see that , even in those

early, problematical days, Thomas Mann had some preseaMment of the truth that was t o dawn on him more fully later, namely that the artist cannot be something apart from, or essentially different from, the people .in whose tradition he has grown up. In the speech delivered on

37 the occasion, of the seventh centenary celebrations in Lilbeck, his native city, he admits: "Es kam der Tag and die Stunde, wo mir klar wurde, dass niemals der Apfel weit vom Stamme f&llt; dass ich als KUnstier vie1 ’eehter’, viel mehr ein Apfel vom Baume Liibeoks war, als ich geahnt hatte; dass diejenigen, die, beleidigt durch gewisse kritische Sch&rfen des Buches (Bud&enbrooks), einen Abtriinnigen und Verr&ter, einen Entfremdeten hatten in mir -sehen wollen, tats&ehlich im Unrecht gewesen waren und dass es sich nicht nur bei diesem Buch, sondern auch hei alien anderen, hei meinem ganzen Kiinstlertum, meiner ganzen Produktivit&t, so hedeutend .Oder unhedeutend sie m m sein mochte’ , nicht urn irgendwelches. bohemisierte und enwurzelte Viftuosentum, sondern urn eine Lebens; form, um Lilbeclc als geistige Lebensform handelte." This is true of the very language of an author his style is conditioned by the world he has grown up in; "Der Stil eines Schriftstellers ist letzten Endes tmd bei genauem Hinhorchen die Sublimierung des Dialektes seiner V&ter." Thomas Mann goes on to say that this is partic­ ularly true of his own literary style. He is right to emphasise this point. The measured tone of his prose, the continual striving after precision, even at the risk of becoming involved and cumbrous, his technique of exact qualification, his free use of parentheses «* all these qualities are what one would expect to find in one brought up in the merchant tradition, whose forefathers had been magistrates in the Hansa city of Lttbeck. It is frequently possible to detect the tone , letter of the business^in Thomas Mann’s prose,-and Mann him­ self would be the first person, to admit this:*; And so we see that, as Thomas Mann grows older,

lie "becomes less ashamed of his artist’s nature? "because he sees in it only the final development of a long traditior He is not really something apart and different f3?om his merchant forebears - if he is different? it is "because he is the sublimation of them? and not degenerate just "because he is an artist#. Yet? even though the artist is the sublimation of the tradition that produces him? he is above and beyond it in a certain sense,? ds emerges from a "Vorwort zu Masereels Stundenbuch”; uDenn nur der Kilnstier ist klassenlos? deklassiert von Gehurt, Er sei proletarisch geboren? so wird die Geistigkeit und Noblesse seiner Daseinsform sie der bHrgerlichen annMher n 8 Er sei? wise heute noch fast jeder Kilnstier? ein Biirgerspross? so wird es wieder noch der Geist sein? der ihn aus der sozialen Bindung 1 0 st? ihn seiner Klasse entfremdet? ihn ihre Interessen missachten liAsst und ihn -vermag, sich stimmungsm&ssig viel eher noch der proletarischen anzunehmen, obgleich er sie? soweit es nur Interessen sind? gleichfalls mlssachteto Seine Klassenlosigkeit ist nicht utopiscli? sie ist eine natiirliche' Schic ksalsgegebenheit und jederzeit worklicho Sie ist es? die ihn als Reinheil? Fremd> heit? Unzugehttrigkeit atmosphUrisch umgibt? als etwas? was man frUher ’Heiligkeit’ genannt haben wtlrdej und" sie ist es auch? die in einer in Klassen zerrissenen, in erbittertem Klassenkampf ringenden Welt? ihn? den AuswHrtigen? den Unverstrickten? den reinen Gast? trotz alles Misstrauens? mit dem der wirkliche Mensch dem geistigen und spielenden notwendig "begegnet? zum heimlich-einzigen VertrauensftcHger der Menschheit macht." 4* .V ’

We may be inclined to think that Mann is rather

carried away by his own eloquence when he says that "Glasslessness" is what would at one time have ‘counted for holiness? but it is impossible not to admire the proud, and confident sense of vocation expressed in these

$

Reprinted in Die Forderung des Tages.

50

>

sentences* Looking back over Thomas Mann’s artists from -Hanno Buddenbrook to Adrian Leverldihn, we should on the whole he justified in saying that the later ones are more significant human "beings thaft their earlier counterparts. Hanno is a weak and helpless hoy; he has artistic endowment without having enough vitality to survive the storms and huffetings of life* His death is a tragedy not so much for his own sake, as because the family dies out with him. From the outset it was clear to us thatha nature like his was not equal to the stress of living, and when he dies, we feel that the inevitable happens. Hanno dies before he can; .achieve anything, but even had he lived, it is difficult to imagine that he could have made his mark in the world, whether as an artist or in any other capacity*; Tonio KrBger, a few years later, is an artist of stronger fibre. He is admittedly tortured by doubts and torn by the conflict within him between „the^claims of art and those of the bourgeois tradition in which he had grown up. The conflict often makes him unhappy, but I it does not kill him. Hanno did not have a chance; one cannot properly speak of a conflict in his case, because from the beginning it was unthinkable that a fragile, sensitive nature such as his should be able to survive beyond childhood* Spinell, the artist in ’’Tristan”, is in many W&y® & less admirable person than Tonio KrBger. He

40 "barely succeeds in maintaining the balance between art and life; he is not likely to die overnight, but on the other hand, he is unlikely to produce more works of art. Aschenbach is a man of high intellectual, moral and artistic endowment, who has h e M himself in rein for a long time; when he relaxes his grip for a moment, he is carried away by pbwers over which he has no control. During the First World War Thomas Mann reached the new conception (which we have seen he. ha.d already tentatively held, in ’’Tonio Krttger”) of the artist as ■' tthe sublimation of the tradition that had produced him. It is not to be wondered at if Adrian Leverkiihn is a man of vastly superiior stature to any of his pre­ decessors, except possibly Aschenbach. He is better equipped intellectually than any of them, and Mann, with his increased confidence in the representativeness of the artist, was able to make of him the symbol of his country. The artist is no longer the odd and rather despicable special case. In Leverkiihn we see all the qualities which have marked the earlier artists concentrated 0 ^ 1 1 the creation of a figure of greater stature than any of theeu

Chapter 3: Preoccupation with Sickness and Death.

This is perhaps the theme of all themes that might "be said to have occupied Thomas Mann more than any other single one in all his writings. It was already present in "Buddenhrooks", found fuller expression in the short stories written "before the First World War, assumed still greater proportions in uDer 2auberberg" where it was dealt with exhaustively and in all its ramifieatidns, and has continued to interest Thomas Mann, and appear in his works right up to his last great novel, "Doktor Faustus". Aiyconiplete and exhaustive study of every appearance of this theme in Thomas Mann’s works would necessarily take up more space than can "be allowed within the framework of the present inquiry. It could truthfully "be said that ,it dominates his work, although it must not "be supposed for that reason that Thomas Mann’s- writings are negative, .defeatist and nihilistic. The conclusions of this chapter should sufficiently demonstrate that such a charge may not justly he levelled a&ainst Thomas Mann. "Buddenhrooks" provide© the first great example apparent The theme is already in the sub-title of this work, A

"Der Verfa'll einer Familie". This work, then, is the account of the Regeneration of a great family, of its

^

■

. '

'

C "

42'

passage from the hardy voltairean cynicism of the great­ grandfather through the pious hut still hardy industry of the grandfather, through the "brilliant hut erratic / mercantile genius of Thomas to the soft and unresisting, not mercantile hut artistic temperament of the weakling hoy, Hanno. it is a tale of progressively dwindling vitality, a tale of life ever more endangered hy the powers of death and doubt and darkness, the story of moral and physical

decay creeping in and destroying

a proud race of merchants, reducing them first to impotence and then to nothing. The future fate of the’ family is foreshadowed

in the ne’er-do-well and

hypochondriac Christian, in whom Thomas sees only too clearly the fruits of latent possibilities of his own make-up. In ’’Tristan”, a sanatorium story with many features in common with its higger brother, ”Der Zauberberg”, this theme is again found. Here we have already the strange atmosphere of unnatural cheerful­ ness that characterises the tuberculosis sanatorium, with the dark, unmentioned background, the bob-sleighs hastening down under cover of night to dispose of the corpses from the sanatorium while the other inmates are asleep in bed. Here we have the antithesis of health, strong and self-assertive, and sickness, puny, helpless, miserably dependent on the strong and healthy, and yet with its secret gifts and longings. Here we

find Tiiomas Mann again engaged with the idea that true art can only come from a perception of all sides of life, and that the sich, the .unclean, the unnatural, death itself must he studied and understood in their outward manifestations and their spiritual effects on the sufferer or spectator if art is to fulfil its whole purpose. (The same' idea is f §i4 ziS! IH the works of contempoi’aries', especially R.M. Rilke.) A thought that>engages Hans Oastorp during his stay in Berghof, namely whether sickness is noble or not, does not come to direct expression herej hut Frau CLBterjahn is of an almost unearthly heauty, and comes to a state of perception which she could never have known had she remained with her honest, healthy husband and bouncing baby in the ( world below. Shis could have played the "Liebestod" to her heart’s content there and it would have meant nothing to her, but up here in ,the mountains', as interpreted by this uncanny author-man, it became real, alive. Here again, though only by implication, we have music ranked’among the dark, secret, doubtful poirers - probably Dr. Peacock is right when he says that Thomas Mann always means a particular kind of music even when he uses the word Inaa general sense. It is difficult to imagine Bach, Mozart and Beethoven having the effect on the listener that Thomas Mann ascribes to music in general, but if the composer is one like Wagner, then this effect i s ,completely under­

44 standable. We shall return to this subject in the discussion of sickness and death in "Der Zauberbercg1'• In "Der TOd in Venedig" we first meet the hero in a state of tension and nervous exhaustion hrought on by intensive intellectual work. Normally he is the most orderly and di sciplined of men, hut now he is in a receptive state of mind for impressions of all kinds - his physical lassitude is accompanied hy an abnormal mental activity which makes him see symbolical

.

significance in a hundred things that would ordinarily pass unnoticed, like the figure with the rucksack hy the tramstop, the silly old man playing the dandy on the boat, the defiant and truculent gondolier. All these things seem to occupy him out of all proportion to their importance and he lets his fancy play about them and build them into a set of inescapable circumstances leading he knows not whither. Then he arrives in Venice and sees the beauti­ ful boy Tadzio. He allows this experience to work on him till it undermines and destroys all his normal reason and cornmonsense. He is held in thrall by an unnatural attachment to the child. Venice is in the grip of a cholera epidemic and by an effort of will# he makes up his mind to leave the city and go else­ where. But he cannot get Tadzio out of his mind, and when, on the point of his departure from the railway station, he discovers that his luggage has been for­

warded to the wrong destination, he seizes on the pretext offered hy this mistake and says he will stay on in Venice till his belongings come hack. He receives them after two days, hut his strange, unnatural longing for the hoy keeps him on the Lido heside the object of his desire. His folly, his yielding to what he knows to he an unnatural impulse leads to his ruin. Two of the arresting traits of this story, which moves entirely in a somewhat sultry, overscented and even rather strongly smelling atmosphere, are Aschenhach’s i

attempt to have the marks of old age removed from his face and hair (like the horrible figure on the boat), and the highly-coloured account of his feverdd dream shortly before his death. This story is about unwholesome things, hut no moral judgement is passed and the effect is en­ hanced hy this procedure. In this story the preoccup­ ation with sickness and death is on both the physical and intellectual plane. The mood and atmosphere of the story are unhealthy from the start and the state of Aschenhach’s mind is reflected in his surroundings; or would if he mote correct to say that the environ­ ment is reflected in Aschenhach’s behaviour? It is more probably correct to say that the seeds of ruin are within the hero himself and that the outward circumstances are accompanying phenomena of his mental and spiritual dissolution.

