No other author had as strong an impact on Thomas Mann and his works as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. For his 200^th birthday anniversary, Thomas Mann wrote: “He was more than a poet: a sage, a ruler, the last representative and intellectual arbiter of Europe, a grand human.” Thomas Mann interprets Goethe as a democratic pragmatist, as a supporter of a liberal America, whose victory of justice and freedom Goethe called "a relief for humanity."

The Thomas Mann House will accept, in the presence of German Consul General of Los Angeles Stefan Schneider, Thomas Mann’s Weimar edition of Goethe’s works. The volumes return to their original location in Thomas Mann’s former house and are donated by Frederic C. and Sally Tubach. Michaela Ullmann (University of Southern California) will engage Prof. Frederic Tubach (UC Berkeley) in conversation with author and psychologist Prof. Frido Mann and Thomas Mann Fellow Stefan Keppler-Tasaki (University of Tokyo).