Goethe’s Weimar Edition crossed the Atlantic together with Thomas Mann and followed him all the way to Los Angeles. In 1952, the luxury editions left the Pacific Palisades and are now returning home. Thomas Mann Fellow Stefan Keppler-Tasaki took a close look at the books and their history:

"On February 10, he writes: 'The shelving of the books, including the great Goethe, in the studio is finished.' This furnishing with books obviously helped turn the house into a home. [...] Goethe was part of the cargo when the Nobel laureate coined the formula of exile in February 1938: 'Where I am, there is Germany. I carry my German culture in me.' [...] On the whole, these reading traces give the impression that Thomas Mann, between 1937 and 1939, reread or completed what he had mostly read already elsewhere, mainly in the Propyläen and Tempel-Klassiker editions of Goethe’s works."

Read the full article by Stefan Keppler-Tasaki here: https://medium.com/vatmh/goethes-homecoming-f751c4b43d61

Read the article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung by Michael Kleeberg here [German]: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/themen/thomas-manns-goethe-baende-kehren-in-sein-haus-in-pacific-palisades-zurueck-16478410.html