*

46 In ’’Den. Zauberberg" the preoccupation with death, disease, the abnormal, the pathological, in fact with every aspect of life that deviates from the positive, self-assertive, reasonable, healthy, robust, normal pattern reaches its climax. It would be going too far to say that the whole of this enormous work is about the conflict between the two aspects of life,' for a great work of art cannot be circumscribed inaa sentence, but it is certainly true to say that this theme is of paramount importance in this work, and that to regard it in the light of such a conflict will help greatly in the understanding of what is in many ways the greatest work that Thomas Mann ever wrote. It is interesting to note that this wofck was not originally intended to assume the serious and protracted form which it eventually did assume. It was to be a humorous counterpart of '‘Der Tod in Venedig”, and, in the matter of length, it was planned as a fairly long short story. (See Mann’s introduction to the 1946 Bermann-Fischer edition of "Der Zauberberg", pp. xiv, xv.) Mann had just been to visit his wife, who was spending a short time in Davos because of an infection of the lungs, and meant to use impressions gathered there for the writing of this story: "Ihre Atmosphere sollte die Mischung von Tod und Amttsement sein, die ich an dem sonderbaren Ort hier oben erprobt hatte. Die Faszination des Todes, der

_ _ ri; ________

'

47

>

Triumph rauschhafter Unordnung liber ein der httchsten .Ordnung geweihtes Leben, die im-"Tod in Venedig” geschildert ist, sollte auf eine humoristische Ebene tibertrageh werden. Bin simpler Held, der lcomische ‘ Konflikt zwi schen makabren Abenteueren und biirgerlicher Ehrbariceit, soweit ging mein Vorsatz. Der Ausgang war ungewiss, wtirde sich aber finden; das Gauze schien leicht und unterhaltsam zu maehen und wtirde nicht viel Raurn einaehmen." But the possibilities of the work were too great, especially as it was left lying during the war and taken up afterwards when the author had four years o£ much thinking and little production behind him. It grew far beyond the original plan and the author worked ' at i t over a period of twelve years. The hero of "Der

Zauberberg", Hans Gastorp,

has been acquainted with death from his earliest childhood. He was very young when his mother died and his father survived her by only a few months. Then he went to live with his grandfather, Hans' Lorenz Gastoi*p, who was already a very old man, and it is hardly surprising that within quite a short time, he witnesses a third death. He had always imagined his grandfather’s real personality to be that depicted in a fine oil painting of the old gentleman as an alderman of the city of Hamburg in long robe and ruffs, so that when his grandfather lies on his bier, peaceful and dignified and with his chin resting on a ruff, Hans Gastorp feels that his grandfather has taken on his real and fitting form. Hans Gastorp, tired by his work as an engineering student^, decides to take a three weeks’ holiday in Davos#

48 where a cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, has heen living for months in a tuberculosis sanatorium.. He goes there and is subjected to a whole series of experiences and impressions. They "begin with the etoughing of ej. verysick man which he hears on his arrival. He is also struck at first "by some of Joachim* .s remarks. The latter talks of the"life up here" and gives indications that life in the mountain sanatorium is something quite different from life in the world below. Before long, Hans Castorp, easily influenced and infected by the spirit of the place, has allowed himself to be persuaded that he, too, is a sick man and that he had better stay on in Berghof until he has got rid of the symptoms of tuber­ culosis which he shows. This result is the more easily achieved as Hans Oastorp, though nurtured in a region where work is admired and respected, is not over fond of work and, indeed, would be content to sit and watch the world go by the whole day long. Settembrini senses this weakness of character at their very first meeting’ # and, in his didactic manner, tries to counteract it by talking in admiring and generous terms of Hans Castorp’s • chosen profession. So, in a certain sense, the book begins with a surrender of the hero to the spirit of sickness and death in allowing himself to be talked into staying up in the mountain sanatorium for an indefinite period. Having made this decision, or having allowed tot to be made for him, the hero is made to pass through

49 certain, experiences. One of these is falling in love with Olawdia Ohauchat. This is something that could not have happened to Hans Oastorp in Hamburg. When he first arrives in Davos> the first manifestation of her personality, the doorslamming, annoys him before he has even, seen Madame Ohauchat. When he sees her for the first time, he is still capable of noting imperfections, her creeping gait with head thrust forward, her tincared for hands that look like a schoolgirl’s, but before long he is fascin­ ated by her and the very slackness.that repelled his healthy if somewhat punctilious normality at first is what appeals to him within a very short time. He is enslaved by the atmosphere of sickness and death in a hundred other small ways. He accepts as a matter of course Hofrat Behrens’s judgement that he is rather anaemic, yields gladly to the suggestion that he should practice the "Liegekur” like the patients, feels rather hurt when Dr. Krokow&ki goes past his bed­ room door in making the daily round, jumps at the chance of being able to take his temperature three times a day, sees in the slight abnormalities brought abou„t by change of climate and food significant symptoms of sickness, and, in fact, has so little to ao that he can only think about himself all day long. Before his proposed date of departure he catches a terrible cold, finds that he is a .liltle

50 feverish and consults Hofrat Behrens. Then his chances of returning to Hamburg in three weeks are gone. Iiis fate is sealed. Yet Hans Castorp does not feel it to he a dreadful calamity when he is told, that he has a weak spot in one lung; for one of Joachim’s temperament that it is one of the worst things that dould possibly \

befall him, but Hans Castorp is not the kind of man to let a thing like that worry him. Perhaps it is not going too far to say that Hans Castorp lets sickness overtake him, plays with fire, as it were, because the atmosphere of Berghof appeals to him. Herr Settembrini, that man of sharp word.s and. penetrating intellect, considers Hans Castorp’s decision to stay in Berghof to be a great mistake. He tells the young man so in no uncertain terms, and every time he speaks to him, takes the opportunity of dropping a hint about the harm that the place has done to other people. He quotes instances of people who were cured of tuberculosis, but ;just stayed on, because no other form of life was possible for them after a year or so of idleness in Berghof. Settembrini is there himself only because he is a very sick man, but, at least intellectually, he wages constant war with his surroundings' because he realises their dangerous and insidious nature. He keeps his mind clean, healthy, progressive, and wishes to be of service to humanity. We may find his rationalistic, progressive, liberty-loving, democratic outlook rather

51 over-simplified, 'but we cannot deny, that it is consistent and purposeful, Hans Castorp is only too conscious of the resistance offered by this mind to his decision to stay on in Berghof, and, in particular, to his falling in love with Olawdia Ohauchat, When subtlety fails, Settembrini is not afraid to cry aloud to Hans Oastorp on Garnival Bight, warning him of, the dangers he is exposing himself to in making love to Madame Ohauchat, After this incident, Settembrini does not talk to Hans Oastorp for several weeks, because Hans Oastorp has gone over to the other samp. Later on, he is reluctant to introduce Naphta to Hans Oastorp for fear lest he, too, should lead the engineer astray. But he has to do so in the end, and from then on, Naphta and Settembrini wage verbal war with one another for the conquest of Hans Oastorp1s mind. In the second half of the book, Hans Oastorp, in his eagerness to know everything and give anything a trial, starts visiting Dr, Krokowski, the psycho­ analyst, 'We are never told exactly what goes.on . between the two, but we do know that Hans does not wish his cousin to know of these visits and that when Joachim accidentally finds out about them, a barrier arises between the two young men, Joachim feels instinctively $hat Krokowski’s consulting­ room is somehow unclean, unhealthy, and that it is i

52 laad for his cousin, to go there. Hans Oastorp is never really in danger of falling victim to Naphta’s teaching, not 'because h4 does not like the teaching, but because he finds Naphta personally repulsive. Settembrini, in a sense, does not realise that Haphta constitutes much less of a danger to a nature like Hans Oastorp* s than did Madame Ohauchat, the soft-footed, attractive, but physically decayed • and morally degenerate genius of the sanatorium. And yet Haphta does say some things that might well ensnare Hans Oastorp. His opinion is dangerous when he says: "Krankheit sei hbchst menschlich, denn Mensch sein, heisse krank sein. Im GeisJ-»;;,alsq^ in der Krankheit beruhe die Wdrde des Menscheh und seine Vornehmheit; er sei, mit einem'Worte, in des to h&herem Grade Mensch’ , ge kr&nker er sei, und der Genius der Krankheit sei menschlicher, als der der Gesundheit." He goes on to talk of human progress, Herr Settembrini*s hobby-horse; "Als ob aber nicht der Fortsehritt, so. weit dergleichen existiere’ , einzig der Krankheit verdanlct werde, das heisse: dem Genie, - als welches nichts anderes als eben Krankheit sei I Als ob nicht die Gesunden allezeit von den Er range nschaf ten der Krank­ heit gelejbt h&tten* Es habe Menschen gegeben, die .bewusst und ,'willentlich in Krankheit und Wahnsinn gegangen seien, urn der Menschheit Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, die zur Gesundheit wlirden, naehdem sie durch Wahnsinn errungen worden, und dex*en Besitz und Nutzniessung nach gener heroischen Opfertat nicht linger durch Krankheit und Wahnsinn bedingt sei. Das sei der wahre Kreuzestod.•••" * The chapter entitled "Schnee" may be taken

* Der Zauberberg, Operationes Spirituales, pp. 183 & ^1184 of the 1946 Bermann-Fischer edition.

