Cursed Legacy: The Tragic Life of Klaus Mann

by Frederic Spotts

Son of the famous Thomas Mann, homosexual, drug-addicted, and forced to flee from his fatherland, the gifted writer Klaus Mann’s comparatively short life was as artistically productive as it was devastatingly dislocated. Best-known today as the author of Mephisto , the literary enfant terrible of the Weimar era produced seven novels, a dozen plays, four biographies, and three autobiographies—among them the first works in Germany to tackle gay issues—amidst a prodigious artistic output. He was among the first to take up his pen against the Nazis, as a reward for which he was blacklisted and denounced as a dangerous half-Jew, his books burnt in public squares around Germany, and his citizenship revoked. Having served with the U.S. military in Italy, he was nevertheless undone by anti-Communist fanatics in Cold War-era America and Germany, dying in France (though not, as all other books contend, by his own hand) at age forty-two.

Powerful, revealing, and compulsively readable, this first English-language biography of Klaus Mann charts the effects of reactionary politics on art and literature and tells the moving story of a supreme talent destroyed by personal circumstance and the seismic events of the twentieth century.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Germany, LGBT, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2016

Reviews

[Caterina]

An exceptional biography by an independent scholar whose work is centered in German history and politics. Klaus Mann proves to be a fascinating person; having lived his whole life in the shadow of an uber-famous father, he tried to create far from the fatherly influence. He was extremely liberal and progressive in an age when being homosexual, communist and reactionary to the current status quo meant your life-long exile from social and political life, not to mention contempt and even hatred. And Klaus Mann was all of the above, adding a serious drug addiction which led to his premature death at the age of 42.

His life has been a series of confrontations; first his father, Thomas Mann, Germany's greatest author and one of the first writers to become rich from his profession, then the Nazi government, the literary elites in both Europe and the States, his former friends who succumbed to the allure of power the Nazis offered to anyone who would be willing to cooperate (see Mephisto). At one point he writes in a letter that his friends were either dead (in concentration camps or having committed suicide like Stefan Zweig or Walter Benjamin) or were collaborators of the Nazi regime back home. He spent most of his years in self exile either in France, Switzerland or U.S.A., where most members of the Mann dynasty lived throughout World War II.

The book is thoroughly researched, it even provides new information on the circumstances of his death. The narration of events is so smooth you almost feel like watching a well-directed film! Well written and very absorbing, it tells the story of a brave young talent who is unluckily remembered as the promiscuous son of Thomas Mann. Klaus Mann surely deserves to be re-discovered and appreciated.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Yale University Press for providing a copy of this wonderful book in exchange for an honest review.

[Will]

An OK biography of a figure of circumstantial interest. The endnotes show no research or wide reading was involved, and the book is more or less a collective translation of a few German biographies into one English one, with citations from Mann's collected letters. In general, the writing has an "and then... and then... and then..." feel to it.

[Denis]

