The German government has said it wants to purchase the California home where Nobel laureate Thomas Mann once lived in exile. Germany plans to use the house as a residence for talented young writers.
Image: imago/PEMAX
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The German government announced its intention to buy the home where renowned German author and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann lived in the Los Angeles with his family between 1942 and 1952.
"I thank all who have helped so that we can hopefully prevent an impending private sale," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Bundestag on Thursday.
The history-steeped house is listed at around $15 million (13.3. million euros). Should the sale go through to Germany, the house will become a place of cultural exchange and a meeting place for young writers.
In terms of potential buyers, Germany is "first in line," assured Bernd Fabritius who heads the cultural relations and education policy subcommittee.
Mann lived with his family in exile in the California villa from 1942 to 1952Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
"That means we are first place among potential buyers," explained Fabritius to the German dpa news agency. "Now the details are being negotiated."
The house at 1550 San Remo Drive in the Pacific Palisades is well-known to literature fans. It's the home where Mann worked on his later literary works "Doctor Faustus," "Lotte in Weimar," and "Joseph and His Brothers." The Mann family lived in the villa after fleeing from Nazi-ruled Germany.
The possibility of the house's eventual demolition caused an outcry in Germany, with several German intellectuals and art curators calling on the government to buy the property. An online petition to save the Mann villa has gathered around 3,000 signatures, including Herta Müller, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature.
"It would be simply intolerable if this important place of exile were to be demolished," Fabritius said.
In the future, the Mann house could possibly work in cooperation with the nearby Villa Aurora - the former home of German-Jewish novelist and playwright Lion Feuchtwanger, according to German Ministry plans. Villa Aurora has been a gathering place for German-American cultural exchange since 1994.
rs/sms (dpa, EFE)
The unbelievable talent of the Mann family
Thomas Mann and his children were eccentric, rich and exceptional literary talents. Several biographies portray them, and now a new one focuses on the story of the family as a unit.
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The Manns: Dad was in charge
In his new biography on the Mann family, Tilmann Lahme writes that Thomas Mann's children never managed to free themselves from their father's influence. The book begins in the 1920s, when all six of them have already been born. Pictured with him in 1924, from left to right: His wife Katia, with Monika, Michael, Elisabeth, Klaus and Erika Mann. Golo is missing in the photo.
Image: ullstein bild
The Nobel Prize in Literature
Thomas Mann gained world fame with his first major work, "Buddenbrooks," published in 1901. As hard as his children tried, they would never outdo him. The family called him the "magician," based on his 1924 novel "The Magic Mountain." Mann won the Nobel Prize in 1929.
Image: ullstein - AKG Pressebild
Literature and art in their DNA
They were "a brother and sister who made their way in the world through their wit, audacity and their father's name," writes Lahme to describe the two older children, Erika and Klaus. They were part of Berlin's artistic scene under the Weimar Republic. Erika was an actress and Klaus established his name as a writer. Pictured here: Gustaf Gründgens, Erika Mann, Pamela Wedekind, and Klaus Mann.
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Love triangle
Erika Mann married the actor Gustav Gründgens. Klaus Mann got engaged to Pamela Wedekind, but she later married Carl Sternheim, who was the father of a mutual friend, Dorothea. And Erika was actually in love with Pamela. The Mann family would openly speak and write about homosexuality.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Author and historian: Golo Mann
Klaus Mann wrote about homosexuality in his novel in a clearly autobiographical way. His brother Golo was more discrete about it. He was also a writer, but later became an established historian, who is still recognized to this day. It would also earn him his father's recognition.
Image: picture alliance/Imagno/Votava
The PR specialist of the family
During the family's exile in the US, as they fled from the Nazis, Erika Mann would develop her political voice and served to a certain extent as the "public relations officer of the family," according to biographer Tilmann Lahme. Erika publicized the Mann family's struggle against Hitler.
Image: Public Domain
The brother: Heinrich
The entire family was opposed to Hitler earlier than practically all intellectuals at the time. Thomas Mann's brother, author Heinrich Mann, was also one of the strongest voices against the Nazis, but he is not part of Lahme's biography. He chose to focus on Thomas Mann's nuclear family.
Image: AP
A community of fate
Exile bound the family together. They relied on each other - financially, too - and couldn't avoid each other. The fact that they could not live in Germany during Nazi rule and were not received with open arms in 1945 strongly contributed to their unhappiness, believes author Tilmann Lahme.
Image: ullstein - Thomas-Mann-Archiv
Childhood memories
The children could hold on to happy memories spent on the Curonian Spit on the Baltic Sea, as pictured here in 1930. Thomas Mann poses with his children Elisabeth and Michael, as well as two other kids, in front of their summer house in Nida. These cheerful days would not guarantee a happy end: Klaus Mann committed suicide in 1949 in Cannes. Thomas Mann died in 1955.
Image: ullstein bild
The youngest daughter: Elisabeth Mann-Borgese
The last member of Thomas Mann's immediate family died on February 8, 2002. The youngest daughter was the only one in the family who, according to Lahme, managed to break away from her father's influence. She also happened to be Thomas Mann's favorite child. Just a day before she died, she was skiing in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