53 as a turning-point in the whole story. In it, fortlhe first time, Hans Oastorp is awakened td> a sense of the shamefulness of living his life away in the shelter of the sanatorium. "Von dort aus (from his chaise-longue) hatte er das hohe Nebelgebirg, den Tanz des Schneesturms hetrachtet und sich seines Ge\ffens ttber die Brustwehr des Komforts hin in seiner Seele geschSmt.1’ * With Settembrinifs wholehearted approval, he learns to ski. Dur2ing the long slci-tour that he makes on the occasion wheh he gets lost in the snow for a time, he reaches a new state of perception: "Ich will dem Tode Treue halten in meinem Herzen, doch mieh hell erinnern, dass Treue zum Tode und Gewesenen nur Bosheit und finstere Wollust und Menschenfeindschaft ist, bestimmt sie unser Dehken und Regieren. Der Mensch soil urn der Giite und Liebe willen dem Tode keine Herrschaft einr&umen iiber seine Gedanken." In these words Hans Oastorp manifests his essential freedom and shows that in spite of his frequent yielding to the principles of sickness and death, thea© is a strong core of lively resistance to them in him. Later on, in a conversation with Olawdia Ohauchat in the chapter entitled ’'Mynheer Peepeiicorn (Des Weiteren)", Hans Oastorp says: ’'Zum Leben gibt es zwei Wege: Der eine ist der gewbhnliche, direkte und brave. Der andere ist sa^dimm,-er ftthrt fiber den Tod, und das ist der geniale Wegl" »*# . *

Schnee, p. SOI of 1946 Bermann-Fischer edition. Xbidem, pp. 231 -32 of Bemann-Pischer edition. Mynheer Peeperkorn(Des Weiteren), p. 388 Of above edition.

54 (it is interesting to note that this idea is taken up and developed in a greeting to Gerhart Hauptmann on the occasion of the first production of "Dorothea Angermann" in Munich. (See Die Forderung des Tages.) Thomas Mann is by no means a wasteful writer; if he thinks a thought is good, or that his phrasing is happy, he is not afraid to repeat it even after the lapse of many years.) In the remaining part of the hook, the hero may appear to hover between the opposing demands of sickness and death on the one hand, and life and normality on the other. But, as

we

have seen, the

conflict has already been decided, and we know that Hans Oastorp can no longer he permanently lost; life has too strong a hold on him#, Joachim’s return to the sanatorium after nine months of gloiio.us freedom in the world below, and his death a few months later are harrowing ex­ periences for Hans Castorp. After Joachim’s death, Hans Castorp falls victim for a time to a state of irrespons­ ibility in which he completely loses count of time; it is as if he walked by the seashore where all is alike and where time and distance are forgotten in the monotony and loneliness of the sand-dunes. Aft€r the Peeperkorn interlude, during which Hahs Castorp falls under the spell of a personality whose fascination is entirely due to his vitality,

55 and whose attitude of mind is one of complete devotion to feeling (das Gefiihl), comes a period during which Hans Oastorp "becomes the confidant of all ibhe neurotic cranks in Berghof and himself falls victim to-the ''Patience"disease. He is disturbed in the midst of this morbid preoccupation by Settembrini, who bursts in like a cold draught from the outside world and tells him something oftthe dangers of the international situation. The acquisition- of a new gramophone by the sanatorium authorities is able to lull him into a sense of comfort and security for a time. Hans Oastorp is v hut the little Italian has won oun he ant s.' And, although Hans Gastonp leave© Settembrini to go and fight on the othen side, when they pant thene is a hond between them, the bohd of thein common victony oven the principle nepnesented by Uaphta, the negation of life. Hans Gastonp, them, tniumphs in'the end .oven the powenful spell of the Magic Mountain. When we lose sight of him we cannot help feeling that his seven yeans of thinking and pondering- have not been altogethen fruitless. Often in the course of them he has sailed dangerously near the nocks; often the Magic Mountain has almost claimed him for its own; yet, partly because of- the guidance he has had, partly because of a certain native caution he has avoided the danger of being com­ pletely and irrevocably claimed by the place. During . all his time at Berghof he is conscious of the experimental nature' of his yielding to the powers of sickness and death, and his yielding is never without a certain mental reserve. He has played with fire for seven years and yet he has contrived to preserve himself intact. When we lose sight of him as he goes into battle in the closing pages of the book we do not need to concern ourselves further with his fate, for we know that he

58 has escaped from an atmosphere that was not so much one of aeath as of the negation of life. We are now in a position to pause and draw some further comparisons "between the treatment of the sickness and death theme in "Per Tod in Venedig" and in' "Der Zauberberg". As mentioned at the "beginning of the chapter, the latter work was intended as a light and humorous counterpart,to the former. The nature of the theme the fact that "Der Zauberberg" formed

a

and

convenientout­

let for thoughts that had been occupying the author during the war years made the original conception of the work impossible to carry out;., That the story gained in every way from the long period of incubation can hardly be questioned. It will be interesting to determine in which respects "Der Tod in Venedig" and "Der Zauberberg" resemble one another and in which they, differ, apart from length. '

•

The first resemblance that occurs to the reader is that in both these works a man of regular and careful habits is removed from his everyday surroundings and trans­ planted into others, where he is exposed to influences to Ifliich he is unaccustomed at home. In both cases these influences are dangerous and are capable of destroying the hero physically and mentally. In both cases the hero is a man of considerable intelligence, in whta it is not difficult to recognise a self-portrait of the author. In the case of Aschenbach, the hero is a man with the features gnd Christian name of the musician Mahler, a compound of

59 composer and author, like Thomas Mann himself| in that; of Hans Castorp, he is a young man of good family with a love of music, a strong philosophical vein, and a tendency to idleness and,daydreaming. Some of the differences between the two works are the inevitable differences between the novel and the short story. "Der Tod in Venedig” excels in con­ centration and polish, qualities which one rlooks for in a good short story. Mann displays great artistry in conveying the atmosphere of sustained tbnsion. Yet "Der Tod in Venedig” lacks the fascinating complexity of "Der Zauberberg”, The hero, a famous novelist of orderly habits and high social standing, leaves his work suite irresponsibly one day, goes off to Venice, falls victim to an unhappy passion for a beautiful boy, and stays on in Venice even when he knows that the. cholera-epidemic is raging. It is not surprising to find that the yielding to the fascination of sickness and death, symbolised by his passion for Tadzio, is soon followed by Aschenbach’s death. In "Der Zauber­ berg” the possibilities offered by the larger form are exploited to the full. Hans Oastorp’s character and its development are given inldetail. His character and his reactions to his environment are infinitely more complex and subtle than those of Gustav von Aschenbach, who merely succumbs. Hans Oastorp wants to experience every­ thing and know everything, including the secrets of death

and disease, and he is willing to pay a high price for this knowledge, seven years of his life, hut. he advances each instalment of time after due consideration; as it were, always with a certain mental reserve, and never succumbing completely to his surroundings as do so many of the people in the sanatorium who have nothing in their heads except their temperatures and the latest flirtation. The inclusion of characters like Waphta, Settembrini and Peeperkorn and the interplay of their influence on Hans Oastorp are possible only within the framework of a long novel. Hans Oastorp’s long vacillation between the points of view represented by the vatious characters who influence him is, of course, the main interest of "Der Zauberberg", and this could not be . represented within the limits of the short story fonjiu; Having said all this, we have to acknowledge that there are differences between the two works too fundamental to be accounted for by the difference in length. The hero of "Der Tod in Venedig" yields to the powers of sickness and death; his passion for the boy Tadzio keeps him in Venice when all the dictates of common sense tell him that he should leave the city at once. Hans Oastorp, on the other hand, though so much younger than Gustav von Aschenbach, emerges triumphant from the heavily charged atmosphere of death and disease as soon as the war begins. Aschenbach, an aging man tl>red by overwork and mental strain, makes no

01 great effort to resist the power that is enslaving him. Ilans Oastorp does not either, hut a certain native caution, combined with the efforts of Settembrini on his behalf, enables him to swim where Aschenbach sinks. That Thomas Mann had by no means exhausted the possibilities of the sickness and death theme with the publication of ‘’Der Zauberberg” was shorn by ’’Doktor Paustus”, which appeared in 1947. This work belies the ironical calm of the Joseph cycle, written in the 30’s and early 40’s, in which Thomas Mann preserved a detachment which is in striking contrast to his anxious concern with the fate of his country in his last great novel. Adrian Leverktthn, the central character of this novel, which will be dealt with in detail in a later chapter, represents the intensified incarnation of almost every quality possessed by other artist heroes of Thomas Mann, Pie is a musician of genius, he has devoted years to the s$u

later in the "Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen”, Mann

says of Wagner, that he has influenced him greatly, not as a musician or dramatist, but as an artist, "als der moderne Kilnstier liberhaup t." He also reveres in Wagner,

97

i as in Goethe, and,Schopenhauer, a. great German of the "bourgeois tradition, to which Nietzsche, in spite of the revolutionary nature of his ideas, also "belonged.

Mann sees in Wagner, as he sees in Goethe and in Schopeahauer, a related spirit. He admits more than once that there are elements in Wagher which he must regard as highly questionable, "but, having admitted that, he still stands by his early admiration for the great music ian-dramatist*. In the collection entitled "Die Forderung den Tages" we find a remarkable essay in which Ibsen and Wagner are Compared. Here, one common aspect on which much emphasis is laid is the fact that they are both men to whom their work is everything, men of doing

■

rather than being, men who are interested in power and success. They were both old wizards, says Mann, and returns to this thought in a later easa#; they were both musicians., as might lie expected, of northern artists, one openly and the other secretly, but both equally in effect. And he talks of their arts as of "Einfltlsterungs- und Faszinationsktinsten einer so sinnigen wie ausgepichten Teufelsartistik", curious words of qualified praise these, half-humorous, halfserious. But the closest bond between the two men is the fact that each brought his art to a pitch of per­ fection far beyond anything hitherto achieved. That, more than anything else,, is what -unites them, says

1

98

®ann. This last statement seems to me in a way less convincing than what went "before, 'because it is surely rnoife remarkable that Mann should "be able to make like claims for both in the field of devilish artistry and conjuration than that he should be concerned about their similar achievements in their different branches of art* In 1933 appeared the longest studsr on Wagner which Thomas Mann has published. It is a speech called "Leiden und G-r6 sse Richard Wagners". The title can itself lead us to one important source of Mann’s interest in Wagner. Here he is dealing with one who has suffered and is great. Thomas Mann is always interested in other great men who have qualities which he has himself. We need only think of some of Mann* s heroes to realise how he likes to talk of his Own sufferings. In "BuddenbrookS" and "Tonio KrBger", to take only two examples, the heroafi Thomas and Tonio suffer mental anguish because they are not like other men. Adrian Leverkiihn, Thomas Mann’s last, and in many rapects his greatest hero, still suffers becatise of his art. In this trait, then, we seerone source of Mann’s sympathy with-Wagner. We tend to be very interested in people who slug.re our weaknesses on misfortunes, perhaps more than in those who share,our virtues or good fortune. One of the most commendable gestures of this essay is Thomas Mann’s gift of apt. comparison between great men.- He can readily surmount the barriers imposed

