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Katia Manns erindringer fra barndommen i et velhavende og kulturelt hjem i München, den korte ungdomstid, der endte med mødet med Thomas Mann (1875-1955) og de efterfølgende års samliv med børn og venner.
- GenresNonfictionMemoirGermany
197 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
4 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Katia Mann
6 books2 followersKatia Mann (born Katharina Hedwig Pringsheim) was the youngest child and only daughter (among four sons) of the German Jewish mathematician and artist Alfred Pringsheim and his wife Hedwig Pringsheim-Dohm, who was an actress in Berlin before her marriage. Katia was also a granddaughter of the writer and women's right activist Hedwig Dohm. Her twin brother Klaus Pringsheim was a conductor, composer, music writer and music pedagog, active in Germany and Japan.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 5, 2022
A throng of twentieth-century luminaries — philosophers, writers, scientists, composers — is nervously queuing in front of Katia Mann who, with quick, decisive movements, labels everyone with a little tag. It contains a short, sometimes one-sentence description. What do the labels have in common? There must be something negative, something demeaning about each person and the tone is patronizing. Weirdly enough, this rule does not apply to Katia's husband, Katia's children and Katia.
No, I am not telling you about my eerie dream. This is what happens in Unwritten Memories. Just to give you a foretaste, Mrs Mann on Albert Einstein: He was very likeable but not especially stimulating. There was really something naive and childlike in Einstein's makeup, such big innocent eyes—a dear man—but his genius was very strongly one-sided.
Positive, non-condescending portrayals are as scarce as the dodo population. And even if the remark is favourable at first sight, there is still something caustic in the air, the little needle given nonchalantly like in the seemingly kind passage about Chaplin: He [Thomas] didn't care much for profound intellectual conversation as an explanation why Mann liked to talk to the actor.
Katia was reluctant to publish her memoir: there must be one person in this family who doesn't write. She explains in the introduction that she was forced by her children. Her two sons and two daughters participated in the project: Michael and Elisabeth were the editors and short passages by Golo and Erika appear in the book also.
As for Mrs Mann's personality, superiority seems to be the keyword. Katia herself admits: It's true that I liked to show my superiority a bit from time to time. Well, it is visible. It often happens that haughtiness is a mask covering complexes and I have the impression it might be the case here.
Three fragments were especially strange and disturbing in Unwritten Memories: the ranking of children in order of Thomas Mann's preference, the passage in which Katia tells how very annoyed she was every time she gave birth to a girl and the one in which she mentions her two grandsons and it is immediately clear who is the favourite. She introduces herself as an extremely reserved person in the introduction and then these revelations follow. I can imagine how awkward the 'lesser' children and grandson must have felt reading this book.
My expectations concerning Unwritten Memories were not very high: I was ready for a scrupulously censored golden legend of Thomas Mann. The book has a hagiographic vibe to it indeed and some things are concealed in a way that made me cringe. The literary aspect is not top-notch either. I liked the passages about Thomas Mann's everyday life and his creative process, also the very rare moments when Katia was herself, not only a famous author's wife. Like here, when she describes a bizarre concert: It was a very strange buzzing on the cello. I have always been prone to laughter, and I got a fit of hysterics. In order to calm me down, Frau Lasker-Schüler kept throwing chocolates at me, which only made me laugh all the more. Somehow we managed to get through it—the combination of the cello and my laughter. I want to remember Katia Mann like that.
I absolutely disliked her little portraits of friends and acquaintances. Everyone was evaluated only in relation to Thomas Mann. The proportions were sort of blurred: for example when Annette Kolb felt offended because Mann wrote the Doctor Faustus character inspired by her had an elegant sheep's face, she was the one to blame for her reaction described as ridiculous and consequently, the end of their friendship. No attempt to guess how Kolb must have felt then. And it was so embarrassing to read the angry letter Katia sent to a friend who dared not write a thank-you note to Thomas after he had received his book. She scolded him and quotes her letter proudly. Besides, it was also exhausting to read who was portrayed as who in Mann's books and Katia seems to be obsessed with it and she feels so important revealing the truth. I did not care much and was fed up with this gossip column in the memoir.