Frederic Spotts’ biography is not the first book to evoke the complicated life of the immensely gifted son of Thomas Mann, but it probably is the most broadly complete and detailed book that focuses on his life and career, and it certainly is the one that most makes the case for Klaus’ importance as a writer and an intellectual. If only for that, it is a major opus. Other books have often put the emphasis on Klaus’ very close ties to his sister Erika (they were accused of incest at some point), but Spotts’ angle is more about the almost terrifying and decisively negative impact that Thomas, revered as one of the world’s greatest writers, had over his son until the very end. According to Spotts, Thomas never gave Klaus the support, the love, the paternal guidance, the affection, the encouragement that his sensitive and fragile son needed. On the contrary, he regularly berated him, publicly criticized his writing, condemned him for freely talking about his homosexuality (when he himself was struggling with gay feelings), disavowed many of his positions, and more than once expressed a sort of repulsion. Still, their bond was a complex one, Thomas did defend his son on some occasions, and Klaus, who was in awe of his father as much as he feared him, never really said much against him, not even in his private diary. Spotts seems to say that for Thomas, only one Mann could thrive: himself. It was a problematic situation, and one thing is sure: it crushed Klaus repeatedly. One wishes that Spotts had explored more of what happened during Klaus’ childhood – there are hints at some incestuous temptations that Thomas may have felt toward his angelic looking boy – but I imagine that, as a rigorous biographer, Spotts didn’t have that much material to dive into, and that he stuck to what was available to him. His book is wonderful reading, not only for anyone interested in the truly tragic life of a man who would have deserved to be celebrated in his lifetime instead of decades after his premature death, but also for anyone who wants to better understand the tumultuous fate of Europe before and during WWII. It is, among other things, a fascinating portrait of the German exiled community in the US, and actually quite a harsh, gloomy painting of America in those times, especially as seen through the eyes of Klaus, who went to know the country rather well. To read those pages today is actually very relevant. There are few big revelations here, but a lot of details about Klaus’ professional and private adventures. Spotts’ book is definitively not a hagiography: Klaus’ self-destructive personality and worse traits are clearly defined, and his drugs habits, which he never could really quit, are described with painful realism. Klaus’ sexual attraction for men who were more harmful than loving is also fully analyzed: it is quite poignant. Always, though, it is the heavy shadow of Thomas that seems to follow Klaus everywhere and to burden him. One of this biography’s most interesting aspects concerns Klaus’ powerful capacity to work and to be incredibly productive, no matter what and whatever his mental condition: the amount of writing that he did is astounding. Writing, for Klaus, was his way of staying alive. Personally, what struck me as absolutely admirable is, more than anything, Klaus’ sharp understanding of the way Europe was disintegrating, and his courage to name and face the enemy, when so many famous intellectuals, including his own father, acted much more ambiguously for a long time. In that sense, Klaus’ life, even as he struggles with depression and addiction, is a lesson in courage. Klaus Mann’s end came too soon and tragically, but, to my surprise, Spotts challenges the commonly accepted idea that the emotionally exhausted writer killed himself. It may well have been an accident after all. Still, it’s a very sad ending. Klaus was born into privilege, became himself a phenomenon at a very early age by bursting onto the literary scene in a scandalous fashion, knew and met everybody who mattered, travelled all over the world. And yet his life was in many ways miserable and often pathetic, plagued by bad luck and some abject failures (professionally, financially, privately), marked by hurtful rejections of all sorts, damaged by an absence of love and recognition that goes back to his very early childhood. His siblings, who all appear in this book, also suffered greatly because of Thomas behavior: in many ways, Cursed Legacy can be read as a formidable indictment of Thomas Mann as a man and as a father. It is something that some critics have had a problem with, but I find Spott’s arguments quite convincing. Mostly, though, his book is the profoundly moving portrait of Klaus, a brilliant artist who perfectly embodies the complexities, contradictions, and heartbreaks of the country and the century that, for better and for worse, were his.

[Mandy]

This absorbing and eminently readable biography of Klaus Mann, the troubled son of Thomas Mann, is both a scholarly and meticulously researched biography and a real page-turner – just what a good biography should be. It’s a tragic story from first to last and the author’s account is both comprehensive and non-judgemental – though it would be remarkable for anyone to read this and not feel moved by Klaus Mann’s fate. The book is also a wonderful evocation of the time and place, and is, inevitably also a biography of the whole Mann family. I found it engrossing and compelling and very much enjoyed it.

[Frank B. Farrell]

The life of Klaus Mann is of exceptional interest, and Spotts does an excellent job of showing why this is so. The son of Thomas Mann, Klaus participated in the exciting artistic life of Berlin, Munich, and Paris during the 1920s, being acquainted, along with his sister Erika, with many well-known writers, playwrights, and film directors. He was a prolific writer himself, working on plays and novels, including gay-themed novels that, at the time, took considerable courage to publish. (He had more courage on this issue of homosexuality than did his father.) Nevertheless, his diaries tell of a sadness, loneliness, and depression so profoundly overwhelming and so frequent that for long periods he feels intensely suicidal and on a couple of occasions he does attempt to kill himself. His father is often cold to him and averse to having another writer in the family, while others in Germany refuse to recognize his quite real skills and claim he can publish his books and stage his plays only because of the reputation of his father. He becomes a severe drug addict and has to go through extensive periods of rehabilitation. Promiscuous homosexuality on his part does not assuage his severe depression and loneliness.

Yet there is very much to admire in Klaus. He is an early and strong critic of the National Socialists, while at the same time seeing the dangers of communism’s use of coercion to crush individual liberty. After Hitler comes to power, he leaves Germany and edits a prestigious journal for German refugee intellectuals to keep German culture going outside of Germany. The project fails when his father and other well-known writers refuse to contribute for fear that the clearly political nature of the journal will shut down their book sales in Germany. During the late 1930s Klaus crisscrosses America telling of the catastrophic dangers posed by Hitler. With the outbreak of the war he teaches himself English, becomes an American citizen, and despite FBI warnings that he might be a pervert and a communist, joins the US Army and goes through difficult, rigorous basic training in Missouri. He is eventually sent with the army to Italy where he is assigned to interview German soldiers just taken prisoner on the front lines. After the war there is no real place for Klaus’s progressive-liberal humanism either in America or in Europe. Spotts thinks his death in Cannes in 1949 was not a suicide, as many believe, including his own father, but the result of an accidental mix of too many sleeping pills and a problematic drug concoction sent by a friend. (Thomas refuses to interrupt a European speaking tour to attend the funeral in France.) Klaus’s work is now well received and one novel was turned into an award-winning film (Mephisto). Spotts tells this unusually interesting story splendidly.