"by different languages, epochs and forms of art, and see essential similarities. Within the space of a few pages, Mann tells us of the kinships that exist between Wagner and Zola, Wagner and Tolstoi, Wagner and 1 Ibsen. He does not strain to see similarities which hardly exist. We willingly acknowledge that resemblances do exist between those great artists of the nineteenth century, but they have to be pointed out to us by a critic like Thomas Mann or we should never see them. Having shown

-the particular

affinities that exist between,Wagner and some of his great contemporaries, and having established the super-

,

iority of Wagner’s art over that of earlier opera-wri ter s ,' Thomas Mann goes on to say that Wagner’s superior psycho­ logical insight and his inspired use of lie myth are two of the qualities that raise him above all other operawri ters. Again we are tempted to say that these qualities are precisely those which Thomas Mann himself possesses in high degree. From his earliest short stories, works for instance like "Entt&uschung" and "Tobias Mindernickel"to his last novel, "Doktor Faustus", Mann proves bims.elf to be a psychologist of much more than ordinary endowment. Later in life, when h e ^ a d already poured out the long series of intensely personal works beginning with "Buddenbrooks" and ending with "Der Zauberberg", Mann turned to the myth, and infused it with a modern

human'interest and gave it the advantage of detailed treatment, taking every little sentence of the ‘biblical narrative and exploiting it to the limits of its possibilities. flie misery that Wagner's work caused him is the .theme of a considerable section of the essay. It is not surprising'that the author of "Tonio KrBger" should be able to show so much sympathy with Wagner on this account. The struggle between art.and life that forms the main theme of "Tonio Krttger" also caused Wagner great misery; he, too, kept trying to escape from his art, but without success. Mann talks of Wagner's acquaintance with the philosophy of Schopenhauer in terms very like those in which he describes his own first meeting with Schopen­ hauer. it is almost impossible to overstate Mann's feeling of kinship with Wagner. When he comes to describe "Tristan und Isolde" he talks of it with as much love and understanding as if he had written it himself.. And did he not write one of his best short stories about this opera? In his essay he says about Wagner’s acquaintance with Schopenhauer: "Die Bekanntschaft mit der Philosophie Arthur Schopenhauers ist das grosse Ereignis im Leben Wagners; keine frlihere intellektuelle Begegnung, etwa die mit Feuerbach, Icommt dieser an persBnlicher und historiseher Bedeutung gleich : denn sie bedeutete hBchsten Trost, tiefste Selbstbest&tigjung (is that not what Mann says’ •of Schopenhauer's effect on himself in "Buddenbrooks" and elsewhere?.), geistige Erlttsung ftir den, dem sie in so vollkommenen Sinne ’zukam’, und sie hat ohne

101 Zweifel erst seiner Musik den entfesselnden Mut selbst gegeben." *

za

sich

Later in the same essay Mann talks of Wagner’s indissoluble "Mischung von D&nonie und BlArger 11 chiceitsV 'This phrase inevitably reminds us of Thomas Mann himself. . , His consciousness of the two poles in his nature is* illustrated by many of his characters# Tonio Krttger was aware of the two elements in his -make-Tip 'and had to keep reminding himself t.hat he was "kein Zigjeuner im . grlinen Wagen”. Tonio manages to hold the balances but in the cases of later artists like Aschenbach and Lever-: ktthn the two elements are present in more dangerous proportions. "DSmonie" gains the upper hand in the lives of these two men, with disastrous consequences. The second Wagner lecture, ’’Richard Wagner und. der ’Ring des Hibelungen’" was delivered in ZUrich in 1957. It is much shorter than the previous one and is moi?e limited in scope,' as its title suggests* A good' deal of it is repetition of the 1953 'Wagner lecture, and indeed almost the first words are a quotation from that lecture. There follows an appreciation j8 f the ’Ring’, a worRk which Thomas Mann never tires of discuss­ ing, as he never tires of talking of "Tristan und Isolde”,• The essay closes with; .a warning against the Nazis, who claimed a few c-atch-words from Wagner without Knowing anything of his spirit. In the light of. what has been said about G-oehhe, •

See-p. 436 of Adel

des G-eistes.

•

'

''

^

■ ' '

102

Schopenhauer and Wagner in the works of Thomas Mann, we may now look hack 'and consider what particular attraction each of those great figures has for him. It requires an unusual amount of interest to-make one man write "books ah out another over a period of more than quarter of a century, and Thomas Mann has "been doing that about all three. He supplies the answer to the question himself; it is the feeling that he has fundamental things in common with each of them. As far as Goethe is concerned, he loves the man because he, too, is ah artist and author, like Goethe, and must love and rbvere the supreme rep>resent aftive of that order. Schopenhauer, as we are told in uBudden~ brooks0, gave him first the right to protest against the horrors of.this best of worlds, which is really the worst of worlds, and showed him that another and greater mind approved-his thinking; and Wagner, a supreme artist and master-musician, also an admirer of Schopenhauer, appealed to Mann not o&ly by virtue of his own art, but also because he happened to be working in the Schopenhauer tradition. So.we see that all., three, Goethe, Schopenhauer and Wagner were men whom in one way or another he felt to be like or related to 'himself. From the three men just discussed, we turn to a fourth, who also plays a considerable role in the writings of Thomas Mann, - Friedrich Nietzsche. His ■ place in Thomas Mann’s work is not the same as that

103 of Wagner, Schopenhauer and Goethe* Looking through Mann’s works* we can see at a glance that Nietzsche's name does not appear in nearly so many essay-titles as', for instance, Goethe's or Wagner's. And yet Nietzsche is very important as a theme ih the works of Thomas Mann and has a special importance in the most recent of them;*, Nietzsche’s role in the "Betrachtungen e^.nes ynpolitischen" is considerable. Thomas Mann finds, as one would expect that this most problematical character is more difficult to fit into his scheme of things than Schopenhauer and Wagner. And yet he feels that the three belong together and that he must talk of Nietzsche. In the chapter of this work entitled “Eirikehr**, he says of Nietzsche; "Per Lebensbegriff. dieser deutscheste, goethischste und im hBchsten religiBsen Sinn konservative Begriff, 1st es, den Nietzsche mit neuem Gefiihle durchdrungen, mit einer neuen Schttnheit, Kraft und heiligen Unschuld umkleidet, zum obersten Rang erhoben’ ,, zur geistigen Herrsohaft geftthrt hat.“ And later he says; "Wenn ich auf eine Formel, auf ein Wort bringen sollte, was ich ihm geistig zu danken habe> ich fftnde kein anderes als ebe'h dies: die Idee des , Lebens...“ There is a paragraph in this chapter of the ‘•Betrachtungen*' on Nietzsche* s influence on “Tonio KrtJger"* Mann says; "Per dithyrambisch-konservative Lebensbegriff des lyrischen Philosophen und seine Verteidigung gegen den moralistischen-nihilistisehen Geist, gegen die 'Literatur', war in dem Erl'ebnis und Gefuhl , das die

Novelle gestaltete, zur erotischen Ironie geworden, zu einex1 verliebten Bejahung alles dessen, was nicht Geist and Kunst, was unsclmldig, gesund, anst&ndig-unproblematisch und rein vom Geiste ist, und der Marne des Lebens, ja, der der SohUnheit fand sich hier sentimentalise!! genug, auf die Welt der Bilrgerlichkeit, der als selig empfundenen Gewtthnlichkeit, des Gegensatzes von Geist und Kunst Ubertragen.” And so we find , perhaps to our surprise, that “Tonio Krttger", this tale of conflict, or rather of the reciprocal longings of art and life for one another, would never have been possible in the form in which we know it but for Friedrich Nietzsche. Turning to a much more recent work, “Doktor Faustus”, we find again that Nietzsche is in many ways the prototype of Adrian Leverkiihn. The resemblances between the two men, the real one and the fictitious one, are obvious. First of all there are correspondences of an outward nature * As a young man Nietzsche dis­ played an interest in theology and music. Leverkiihn resembles him in this respect; in fact, he studies theology'fox' four terms before he finally settles in Leipzig to study music. Then there is the incident in the house of i11-fame. In Nietzsche’s case, it occurred in Cologne; he had gone to visit the city and engaged a guide for the day. In the .evening he asked his guide "to lead him to a restaurant where he could eat well. The guide led him to a house of ill repute Y/hich the young man entered. Nonplussed by what he saw there, the young man went up to a piano, udas einzige seelenhafte Wesen in der Gesellschaft”, played a few chords, and, having

105 come to himself, left the room. (The incident is re­ counted in Thomas Mann’s essay on Nietzsche in "Neue Studien’’.)

This whole episode is transferred to Adrian

Leverkiihn. The correspondence of external details is complete; the only difference is that in Leverldihn *s case the incident took place in Leipzig. Not only the incident, but its peculiar domination of Nietzsche’s life and the echo it finds in ’’Also sprach Zarathustra" twenty years later are mirrored in the story of Lever­ kiihn. Nor he, too, was haunted Ly the incident, and his ’’Hetaera Esmeralda” is a recurring motive through­ out his life’s work. Like Nietzsche, leverldihn returned to the place of temptation, hut in "Doktor Faustus” Mann seeks to spiritualise the motives that led him there hy insisting on the fixation of his hero’s desire on the girl who had touched him on the first fateful occasion. Both men, Nietzsche and Leverkiihn, suffered from terrible attacks of migraine that made existence a burden; Nietzsche, too, according to Thomas Mann, owed a great part of his genius to the disease that he contracted in his youth. The periods of depression, sickness and misery alternating with periods of frantic /

intellectual activity are common to both men. The peculiar style in which some of Leverkiihn's letters,' and notably the story of the devil’s visit to him are written, is an echo of Luther via Nietzsche. Other details could be adduced, but these are sufficient to show that Thomas Miim wanted to insist on the physical resemblance of the

!