I just wanted to say, I have never in my life been able to do what I would have liked to do. — Katia's confession at the end of Unwritten Memories is one of the saddest things I have ever read. It explains the bitterness which evaporates through every single pore of her memoir and sounds so intimate, so honest, as opposed to the rest of her book.
Katia Mann and her six children.
No, I am not telling you about my eerie dream. This is what happens in Unwritten Memories. Just to give you a foretaste, Mrs Mann on Albert Einstein: He was very likeable but not especially stimulating. There was really something naive and childlike in Einstein's makeup, such big innocent eyes—a dear man—but his genius was very strongly one-sided.
Positive, non-condescending portrayals are as scarce as the dodo population. And even if the remark is favourable at first sight, there is still something caustic in the air, the little needle given nonchalantly like in the seemingly kind passage about Chaplin: He [Thomas] didn't care much for profound intellectual conversation as an explanation why Mann liked to talk to the actor.
Katia was reluctant to publish her memoir: there must be one person in this family who doesn't write. She explains in the introduction that she was forced by her children. Her two sons and two daughters participated in the project: Michael and Elisabeth were the editors and short passages by Golo and Erika appear in the book also.
As for Mrs Mann's personality, superiority seems to be the keyword. Katia herself admits: It's true that I liked to show my superiority a bit from time to time. Well, it is visible. It often happens that haughtiness is a mask covering complexes and I have the impression it might be the case here.
Three fragments were especially strange and disturbing in Unwritten Memories: the ranking of children in order of Thomas Mann's preference, the passage in which Katia tells how very annoyed she was every time she gave birth to a girl and the one in which she mentions her two grandsons and it is immediately clear who is the favourite. She introduces herself as an extremely reserved person in the introduction and then these revelations follow. I can imagine how awkward the 'lesser' children and grandson must have felt reading this book.
My expectations concerning Unwritten Memories were not very high: I was ready for a scrupulously censored golden legend of Thomas Mann. The book has a hagiographic vibe to it indeed and some things are concealed in a way that made me cringe. The literary aspect is not top-notch either. I liked the passages about Thomas Mann's everyday life and his creative process, also the very rare moments when Katia was herself, not only a famous author's wife. Like here, when she describes a bizarre concert: It was a very strange buzzing on the cello. I have always been prone to laughter, and I got a fit of hysterics. In order to calm me down, Frau Lasker-Schüler kept throwing chocolates at me, which only made me laugh all the more. Somehow we managed to get through it—the combination of the cello and my laughter. I want to remember Katia Mann like that.
I absolutely disliked her little portraits of friends and acquaintances. Everyone was evaluated only in relation to Thomas Mann. The proportions were sort of blurred: for example when Annette Kolb felt offended because Mann wrote the Doctor Faustus character inspired by her had an elegant sheep's face, she was the one to blame for her reaction described as ridiculous and consequently, the end of their friendship. No attempt to guess how Kolb must have felt then. And it was so embarrassing to read the angry letter Katia sent to a friend who dared not write a thank-you note to Thomas after he had received his book. She scolded him and quotes her letter proudly. Besides, it was also exhausting to read who was portrayed as who in Mann's books and Katia seems to be obsessed with it and she feels so important revealing the truth. I did not care much and was fed up with this gossip column in the memoir.
I just wanted to say, I have never in my life been able to do what I would have liked to do. — Katia's confession at the end of Unwritten Memories is one of the saddest things I have ever read. It explains the bitterness which evaporates through every single pore of her memoir and sounds so intimate, so honest, as opposed to the rest of her book.
Katia Mann and her six children.
June 14, 2021
Fascinating reminiscences by Thomas Mann's wife with whom she shared the life for almost five decades, experiencing the cultivated world in the first three decades of the 20th century, especially the world of arts, literature, and music in the 1920s Munich, then the dramatic rise of Nazism, and their exile in Switzerland, France, and America from 1933 onwards to his death.