I have written at length about Klaus Mann in my book Loners: Writers, Thinkers, and Solitude

You can read an excerpted chapter on Klaus Mann for free at the link below:
https://frankbfarrell.substack.com/p/...

[Arturo]

Es una refundición novelada de muchas otras biografías de Klaus Mann que solo se han publicado en alemán. El punto de vista de Klaus (homosexual, exiliado del nazismo, con una profunda aversión a todo lo que significa su familia en la iconografía conservadora alemana) es necesario para entender a Thomas Mann; que, más allá de ser uno de los mejores escritores de los últimos siglos, fue una persona bastante despreciable, además de un aval fundamental de las primeras tesis del supremacismo en Alemania.

Klaus hereda el temperamento del padre; como Thomas, tiene un sentido de la justicia muy interiorizado (que es rasgo distintivo del «José y sus hermanos» de Mann), que expresa, a diferencia de él, con arrebatos de una gran sensibilidad: en episodios edípicos contra el padre (que le lleva a iniciar una "guerra" literaria absurda, puesto que sus obras nunca serán comparables), pero sobre todo no resignándose a la clandestinidad, denunciando las persecuciones y el desamparo institucional y psicológico de muchos homosexuales en las llamadas "sociedades libres". Evidentemente, termina suicidándose.

[Kathrin Peters]

This biography is thoroughly researched but also full of empathy and warmth. The tragedy of Klaus Mann's life is a theme threading itself from beginning to end. He was one of the first to realise the danger of the Nazi takeover of Germany; he warned about the coming war when others did not see this danger. He had the misfortune of being the son of a more famous father and also a father who seemed to be incapable of expressing his love to him and his other five children. The network of individuals with whom Klaus developed close friendships is comprehensively mapped and the many disappointments of his life are presented in their various aspects. The last big disappointment was the fact that his brilliant novel Mephisto would not be published after the war because of worries that Gustav Gruendgens (the thinly veiled Mephisto of the title) would object. If only Klaus had known before he decided to end his life how much he would be respected by later generations.

[Mark Latchford]

A terrific read about a most complex, brilliant, energetic yet problematic man. Kraus Mann was always going to be overshadowed by his famous father, writer Thomas Mann, but as if on a mission, the eldest son began his own journey of excellent writing in his early teen age years and never stopped until his premature death in his mid forties. The book explores Klaus’ unsettling childhood; his diverse friendships; his torment of his public sexuality; his hatred of and subsequent exile from the Nazi regime in his native Germany; his romances; his relationships with many of the great European writers of the 20th century and so much more. Well researched and anchored around Mann’s extensive diaries, the author has produced a very readable well placed and positive story of the author of ‘Mephisto’ and thousands of other books, articles, reviews and so on. To be recommended.

[Tom v.d. Wijgert]

The written inscription in my copy state “Some info on Klaus but mostly TM bashing - full of nonsense and lies!” I cannot help but agree with this statement. Ever so often Spotts makes dubious claims and statements which are not -and most probably cannot - explained or for that matter strengthened by a reference. Whenever Spotts sticks close to his primary sources, he tells the tale marvelously.

[Walter Soellner]

See my entry.

[Cooper Renner]

Heartbreaking account of the life of one of the Nazis’ most insightful and prescient opponents, as well as a gifted writer.

[Don Dealga]