• 106 two men# When we come to consider their spiritual and intellectual qualities, or rather those qualities which Thomas Mann attributes to each, the similarities are even more striking. Both are men of the highest intellect­ ual powers; both are willing to go to any length in their search after knowledge; both are willing.to pay any price for it; both do pay in the end with the loss of their sanity. Thomas Mann's narrator in "Doktor Faustus", Serenus E.eitblom, talks of Leverkiihn at times in terms of adoration or something very like it; when Leverkiihn writes to tell him of the Iietaera Esmeralda episode, his reactions are the following: "Es war, urn mich emphatisch auszudrilcken, wie wenn man einen Engel liber die Slinde sich ergehen httrte: auch bei einer solchen wiirde man sich keiner Frivolit&t und Frechheit, keiner banalen Lustigkeit im Verhaltenzum Gegenstande versehen milssen und w&re doch, bei aller Einsicht in sein geistiges-Anrecht auf ihn, verletzt und zu der Bitte versucht: ’Schweig, Lieberl Dein Mund ist zu rein und streng fllr diese Dinge.*" * In the Nietzsche essay (Neue Studien) Thomas Mann talks of Nietzsche in exactly the same way, as though he were too pure for certain experiences: "Der Jiingling, rein wie ein M&dchen, ganz Geist, ganz Gelehrsamkieit, ganz frorame.Scheu", ** and again he talks of the "Empf&nglichkeit des I-Ieiligen fiir die Slinde".

**

*ASee Doktor Faustus, p. 227. v*Neue Studien, p. 111.

From the above it will he clear that the character of Adrian Leverkiihn and the course of his life are to a vei^y large extent copied straight from Friedrich Nietzsche’s life. Thomas Mann makes no attempt to conceal the resemblance. In fact, he uses every means at his disposal to make the resemblance obvious. That there are differences between the two is, of course, apparent; the comment that 'springs to the mind ±s that Nietzsche enjoyed a popularity and influence, perhaps, based mainly on misunderstanding of his philosophy, which never fell to Leverkiihn’s lot. Repeated mention has been made of the essay "Nietzsches Philosophie irn. Lichte unserer Erfahrung" (Neue Studien, 1948). This is an admirable piece of work, in which Thomas Mann, within the limits of some fifty pages, tells.us something of Nietzsche’s life, philosophy and influence. He admits the fascination of Nietzsche for himself, the veneration mingled with pity that he had always felt for Nietzsche. He describes the complexity of this, feeling, and, in doing so, says' more about Nietzsche than one could believe possible in so few. words: "Es ist das tragische Mitleid mit einer ttberlasteten, -.iiberbeauftragteh SeeTie, welche zum Wissen nur berufen, nicht eigentlich dazu geb.oren war und, wie Hamlet, daran zerbrach; mit einer zarten, feinen, giitigen, liebebedirftigen, auf edle Freundschaft gestellten und f$r die Einsamkeit gar nicht gemachten Seele, der gerade dies: tiefste, k<este Einsamkeit,

108 die Einsamkeit des Verb resellers, verh&igt war* mit einer urspriinglich tief piet&tvollen, ganz zur Verehrung gestimmten, an frorame Traditionen gebundenen Geistigkeit, die vom Schicksal gleiehsam an den Haaren in ein wildes und trunkenes, jeder PietB.t entsagendes, gegen die eigene Natur tobendes Prophetenturn der barbarisch strotzenden KrajELt,»der'G-ewissensverli&rtung, des B 6 sen gezerrt wurde." * The whole essay is full of such paragraphs, defining, characterising, saying much in few words, and, above all, not fearing to tell the truth. Thomas Mann says he sees two fundamental errors in Nietzsche’s thinking - his defence of instinct at the expense of intellect, as though instinct needed defending against the menace of intellect, and secondly, the false' opposition of life and morality created by him.' All his admiration for Nietzsche does not blind his eyes to factsj he admits that Nietzsche does not emerge well from the test, "By their fruits shall ye know them." Thomas .Mann always, thinks of Schopenhauer, ' Wagner and Nietzsche together. In the "Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen" he calls them "ein Dreigestirn ewig verbtmxlener Geister". In his thoughts the three men are always closely-related: "Nietzsche nannte Schopenhauer seinen*grossen Lehrer’; welch \mgeheueres Gltlck flir Wagner das Erlebnis Schopenhmiers war, weiss der Erdkreis." "Die drei sind eins. Der ehrftlrchtige Schiller, dem ihre gewaltigen Lebensl&ufe zur Kultur geworden, mtichte wtlnschen, von alien dreien auf eimjial redeh z$i kbnnen, so schwer scheint es ihm, auseinanderzuhalten, was er dem einzelnen verdankt." * Neue Studien, pp. 106--'7 * * (Betrachtungen, Binkehr.)

109 Two comments remain to 'be made, in the light of what has just been said. The first of these is that Goethe, as a theme in Mann’s work, occupies a special and privileged place, corresponding to his rank as an artist and man. This is apparent not only from the amount of material written ah out 'Goethe hut from the reverence with which he is treated - as the supreme representative of. the bourgeois epodi, for instance. The other three great Germans are so interwoven in /

Mann’s mind that he can scarcely think of them separately they are a "Dreigestirn ewig verhundener Geister", and to'mention one is to evoke the thought of. them all. Goethe retains his individuality more than they do; one has the impression that, whereas-'Thomas Mann feels that he is dealing with his own equals in Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche, he sees in Goethe one who is of much greater stature and must he treated with corresponding deference. The second comment is that, as Thomas Mann has grown older, his treatment of these great men as themes of his work has developed, gaining in depth and knowledge, though sacrificing nothing in "brilliance. There has been a growing tendency in his works towards the biographical variety of criticism. His last studies on all these figures show it at a high pitch of development;., "Lotte in Weimar" could, only have been written by a man who, had spent much time on the study of Goethe's life in

"

110

addition to .having an intimate knowledge of his- works. The same is also true of the recent "Phantasie iiber. Goethe11, where the author displays a wonderful gift for selection of the relevant from an enormous mass of material. The sacrifice of enthusiasm in the interests of accuracy in the later critical studies cannot 'be regretted; the fervent admiration of Schopenhauer shorn in "Buddenbrooks" has given place to something' more careful and critical, 'but Thomas Mann has not lost his faculty of admiration with advancing years, even if his mind has 'become more cautious and critical. Apparently Goethe has stood the test of time tetter than, the others, "because in the last few years Thomas Mann has devoted more and more attention to him. A l - though Nietzsche has had a fair share of attention i n , ’’Doktor Faustus" and the. "Neue Studien",. he is regarded rather as a warning.than as an example; the fascination which he plainly possessed for Thomas Mann in the days, of the "Betrachtungen" has waned with increasing know­ ledge and judgement. Schopenhauer and Wagner have merged so much into Thomas Mann’s literary personality that he no longer needs to write ahout them; they are part of him|,

,

■

Ill ''

Chapter .5: Thomas Mann, as Euroijean*

In the course of his fifty years as an author, Thomas Mann has repeatedly felt himself called upon to state his attitude towards Euroxoean political problems. It would hardly be surprising that his point of view should not have remained constant during the whole of that time; most men’s opinions evolve, if they do not change fundamentally, in the course of a lifetime, and it cannot be denied that Thomas Mann’s loyalties have undergone sonsiderable changes, in the course of that time. Thomas Mann has for many years, been occupied with Germany’s relation to France and England and the democratic tradition that he considers these countries to represent. Our present task is to trace the develop­ ment that led from the thorough-going nationalism of works like "Friedrich und die grosse Koalition", and the "Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen" to the sentiments expressed in "Achtung, Europa." and "Doktor Faustus". Thomas Mann did not feel the need to take uxo an attitude towards European politics before the First Woi»ld War. This is understandable; in "Buddenbrooks", the short stories of the pre-1914 period and in "K6nigliche Iloheit" he had been, occupied with his own highly personal problem of the artist’s nature and his relation to the society he lived in* But in 1914 his Y/hole world tottered and he found himself hmable to continue ?/ork

112 on the novel he had started, "Der Zauberberg", till he had clarified his ideas about the war and his own position in the world, and above all, his relationship to the rapidly advancing tide of democracy, personified for him in the armies of France and England. The most important results of his ponderings were a short historical study, "Friedrich und die grosse Koalition", which appeared in 1914, and the "Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen" (1917), The first of these works need not detain us for very long. It is entitled "Ein Abriss tfflir den Tag und die Stunde". This sub-title is somewhat misledding, for Mann had planndd a more comprehensive ■work on Frederick the Great, and this essay does not owe its origin to the beginning of the war. He says in the preface to "Rede unaar Tage daran." :;: t In a lengthy chapter Thomas Mann emphasises how foreign politics are to the German nature. Again he calls to withess men like Lagarde and Nietzsche, cond.enms outright democracy and universal suffrage and similar Latin innovations. Betrachtungen, Einkehr,

y “Fort also mit dem landfremden. und abstossenden Schlagwort ’demokratisch’• Hie wird der mechanisch-”demokratische Staat des Westens- Helmatrecht ‘bei uns erlangen.11 * , Thomas Mann has no confidence in the ability of the common people to govern a country. He despises them* ’’Mein G-ott, das Vo lieI Hat es denn E&re, Stolz von Verstand nicht zu reden? Das Volk ist es, das auf den Plfttzen singt und schreit, wenn es lirieg gibt’, a"ber zu murren, zu greinen 'beginnt und den Krieg ftlr Schwindel erklllrt, wenn er lange daueft und Entbehrungen auferlegt. WomBglich macht es dann Eevolution: aber nicht aus si©hj denn zu Kevolutionen gehBrt Geist und das Volk ist absolut geistlos. Es hat niehts als die Gewalt, verbunden mit Unwissenheit, Dummheit und Unrechtlichkeit.” % He, does not "believe either in the people’s helief in equality - low down in the social scale one finds a surprising sense of position, he says. In the chapter of this work entitled ’’Menschliclikeit”, Thomas Mann displays a good deal of‘hostility to England, That is tinderstandable, but the English reader is bound to suffer a jolt when he reads the condonement of Murse Gavell’s execution contained in this chapter. Perhaps the worst feature of all is his final comment: Hurse Gavell became unconscious before the firing&squad, and he says coldly: ’’Eine politische Handlung zu flihren, die vor die F 1j.nten1!iufe flihren kann, sollte nur:der sich jbefugt u,nd berufen glauben, der.einigermassen sicher ist, angesichts der Flintenlliufe nicht ohnmBchtig zu werden," *

*

Betrachtungen, Politik, Betrachtungen, Menschlichkeit,

117 Tills comment is perhaps the most disagreeable feature of the whole book. One is not surprised that in- the 1932 edition of the work this passage is com­ pletely omitted on the grounds that its omission serves to ’lighten’ the book. At the end of this chapter appears a short section which is curiously untypical of the whole book and even suggests Thomas Mann’s probable later develop­ ments as far as the idea of Europe is concerned. Thomas Mann imagines for a moment, he says, that the horrors of the 1914-18 war are only the growing pains of a new Eurcope, in which harmony and fraternity will prevail, in which, too, all vulgarity will be removed from art, in which eating and drinking will be on a scale commensurcate with the poverty which will be an inevitable consequence of the war.Then the author turns from his fine picture, saying it is only a dream, and meantime the Anglo-French offensive is raging in Flanders (late summer 1917). His book bears only too clearly the marks of its wartime origin; he wrote it only because he felt he had to take sides: MXch fand mich nationaler, als ich gewusst hatte, dass ich sei, aber ich war niemals Politiker, niemals Nationalist.......Aber wohler, Gott weiss es, wir~d mir sein, wenn melne Seele wie der, von Politik gereinigt, Leben und Menschlichkeit wird anschauen dllrfen; besser, als durch dieses Buch, wird mein Wesen sich bew&hren kttnnen, wenn die VBlker hinter gefriedeten ' Grenzen in Wtirden und Ehren TCei -einander wohnen und ihre fe ins ten Giiter tauschen: der schttne Engl&nder, der polierte Franzose, der menschliche Busse und der wissende Deutsche.”

