Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Marx (University of Bamberg & Thomas Mann Fellow 2020)

„Dieser absurde Zustand Europas.“

Thomas Mann's Visions for Europe during the Weimar Republic

During the crisis years of the Weimar Republic, Thomas Mann attributed increasing importance to the cultural and political unification of Europe. The stronger the nationalist movements (not only) in Germany, the more vehemently he voted in essays and political statements for overcoming the inner-European contradictions, such as in the speech "Europe as a cultural community", which he held on May 18, 1930 at the second Paneuropa Congress held in Berlin.

The talk introduces Thomas Mann's most important ideas and initiatives in Europe, including the media reception of the Weimar Republic, and links them to the aesthetic project of a Europeanization of prose, to which he had already subscribed to with "The Buddenbrooks".