It was written in a conversational style with help from her two children, Elisabeth and Golo. It's not ambitious as Katia Mann disliked when the widows of famous men wrote memoirs, but it's still of great interest to anyone who is familiar with Thomas Mann's life and/or novels. She shares many anecdotes from their lives, both in their household and public life (she interchangeably refers to him as 'Tommy' when she talks about him as a husband, father, brother, or friend to others, and 'Thomas Mann' when she talks about him as a novelist).
Her personality comes across exactly as a reader gets a sense when reading Toíbín's recent magnificent novel The Magician. She was witty, honest, direct, fearless, and she was in charge of the household, while protecting her husband from anyone who would intrude into his world of writing.
Her descriptions of background stories behind TM's writings or a number of individuals who inspired particular characters can also be particularly interesting to anyone who had read his novels.
It was written in a conversational style with help from her two children, Elisabeth and Golo. It's not ambitious as Katia Mann disliked when the widows of famous men wrote memoirs, but it's still of great interest to anyone who is familiar with Thomas Mann's life and/or novels. She shares many anecdotes from their lives, both in their household and public life (she interchangeably refers to him as 'Tommy' when she talks about him as a husband, father, brother, or friend to others, and 'Thomas Mann' when she talks about him as a novelist).
Her personality comes across exactly as a reader gets a sense when reading Toíbín's recent magnificent novel The Magician. She was witty, honest, direct, fearless, and she was in charge of the household, while protecting her husband from anyone who would intrude into his world of writing.
Her descriptions of background stories behind TM's writings or a number of individuals who inspired particular characters can also be particularly interesting to anyone who had read his novels.
May 23, 2024
«بلاخره از این خانواده یک نفر نباید نویسنده شود!»
این جملهایه که کاتیا مان تا سالهای آخر عمر با استناد بهش در مقابل نوشتن خاطراتش مقاومت کرد. اما بالاخره کسی تونسته قانعش کنه که حداقل درباره زندگیش حرف بزنه و این کتاب حاصل اون مصاحبههاست. اون چیز که کتاب رو ارزشمند میکنه دسته اول بودن روایاته. کاتیا قصه تعریف نمیکنه بلکه در تمام این ماجراها شخصا حضور داشته و چون همیشه هم یه طرف ماجرا بوده، نسبت به اتفاقات سوگیری داره. ضمن اینکه به اقتضای زنانگیش و ساده بودنش خیلی صریح راجع به مسائل و افراد اظهار نظر میکنه که این باعث شیرینتر شدن کتاب شده.
کتاب نکات جالبی در مورد آثار توماس مان داره. از اونجایی که مان اکثر شخصیتهای داستانهاش رو از محیط اطراف میگرفته، کاتیا بهترین شخص برای تشریح این کاره. مثلا ماجرای ملاقات لوکاچ و مان رو تعریف میکنه و نهایتا این احتمال رو میده که شخصیت نفتا توی کوه جادو از لوکاچ برداشته شده باشه. یا ماجرای نوول «مرگ در ونیز» و اون خانواده لهستانی رو کاملا تعریف میکنه و حتی میگه بعد از مرگ توماس، یه بازرگان لهستانی برای ما نامهای فرستاد که من همون پسریام که تو اون سفر حضور داشتم. و قس علی هذا.
در کل روایتهای بیواسطه از دید نزدیکترین شخص زندگی مان که حتی کوچکترین عاداتش رو هم میدونسته، نقطه قوت این کتابه.
.
نکته آخر اینکه مقدمه مترجم سال 1385 نوشته شده ولی کتاب تازه چاپ شده و من داغ داغ از کتاب دیدآور خریدم. گشتم به چاپ دیگهای هم که قبل از چاپ دیدآور باشه برنخوردم. کاش ناشر یا خود مترجم توضیح میداد که علت این تاخیر 18 ساله چی بوده.
* من ترجمه آقای اسدی رو از نشر کتاب دیدآور خوندم.
این جملهایه که کاتیا مان تا سالهای آخر عمر با استناد بهش در مقابل نوشتن خاطراتش مقاومت کرد. اما بالاخره کسی تونسته قانعش کنه که حداقل درباره زندگیش حرف بزنه و این کتاب حاصل اون مصاحبههاست. اون چیز که کتاب رو ارزشمند میکنه دسته اول بودن روایاته. کاتیا قصه تعریف نمیکنه بلکه در تمام این ماجراها شخصا حضور داشته و چون همیشه هم یه طرف ماجرا بوده، نسبت به اتفاقات سوگیری داره. ضمن اینکه به اقتضای زنانگیش و ساده بودنش خیلی صریح راجع به مسائل و افراد اظهار نظر میکنه که این باعث شیرینتر شدن کتاب شده.