One reads these concluding words of this chapter with something of relief, for they show that the bitterness, unreasonableness and hatred contained in the earlier part of the book are plainly not the only sentiments of which the author is capable. ■ In the following chapters Mann returns to the attack on the political man, again quoting in his support figures like Doetojewski and Luther. He attacks’ both France and Italy with particular vehemence, saying he hates Mazzini and d ’Annunzio and what they represent, and repeating Tonio KrBger’s comment on the Italians; "Die ganze bellezza macht mich nervBs. Ich mag auch alle diese flirchterlich lebhaften Menschen dort unten mit dem schwarzen fierblick nicht leiden. Diese Romanen haben kein Gewissen in den Augen." The impression that one has on reading the

’.

"Betrachtungen” is that the author is not very sure of his ground. He says so more than once himself, tells how part of his own make-up, part of his cultural back­ ground is on the side of the "Zivilisationsliterat"• i

To reassure himself, more than for any other reason, he attacks the German "Zivilisationsliterat" (l. use the word for lack of a.single English equivalent) with all the resources at his command. The impression gathered from the book even now by an English reader is most unpleasant; and it is hard to believe that an intelligent German could have enjoyed reading it when it was written, unless he was reading it more fr'tom the point'of view of learning something of the psychological make-up of

119 the author than of finding real guidance in face of the problems of his day. The parts of this book that can still he read and approved are passages like the one at the end of the "Menschlichkeit" ahapter already mentioned where Thomas Mann dreams of a Europe not torn by war; the numerous illuminating autobiographical .comments* particularly some about his narrative works ** a great deal of information about '‘Buddenbrooks'' * for instance* is to be gleaned from the "Betrachtungen", and there is a very interesting reference to the as yet unwritten "Zauberberg";.and finally, some words from the last pages: "Einige dieser Blotter sind schBn; es sind die, wo Liebe sprechen durfte. Dorthin,'wo Hader und bittere Scheidung herrscht, werde ich nie wie.der blichen." One feels that, for a moment, Thomas Mann has been able to see the book as futuree generations will see it, and has, on the whole, shuddered at the prospect. But in the next sentence he goes, on to say that he does not take back what he has said, because it was truly and justly said in self-defence. On the whole, one cannot expect him to take back all the bitter and hard things said in the book; so little would be

left, and w&at

is the point of writing a book in which the whole argument is destroyed in the last page? From the J'Betrachtungen" we pass to "Der Zauberberg", which was published in 1934, seven years later. If we expect to find far-reaching and fundamental changes

in Mann’s outlook on politics and on other European countries, we shall he disappointed# Thomas Mann is not the kind of person who indulges in revolutions of thought overnight, and even in the space of seven years, the changes that take place are rather the result of shifting emphasis than of any sudden con­ version. The point has "been made hy Mann in discussions of Tolstoi’s and Wagner’s works that the seemingly abrupt changes which take place in the outlook of those two men in late middle life are foreshadowed in their earlier wori'k, for those who have eyes to see. The same can. he said of Thomas Mann himself. ■At those points of the "Betrachtungen” where his voice is raised to the highest pitch against the machinations of the "Zivilisationsliterat", we can he fairly sure that he is least sure of his ground. We have already seen how, more than once in,the course of that work, the author turned aside from.the main current of his thought to say how he wished the whole sorry business were over and that the nations could live in harmony again; then there is the passage just guoted where he says- he will never look again at those parts of the "Betrachtungen”, "wo Hader und hittere Scheidung herrschft." The existence of such passages in this hook demonstrates that he was not happy about writing it; in facjs, he would not have written, it had he been happy and undivided in his mind. Does he not

121 admit himself that in many ways he is a consciously Eurppean author? In "Der Zauberberg" then, certain thoughts which, in the earlier work, crept in'unwanted, as it were, are allowed to come to the fore. The "Zivilisationsliterat” was a most nefarious influence in 1917 and needed to he suppressed. In "Der Zauberberg" Herr Settembrini, who stands for the same principles,' is nothing of the kind. In fact, if we survey the various influences to which Hans Castorp was exposed, it is doubtful if we could find one as wholesome and sympathetic as that of Herr Settembrini. Haphta, the advocate of terror and revolution and demonic destruction, who finally draws the logical conclusion from his teaching and kills himself: Olawdia Ohauchat, with her easy morals, sloppy habits and

*

Russian "M8hnschlichke.it": Pieter Peeperkorn, the large, voracious and -thirsty prophet of nature and sentiment: all these figures recede and give pride of place to the little Italian with the old checked trousers and the frayed cuffs and handsome moustache. And yet Settembrini is precisely the type of the "Zivisilationsliterat" who had been judged so severely in 1917. We must not make the mist alee of supposing that Settembrini is portrayed as an ideal character. That is very far from being the case. His outlook is much too simple and straightforward and naive to be representative of the author’g. Settembrini lacks subtlety, and we cannot

.

'

.

'

122

help smiling, as indeed we are meant to smile, while he catechises Hans Gastorp on the reasons for his presence in Berghof. Hans Gastorp, asked for his opinion of doctors in general and Hofrat Behrens in particular, says he clones not have one, and Settembrini, character­ istically, takes strong exception, telling Hans Gastorp to make up his mind and not to "be afraid to judge people. After we have met. Settembrini three of four times, we know exactly what his opinions will he on any given subject, and nothing he says afterwards will surprise us. When he talkla of his grandfather, lawyer and Italian patriot, of his father, the gentle scholar, when he is lost in admiration of Vergil, talks of human progness and the future world republic,xwrites articles for the "Soziologie der Leiden'* published by the "Build zur Organisierung des Portschritts", condemns Iians Gastor^p* s decision to stay on in Berghof, warns him against the Bast and Russian influence, approves his decision to learn to ski, condemns his tampering with spiritualism, txd.es to chll him back from. Glawdia on Garnival Night - when he does all these things, he is acting pex’fectly consistently and exactly as;we should expect him to act. Hans Gastorp, in whom we can readily see the author, understands that Settembrini cannot tell him the last word about politics or life, and gives a ready ear to Naph-ta as well, much to Settem­ brini* s disgust. But in the end Hans Gastorp stands

123 above and 'beyond both/his preceptors; he hears them both, and believes neither completely. Yet he acts more in the spirit of Settembrini than of Naphta,1 and so we must allow that the little rationalist wins his battle. Perhaps the point that

we should make

about Settembrini5s teaching is that it is good as fej.r as it goes, but does not go far enough. Settembrini ’s admirable cjualitieb are his honesty, forthrightness and decision. He has his beliefs and lives by them. An incurable consumptive, he is none­ theless never tired of as'seriing the value of living one* s life properly, and condemns outright Hans Oastorp’s behaviour in shutting himself up in the sheltered surroundings of the Magic Mountain instead of 'bravely facing the problems of the day in the world below* In g? ite of his physical disabilities, he devotes all his very considerable intellectual energy to the great cause of human progress. His belief in progress is complete; he points to the development that life has already under­ gone fr"oin the earliest stages to man, and says that in­ finite possibilities of further development are open to mankind.. He warns Hans Oastorp against the irony, cynicism and bitterness shown by many of the undesirable young People in Berghof. His teaching is healthy and rational, and Hans Gastorp’s main objection to it lies in his dis­ like of Settembrini’s intolerance of'any point of view other than, his own. 3?or Settembrini democracy is the only

124 possible form of -government and an optimistic humanism tiie only possible outlook on life. We can see that Thomas Mann’s attitude to democracy is changing. He is still only too well aware of its limitations, but he no longer loathes its advocates. He does not quite go to the length of making the "Zi vili sat ions literati' a German and still tolerating him. He often calls Settembrini a "Windbeutel" or s. ’’Drehorgelmami" s but when Hans Gastorp and he part* there are tears in his mentor’s eyes and Hans Gastorp, too, is almost overcome by emotion. Their leavetaking, when Settembrini addresses him by his Christian name and embraces him, although Gastorp is going to fight on one side and Settembrini to use his last powers in encouraging his comitrymen^to fight on the other, is affectionate and any ill will is completely lacking. Settembrini is magnanimous in the end. "K&iipfe tapfer dort, wo das Blut dich bindeti I/lehr kann jetzt niemand tun," He says* In "Der Zauber'berg" the author has gained distance and has had time to make up his mind to a great extent about the problems thatvwere tormenting him during the First World War. The bitterness caused by the unhappy quarrel with his brother Heinrich has had time to subside* The whole train of thought originating from the idea th&t Germany is a land of protest, protest against the domin­ ation of Europe by the Franco-Roman-English tradition,

125 lias disappeared. We must 'be thankful that it has 'dis­ appeared, because from the idea that Germany is different it is only a step to the idea that Germany is superior, and an author of Mannfs rank can do endless harm by supporting such a notion. The whole atmosphere of uB.er Zauber'berg11 reioresents an advance on the earlier work, the arguments of which can hardly be taken seriously to-day. The most that we can say of them is that Thomas• Mann shows a great ability to rationalise his prejudices by quoting from other great Germans who shared them. In !,Der Zauber’ b erg” we do not feel that Hans Gastorp begins his searchings and ponderings with a mind darkened by prejudice; the best feature about him, though it often causes Settembrini endless worry, is his willingness to listen to any point of view. Summing up, then,' we can say that by the ttime Thomas Mann wrote ”Der Zauberberg1*,.,he had begun to realise that more than one point of view about Europe and about democracy was possible', hut he did not yet advocate democracy* He did, however, manage to give it a fair hearting through a worthy exponent. Herr Settem­ brini has his -faults, but he is never ridiculous, though, often amusing. "Per Zauber'berg” might be regarded as the stage of the open mind in Thomas Mann* s political development. I n 'the-period between 1924 and 1930 Thomas ■Mann moved farther and farther away from the non-

,

1

136

political position lie had held during the war. hot only his unwillingness to have anything to do with politics, hut also his loathing of all things French seemed to disappear in this period. The tone of essays and speeches which were published during this period is much more European; the personal antipathy which he seemed to feel towards Frenchmen and Italians as a young man may still have existed then, hut more mature years have shown him that it could not he allowed to dominate his 'thinking and writing. A few outstanding examples of this trend will suffice. All are taken from the collection of essays' and speeches entitled ’’Die Forderung des Tages" which appeared in 1930 and contained material written during the years 1925 to 1929. A noteworthy example is a speech delivered in Munich (Erdffnungsrede hei einer Kunggebuhjg 1Miinchen als Kulturzentrum* in der Tonhalle zu Miinchen), in which Thomas Mann appeals- to his audience in the name of common sense to have nothing to do with the harmful spirit of anti-semitism and parading nationalism which is abroad. A certain amount of moral castigation is then administered. This meeting was arranged by the democratic party, though#the sp'eakers did not necessarily belong to that party. So now we find that the non- political man of 1917 was among the first people to point out the dangerous trends abroad in Germany before Hitler came to power.