Klaus Mann lived in the shadow of his father's reputation and suffered accordingly given their shared profession. Throughout his relatively short life Klaus was assailed by anxiety, depression, financial woes, torrid abusive relationships, substance abuse and resultant ill-health, and the heavy weight of daddy disapproval/disappointment; as a socialist and gay man he faced mortal threats in inter-war Germany with the rise of Nazism. However, he was also blessed with some wonderful creativity, close loving sibling relationships particularly with his sister Erika, good sense of humour, and a true moral certainty in his unequivocal and overt resistance to and condemnation of fascism and racism; perhaps due in part to his beloved mother's Jewish heritage and his family's Brazilian-Indigenous ancestry.
Klaus had to flee Germany like his father due to their open and very public criticism and opposition to the Nazis. Klaus's novel, Mephisto, is a thinly disguised recount of the career of famous German actor of the Nazi era (and Klaus's brother in law & former lover) Gustaf Gründgens, who is presented in the novel as having moving from being a 'trendy' Weimar radical to a Nazi collaborator which established him as the leading theatrical figure (and favorite of Goring) of the Nazi regime era. So controversial and contested was Klaus's portrayal of Gründgens (Hendrik Höfgen in the novel) that legal actions and resultant bans delayed its publication in West Germany until the 1960's.
Klaus's clear and unwavering condemnation of extremist Nazi German nationalism and racism led to him in exile in America joining the US army. He served as an interpreter for interrogations of captured German soldiers and produced German language propaganda aimed at undermining morale in German forces. Klaus was highly critical of the racist treatment of Black US servicemen and he clearly called out the irony and hypocrisy of the US position on 'fighting Nazi fascism & racism' while enforcing racial segregation within its own forces. Klaus was also one of the first allied soldiers to visit liberated concentration camps and officially report on the horrors he witnessed there.
Klaus, although deeply opposed to Nazi Germany's policies and actions, and despite being a true cosmopolitan liberal, was at heart a proud German who loved and celebrated the language, literature and culture of his homeland which he saw as having been twisted and tainted by Nazi attempts to usurp elements of it. In his time as a serving US serviceman in allied occupied Germany he felt great distress at the destruction and dismemberment of the country.
Spotts argues that despite Klaus's issues with his mental health exacerbated by his drug abuse and suspicion he faced from US authorities about his radical politics and sexuality, he does not accept the widely held view that Klaus took his own life. Instead, based on Klaus's own letters and interactions with friends and loved ones just prior to his death, which indicate Klaus was not in any suicidal frame of mind, Spotts believes instead that Klaus passed as a result of an accidental overdose of drugs.
Spotts' biography is an excellent work and a fitting testament to the life of a talented and engaging German literary figure who was always condemned it seems to languish in the wake of his world famous Nobel laureate father. Klaus, like many children of famous parents who chose to pursue the same profession as their father or mother, was then dogged by comparison and criticism not based on the merits of his own work, but against the achievement of the parent. Although it may be seen as facile 'pop' psychoanalyzing, Thomas Mann's often unvarnished criticism of his son's work and life choices, his obvious sense of exasperation at his son, definitely deeply and continually wounded and tortured Klaus and imbued his life with tragic pathos that cannot fail to move us and does help illuminate the complex psychological and emotional struggles Klaus endured.

[Susan]

I am fascinated by Klaus Mann, oldest son of Thomas Mann, a writer of plays, fiction, political theory and observation, writer of the first openly gay novel, exile, political activist, soldier in the American Army during WW II (this last fact is always amazing to me.) This, the most recent of several books I've read about Klaus Mann, emphasizes his political activity and writing after the rise of Hitler. What is of note is not only how outspoken he was throughout that time (unlike his father who had to be pushed to take an anti-Nazi stance) but how clearsighted he was after the peace. The author explores Klaus Mann's insight into the making of the Cold War and his bravery in opposing the Nazis who remained in power (or in the literary and theatrical world were never held to account for their actions.) He refused to return to live in Germany even after the US became an impossible place for him to live (because of the Red Scare) and his post-war criticism kept much of his work from being published in Germany. A drug user, living in poverty, he died of suicide or an accidental overdoes in 1949.

[Michael]

Captivating biography of Klaus Mann, his creative life and angst, familial relationships, homosexuality, and history that shaped his politics and world view. Despite suffering from paralyzing bouts of depression, drug addiction and insecurities created by his relationship with his aloof and critical father, Klaus became a driven, prolific writer of novels, plays, essays as well as an excellent journalist and public speaker. An early foe of Nazism, writing against the wave of nationalism, xenophobia and racism that was sweeping across Germany, he was blacklisted and denounced as “a dangerous half-Jew,” his books burned throughout Germany and his citizenship revoked.

[Flungoutofspace (Chris)]

The only reason why I'm not giving this book 5 stars is because of the sloppy editing. Not just typos all over the place but also uncorrected errors (e.g. "The Pious Dance" becomes "The Devout Dance" at some point). Embarrassing for the publisher, to say the least.
The book itself is very moving and gives a detailed and sympathetic account of KM's lifelong personal struggles but also impressive achievements as a writer.

[The Jewish Book Council]

While comfortable with his sexuality, Klaus Mann found the political realities of his time appalling: even after the war, he was not deluded that the problem was over. Review by Bettina Berch for the Jewish Book Council.

[John]

Brilliant Man (Klaus Mann)--Forward thinking. Produced a multitude literary works from books to plays to periodicals, & lecturer. Unfortunate that he had to live in the shadow of his father's fame. (Thomas Mann)--