کتاب نکات جالبی در مورد آثار توماس مان داره. از اونجایی که مان اکثر شخصیتهای داستانهاش رو از محیط اطراف میگرفته، کاتیا بهترین شخص برای تشریح این کاره. مثلا ماجرای ملاقات لوکاچ و مان رو تعریف میکنه و نهایتا این احتمال رو میده که شخصیت نفتا توی کوه جادو از لوکاچ برداشته شده باشه. یا ماجرای نوول «مرگ در ونیز» و اون خانواده لهستانی رو کاملا تعریف میکنه و حتی میگه بعد از مرگ توماس، یه بازرگان لهستانی برای ما نامهای فرستاد که من همون پسریام که تو اون سفر حضور داشتم. و قس علی هذا.
در کل روایتهای بیواسطه از دید نزدیکترین شخص زندگی مان که حتی کوچکترین عاداتش رو هم میدونسته، نقطه قوت این کتابه.
.
نکته آخر اینکه مقدمه مترجم سال 1385 نوشته شده ولی کتاب تازه چاپ شده و من داغ داغ از کتاب دیدآور خریدم. گشتم به چاپ دیگهای هم که قبل از چاپ دیدآور باشه برنخوردم. کاش ناشر یا خود مترجم توضیح میداد که علت این تاخیر 18 ساله چی بوده.
* من ترجمه آقای اسدی رو از نشر کتاب دیدآور خوندم.
November 24, 2024
Eine spannende Zeitreise, die durch die altmodische und persönlich-unpersönlche Sprache Katia Manns ein hohes Maß an Authentizität vermittelt.
Was wie eine Menge Namedropping erscheint, ist die Realität: K. M. erzählt aus nächster Nähe und ohne ein Blatt vor den Mund zu nehmen von ihren Erfahrungen mit Figuren wie Mahler, Adorno oder Brecht (um nur eine kleine Auswahl der besprochenen Größen zu nennen). Das hohe Ross des Stolzes, gewichtiges Mitglied dieser bedeutenden Literatenfamilie zu sein, verlässt sie nicht, doch macht sie gleichzeitig nahbar als Mensch.
Was wie eine Menge Namedropping erscheint, ist die Realität: K. M. erzählt aus nächster Nähe und ohne ein Blatt vor den Mund zu nehmen von ihren Erfahrungen mit Figuren wie Mahler, Adorno oder Brecht (um nur eine kleine Auswahl der besprochenen Größen zu nennen). Das hohe Ross des Stolzes, gewichtiges Mitglied dieser bedeutenden Literatenfamilie zu sein, verlässt sie nicht, doch macht sie gleichzeitig nahbar als Mensch.
December 10, 2008
Katia Mann, Thomas Manns Frau, hat dieses Buch nicht geschrieben. Sie wollte kein Buch schreiben. Es wurde durch Gespräche mit ihrem Sohn Michael und Elisabeth Plessen gemacht.
Ein nettes,interessantes Buch, aus eine Frau, die nie hervorragen wollte,aber sehr wichtig in Thomas Manns Leben und Werken war.
Ein nettes,interessantes Buch, aus eine Frau, die nie hervorragen wollte,aber sehr wichtig in Thomas Manns Leben und Werken war.
February 6, 2023
The review by Jola expressed my sentiments exactly, but I have some to add.
Katia Mann writes that her husband Thomas Mann was opposed the Nazi regime so primarily primarily due to the lack of intellectual freedom and - the vague - "their murderous excesses and accusations." In reality, Thomas Mann vociferously opposed the Nazi regime, his own German citizenship having been revoked because of his outspoken political stance. The Manns left Germany because of this, and came to America, living in Princeton and California. This is a huge character failure of Katia Mann - especially that she's writing this book in 1975.