127 The above example shows how Marin has given up his non-political attitude and come to the fore in defence of what he believes to be right political principles. The following one shows how his attitude to France and to Frenchmen has changed since the troubled days of the war. Mann wrote the introduction to the German version of Edmond Jaloux’s novel, "Les Profonde'urs1' de la Mer". He gives us in it a generous appreciation of the work and personality of Jaloux, and admits that he feels he has much in common with Jaloyx, a charming man, who might almost be taken for a German. iTow Mann can say: ich liebe Ednond Jaloux als Geist wie als Menschen und freue mich, dass an dem regeren literarischen Austausch awischen Deutschland ,und Frankreich auch er teilhaben und mit derageni gen seiner Werke, das sein Wesen vielleicht £p vollkommensten widerspiegeIt, unsei*em Publikum vorgestellt werden soil.” * These words may seem to be no more than one would' expect, butjbhe generosity of this tribute (and of a similar one to John Galsworthy in the same volume) can only be appreciated by one who has read the ’’Betrachtungen*' and realised how much it must have cost Thomas Mann to bring himself to like anything French or English. In that work the most that one Tinds is a cold recognition of French 02 ? English genius; it is a long way from that to warm appreciation. * \

'Reprinted in Die Fordertimg des Tages.

To the same period belongs a'greeting sent to ■fcke International Congress of the B.E.H. Club in Berlin, which Mann was unable, to attend because he was in Switzer-, land with his wife, who was suffering from lung-trouble. Thomas Mann always speaks with affection of the P.E.li. Club and of ^the contacts which it allowed him to make. He talks here of the feeling of solidarity that exists between writers of different European countries', saying: ’’Europa. das bedeutet die freie Ordnungder . VSlker, es bedeutet Internationale Geslttung, den Abscheu vor nationaler SelbstvergBtterung und kultureller Aufdringlichkeit, die Verabsch&edung des aga$anfen G-laubens an Vorherrschaftsreehte der'’Lateinisehen Zivilisation* oder der ’Eeutsehen Kultur*:*, Es bedeutet nicht Schur fiber einen Kamm, Verleugnung“ 'volkhafter UeberlieferungJ und Echtheit, nationale Entf&rbung -und Entwesung." Then lie says a few words which hardly seem possible coming from the pen of the author of the "Betrachtungen” : ^Echtheit und Weltfreundlichkeit, das ist die Forderung/des Tages. Die Zeit ist weit und mondBn, begtinstigt wenig das provinzielle Idyll, und wer nur dem. eigenen Vo Ike etwas zu sagen hiltte, k&ae nicht sehr in Betracht.'1 ' Thomas Mann is now completely the good European; there is no trace of the disagreeable quality,which“marred the ’’Betrachtungen”, the unwillingness to recognise that other nations, too, could be great. He expressly says that we must recoil from that kind of thing; what he never does is to say that he had been guilty of it himself only a few years before,. One is tempted to say that Thomas Maim was'himself much less conscious of the development (Reprinted in Die For.derung des Tages.

he went through in the years 1917 to 1930 than any member of his public who read all the books which he published between those dates. , Thomas Mann had to leave Germany in 1933. The non-political man was becoming only too conscious that in the twentieth century politics can. no longer be ignored. In the years between 1930, and the Second World. War, in addition to his work on the ’Joseph* cycle and some short stories? he produced a series of essays? articles and lectures directed against the Hitler regime. The most important of these are collected under the title "Achtung, Europa.;u The English reader who finds it difficult to forgive the outpourings of 1917 is bound to admire the courage and. outspokenness of these essays. And yet again he may find it difficult to understand why Mann should in his foreword expressly blame the ruling classes in England for the rise of National Socialism in Germany (p. 14-)* Perhaps the most interesting piece of work in this book, which makes strange reading now that Hitler* Germany is a thing o f •the past, is "Appell an die Vernunft'*? a speech delivered in 1930 in the BeethovenSaal in Berlin. On this occasion Thomas Mann appealed to the German Blirger to forget narrow class interests and their inborn fear of the word "marsist*1 and side with the Social Democrats. He condemned outright• National Socialsim, then rapidly gaining ground in

■J

,

.

-

' 1 3 0 Germany,, and got to the heart, of the matter-when he blamed the bad economic position in the country for the confused political thinking then prevalent# He was not not slow to condemn philosophers and scholars who by their tendentious and false teaching were busily creating, the. intellectual atmosphere in' which National Socialism could thrive. He was under no illusions about the programme of the National Socialists if ever they. came to power, and pointed out that though they said they had no territorial aspirations, that was only an empty phrase, as would soon ‘be revealed if ever they came to power. He condemns outhight the simplification they preach as far as German^’s internal affairs are' concerned; no amount of ’purging/"*, he says, will make ' of a nation with a rich and varied cultural tradition, like Germany a race of simple, primitive, hee.lclicking, . blue-eyed automata; even if that were desirable it is not possible (pp. 56-57)[♦, The non-political Man has turned his back on hiBnformer opinions. He sees,, as any.thinking man must see; that politics, do, concern him, and he takes his. stand accordingly,•

.

. ,

The remainder of the book is in the same.strain, though it lacks the prophetic insight of that first speech, because it, consists of articles written after 1933. “Achtung, Europa.l,r the article which gives its . title to the. book, points out- again the potential dangers of National Socialism, and calls for a militant humanism

131 to combat them. One can only regrpt that so much of what was said in this article was ignored until it was too late, in the correspondence with Bonn University, Thomas Mann replies to the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, who had affixed a letter to the University notice-board informing Thomas Mann that his honorary doctor’s degree had been taken from hiqj..

Mann answers

in the strain one might expect, saying that in view of the shameful role played by the German Universities under Hitlex1, he was glad to be rid of the title, which had long ceased to give him any pleasure. lie had, however, been awarded a doctorate at the University of Harvard, and he px*oudly tells the Dean at Bonn why the Americans had seen fit to honour him. He goes on to say exactly what he thinks of what has been happening in Germany since the Nazis came to power. He gives his opinion of the Nazis and of their action in talcing from him his German citizenship. He sees clearly theit war is inevitable, that the Nazis mean war, and prophesies that Germany* s first defeat will be followed by civil war. Mann was wrong there, of course, but he was right in his eval­ uation of the Nazis, and he #as right to use every means at his disposal to turn his nation from theijU; He closes this better with an appeal to his country to !

return to the European community. The following essay, "Spanien11, was originally written as the foreword to a Swiss pub lie a.tion about

132 Spain# It is interesting "because in/it Thomas Mann recognised in principle what he had long recognised in practice, but perhaps felt he cotild hardly write in vievir of the opinions expressed in the "Betrachtungen eines UnpoTitischen%j He says in this essay: "Nicht wahr, der Mann, der heute - wie man es ja wohl hSrenmiag - erkl&rt: 1Um Politik bekiimmere ich mieh nichtf kommt uns reeht abgeschmackt vorj wir empfinden seine Aussage nicht nur als egoistisch und weltfremd, sondern auch als eine tBrichte Selbstt&uschung, als 'untergeorclnet tmd dumm•,, A few-lines later he goes on to say: "Das Politisch-Soziale ist als ein unverRusserliches und nicht zu verleugnendes Teilgebiet des Gesamtmenschlichen erkannt, als eine Seite des humanen Problems, der humanen Aufgabe,. die niemand vernachl&ssigt, ohne es im Menschlichen selbst, das er dem Politischen als das Eigentliche und Entscheidende gegenttberstellen mBchte, bis zu^r ErbHrmlichkeit fehlen zu lassen. Ja, es ist das Eigentliche, ist das Ent­ scheidende: In der Gestalt des Politischen ist uns heute die Frage des Menschen selbst mit einem letzten und lebensgefShrlichen Eraste gestellt, - und gerade dem Dichter, als welcher doch von Natur und Schicksals we gen jederzeit den exponiertesten Posten. der Menscliheit innehat, sollte es erlaubt sein, sic?h von der Entscheidung zu driicken?1* In these few sentences Mann declares himself free from the whole weight of tradition that had made him think, like so many others, that one could be a complete human being without worrying ah out politics, a tradition which, as we saw in the previous chapter, of this study, was due largely to the influence of Goethe. The speech which forms the concluding chapter of the volume, "Vom kommenden Sieg der Demokratie", was

Achtung, Europal p.114-15.

133 originally delivered in .America. In it Mann looks for­ ward to the triumph of democracy, not as an. unavoidable evil, as he had done in 1917,' but as something ardently to be desired. The next work of any importance from the point of view of Thomas Mann’s relationmto Germany, Europe and politics, is "Doktor Faustus”, which appeared in the autumn of 1947. This work is more important than any which has been discussed in this chapter except the ’’Betrachtungen”. In many ways it affords an interest­ ing contrast to the work of 1917. Both owe their origin to great wars fought by Germany against other European countries; both are works which tell us a great deal, about the author; both are largely concerned with Ger­ many; both must have cost the author much heart-searching to write. But there are fundamental differences; in 1917 Thomas Mann could not, as he says himself in the intro­ duction to the ’’Betrachtungeny write a creative work; the "Betrachtungen” are a kind of diary containing his thoughts during the war. "Doktor Faustus”, likewise written during a great war? is nevertheless a creative work of a high order. It is tempting to say that Mann’s inability to continue with his normal work during the 1914-18 war was the result of doubts and misgivings as to where he stood with regard to the war; in the 1939-45 war he knew only too well which side he was on, and although that knowledge must have cost him much grief,

lie was a'ble to write "Doletor Faustus" because lie had no deep personal problem to solve* Adrian Leverldihn has a prohlem&tic al enough character, but -Serenas Zeitblom, the narrator, ..sees through all LeveridAhn1s problems and can follow every hidden process of his hero’s mind*, "Doktor Faustus" is as carefully constructed as the earlier book is loosed strung together* With all its tragedy, it has a unity of thought and conception which is lacking in the product of the First World War* It cannot be stressed too much that "Doktor Faustus" is not primarily a book about a musician* This fact, which must be plain to anyone who reads the book through with an|open mind, seems to have escaped the notice of some readers of "Doktor Faustus"* The com­ poser, Arnold Schbnberg, for instance,' saw in Leverktlhn a caricature of himself: admittedly Leverktihn uses Schbnberg’s twelve-tone scale, and Thomas Mann has. admitted as much, but Leverklihn is not intended as a portrait of any one man*. H and it made possible the fine works on Goethe, "Goethe als Kepr&sentant des Burgerlichen Zeitalters" and 5'Lotte in Weimar'*, The first of these works is the more important of the two from the point of view of Thomas Mann’s relation to the t(Banger turn"; given the task of speaking about Goethe to a Berlin audience on the occasion of the 1938 centenary, Mann igould find no better way of doing honour to the master than by showing how he was the supreme representative of an age dominated by the Bilrger. In later works like "Lotte in Weimar" and "Doktor Faustus this esteem for the virtues of the Bilrger remains an important factor; Mann 1 s spokesman in the latter work, Dr, Serenus Zeitblom, is a member of the "Blirgertum" ;

despite the irony with which he is often treated, we feel that the author does respect in him a representative .

\

of a great and enduring tradition. It is less easy to see. a steady progressive development in Mann’s conception of the artist than in the case of the Biirger. Though this development has taken place’ , it has not "been so regular and consistent as that just described, Thomas Mann can never seriously have considered himself to 'be as weak as Hanno Buddenbrook, or as worthless and undesirable as the selfportrait ”Im Spiegel” would suggest, though he may have had moments when he felt as weak, decadent and ineffectual as Hanno, and as useless and parasitic as, the character drawn in ulm Spiegel”, We must always make allowances for Thomas Mann’s irony in the one case, and exaggeration in the other1, ”Tonio Krttger” represents a fresh stage in Thomas Mann’s- conception of the artist, .Tonio admittedly suffers agonies because he feels himself to be different from his fellows. But Tonio sxirvives the conflict, reaches manhood, and becomes an author. Intellectually and physically, lie is a finer human being than Hanno Buddenbrook. When we leave Tonio, we have the feeling that he has weathered the worst of the storm, like his creator,and although he will no doubt continue to be beset by doubts as to his own worth, he will not succumb to them. It is important to notice what Lisaweta says when she tells

183 -him that he is a BUrger. at. heart,---even---th&ugh she does qualify her statement a moment., later and say he is a "verirrter BUrger", for Lisaweta is as much a part^of Thomas Mann as Tonio Krbger, and this judgement of hers is re&lly his judgement•

.

The meditations 0l5L the 1914-18 war clarified Thomas Mann.’s ideas about his own mission as an artist to'a great extent. In the "Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen" he saw once.and for all that 'by turning to literature he was not denying the whole tradition from which he originated. He had rather 'become Its spiritual and intellectual representative. This knowledge, and the confidence that it 'brought, Were Reinforced "by com­ parison with Goethe and Schopenhauer, who appeared to him as the intellectual and artistic representatives of the German ’’Blirgertum", from which he and they had sprung. Adrian Leverktthn, Mann’s last artist, is the greatest of them all. He is consciously portrayed as a symbolical figure standing for the whole of Germany. Mann takes infinite pains to describe his provincial German origin, to establish his affinity with great men of the German past like Luther and Nietzsche, and to show that Leverktthn’s tragedy is closely related to Germany’s tragedy. Intellectually, Leverktthn. is of higher standing tlhan any of Thomas Mann’s earlier characters. Aschenbahh is the only one of them who can he compared with him, and he cannot he said to he representative of his country

and epoch in the same way as LeveiTdihn. Thomas Mann has in the course of time reached a much wider conception of the artist’s role fcian he had at the "beginning of his career. His later artists, and, especially Leverkiihn, are representative human "beings of the highest standing. They no .longer stand apart from the world to which they "belong.' They have rather an,, intensified awareness of its problems. The artist’s mission is to represent on the intellectual and artistic plane the tradition into which he is "born. In the ’’Joseph*’ series of novels, the artist finds fulfilment in the service of his fellows* In ’’Joseph’’, ’’Lotte in Weimar”, and ”Das Gesetz”, the artist is seen as the natural leader of humanity, Thomas Mann’s preoccupation with sickness, .and death permeates almost everything he has written. In ’’Buddenbrooks” a whole family falls victim to these powersj in ”Der Tod in Venedig” we see a man. of high standing and orderly habits succumb to an unnatural passion that leads to his ruin. The fullest and most considered treatment of this theme that Thomas Mann . has given us is in ’’Der Zauberberg’’. flans Gastorp’s. relationship to ftuose pov/ers is purely experimental! his conclusion is also Thomas Mann’s conclusion; ”Zum Leben gibt es zwei Wege: ,.der. eine ist der gewBhnliche, direkte und brave. Der andere ist schlimm, er ftlhrt liber den Tod, und das ist der geniale Wegl ” The final outcome of ”Der Zauberberg” is positive

;

185

Hans Castorp shakes off the spell that had hound him for seven years and returns to face the difficulties and dangers of life? spiritually enriched and strength™ ened hy his Alpine sojourn. Hans Oastorp is in many.ways the mouthpiece of the author j' the courageous conclusion of his story shows that Thomas Mann? too? despite his constant preoccupation with sickness and death? with the morbid? the abnormal? and the unclean? is fundament­ ally interested in life? and the hero’s assertion of life at the end of the ‘book is also his own. On. the other hand? Leverktthn’s surrender to the p'owers of sickness and -death, in “Doktor Faustus*1 makes it impossible to identify him with the author himself ; he stands as a symbol of that Germany from which Mann in his exile has "been dissociated? although he has never ceased to display a passionate concern with its fortunes. Even in this last novel? Thomas Mann was unwilling to abandon all hope; he suggests? through the Roman Catholic? Zeit­ blom? that? beyond the despaift expressed in Leverktthn’s

-

last work? there is the faintest glimmer of hope? the possibility of grace when it could least be expected. Mann’s critical works show a parallel develop­ ment; in fact? one cannot make a rigid distinction between Critical and creative works in the case of this author? for the two categories are so closely bound up with one another that to separate them can serve no useful pur­ pose. The proper way to regard .Mann* s essays is as offshoots

'

136

•

from, his literary work*, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche are at once the most important influences on Thomas Mann’-s works and frequent themes in them, too. Goethe* s influence can. he seen plainly in many of Mann* s hooks, and his spirit 'breathes through everything Mann has written. In 1917 Goethe was quoted in defence of the •views expressed in the ’’Be.traehtungen eines Unpoli tische n% Since the First World War, Mann has devoted more and more attention to Goethe and has published several fine critical studies of. Goethe, and. a "biographical romance, ’’Lotte in Weimar”. The later studies on Goethe show a ■ much superior knowledge and understanding of Goethe to the early ones.

In the later Goethe essasrs and in ■’’Lotte

in Weimar” Mann shows a critical perception and a sym­ pathy with his subject that might well be the envy of any professional critic or literary.historian. Similar observations apply to Schopenhauer and Wagner as themes.in Mann’s works. The first appearance’ of Schopenhauer in Mann’s works was in '’Buddenbrooks11', Part 10, Chapter 5’ , an^d his influence has continued to ■ be actiyg right up till.the publication of "Die vertauschten libpfe” in 3.94-4. A. considerable development •can be discerned from the youthful raptures of 1900 tothe ca3m appreciation contained in the Schopenhauer essay ■ of 1958... Wagner, too, has received rather; different

!■' I I

, w , in •’ more recent writings from that shown him i 1 treatment

H

.187 in early works .like "Tristan"? where we have a much more emotional treatment of the Wagner theme than in speeches like "Leiden und G-rfJsse Hi chard -Wagners" and "Hichard Wagner und 'Der Hing des Nibelungen’

Again?

we can say that increasing knowledge has brought more measured enthusiasm® 'Luring the 1914-18 war? Mann, quoted Wagner and Schopenhauer in defence of his anti-political attitude^ now he has himself taken a different stand and must forsake his masters in this respect® Nietzsche is less frequently discussed in Mann’s essays and speeches than either Schopenhauer or Wagner., Yet he is important as having laid the intellectual foundations for "Tonio Krttger" (Bee Chapter 4-)? and as the model for Adrian Leverktthn in "Doktor Faustus". There are numerous interesting parallels between "Doktor Faustus" and "Nietzsches Philosophie im Lichte unserer Erfalubung" in the ',’Neue Studien". In this last essay on Nietzsche? Thomas Mann shows that? while he is attracted by Nietzsche's greatness? he is only too well aware of . the danger of believing everything he taught. Mann’s relationship to Nietzsche is very similar to that of Zeitblom to leverktthn? though Mann does not hero-worship Nietzsche to quite the same extent as Serenus Zeitblom does Leverktthn.

-'

The general tendency is not for Thomas Mann to admire his great men less with the passage of time? but to be a great deal more critical of them. The essays he

i.

t

i.

',

188

lias published on 'Goethe* Schopenhauer* Wagner and ■ Nietzsche show how his knowledge of them has grown since he first made their acquaintance. He has come to see that* politically* these mentors of his youth cannot he relied upon* and that in other respects they are none the less interesting 'because they are hot' perfect. We can justifiably claim that his understanding of these,four figures-is at its 'best after a lifetime’s acquaintance with them., We pass to Mann’s attitude 'to Germany* Europe and democracy.- Thomas Mann did not feel himself called ’uP°.\i to take up a point of view, towards- any of those subjects till the war of 1914^18. Then he felt* in face .of the events that were taking place* that he ought to make up his mind ah out his own attitude to the problems /

of the day. At the "beginning of the war Mann published a frqnkly chauvinistic essay called ’’Friedrich und .die grosse Iioalition". In'his next important work* .the"Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen" he saw that the problem was not so straightforward as all that.: But he still wanted to believe that- Germany was i$ the- right* so he evolved a complicated argument based on

.

the somewhat 'strange assumption, that Germany was', the land of protest against the democratic influences of ^

f

t

the Homan West. He defended this strange position in which at times he came perilously near claiming-' that German humanity was of a quite different order from that of western Europe - throughout the work* . -

i.

i

.