As well, Katia Mann never mentions her husband's stance on anti-Semitism. For all the detail in the book, she fails to mention he supported the ‘Deutsches Komitee Pro Palästina’ ('German Committee Pro Palestine’) and its goal of allowing Jews to settle in (then) British Mandate Palestine. Furthermore, Katia writes next to nothing about her husband's Joseph and His Brothers books, which took him a total of 16 years to complete. Why is this? The four Joseph books were full of Jewish midrash, Mann's having cultivated many friendships with rabbinic and knowledgeable Germany Jews during his tenure in Germany, and their 1930 one-month spent in Palestine, spending much time in Jerusalem, which Katia also fails to even mention.
Perhaps the shallowness and lack of empathy of which several reviewers have remarked are characteristics of Katia, not of Thomas. Katia Mann demeans Jewish author Stevan Zweig, who also had to flee Germany, and yes, physicist Albert Einstein (see Jola's review) and other who were members of targeted groups, and who suffered in Berlin, in Germany, and the world over, too often paying with their lives.
Most notably, Katia Mann's mathematician father was Jewish, a fact that she never mentions or intimates. The opening lines of Unwritten Memories are, "My father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Munich," and that's it. Her father in fact was persecuted by the Germans when the Nazis came to power and in 1938 was, like other Jews, forced to add the name "Israel" to his legal name to indicate he was Jewish, thus becoming "Alfred Israel Pringsh." His ceramic collection was confiscated on Kristallnacht and sold by Sothby's. Her father was able to survive the Nazi slaughter in October 1939, while Katia and Thomas were living in Princeton, NJ, because politically and intellectually influential friends were able to obtain a passport for him to escape to Switzerland.
Katia does, however, include one incident when she and her husband were in New York in 1938, she is asked:
"Mr. Mann of course is Jewish?"
I said, "Not a bit."
Her followup to that only is a sarcastic comment about how her response was covered in the press.
The Manns return to Germany in 1954, reporting only "aged faces." There's no mention of the many Jewish friends - including her father, who having escaped to Switzerland there died - and inhabitants now gone (either lucky to obtain passports and escape, or murdered by the Nazis), their homes and businesses confiscated and sold to non-Jews, and more.
Unwritten Memories has value to those who appreciate literature and writers such as Thomas Mann, and who want to have a better picture of life and culture in 20th century Germany. This book certainly shows that. But unfortunately it also reveals a very shallow culture even among its prized intellectual class, certainly at least on the part of Katia Mann.
Unfortunately Katia does disservice to her husband by her omissions.
She does no favor to the record of history, either.
Katia Mann writes that her husband Thomas Mann was opposed the Nazi regime so primarily primarily due to the lack of intellectual freedom and - the vague - "their murderous excesses and accusations." In reality, Thomas Mann vociferously opposed the Nazi regime, his own German citizenship having been revoked because of his outspoken political stance. The Manns left Germany because of this, and came to America, living in Princeton and California. This is a huge character failure of Katia Mann - especially that she's writing this book in 1975.
As well, Katia Mann never mentions her husband's stance on anti-Semitism. For all the detail in the book, she fails to mention he supported the ‘Deutsches Komitee Pro Palästina’ ('German Committee Pro Palestine’) and its goal of allowing Jews to settle in (then) British Mandate Palestine. Furthermore, Katia writes next to nothing about her husband's Joseph and His Brothers books, which took him a total of 16 years to complete. Why is this? The four Joseph books were full of Jewish midrash, Mann's having cultivated many friendships with rabbinic and knowledgeable Germany Jews during his tenure in Germany, and their 1930 one-month spent in Palestine, spending much time in Jerusalem, which Katia also fails to even mention.
Perhaps the shallowness and lack of empathy of which several reviewers have remarked are characteristics of Katia, not of Thomas. Katia Mann demeans Jewish author Stevan Zweig, who also had to flee Germany, and yes, physicist Albert Einstein (see Jola's review) and other who were members of targeted groups, and who suffered in Berlin, in Germany, and the world over, too often paying with their lives.
Most notably, Katia Mann's mathematician father was Jewish, a fact that she never mentions or intimates. The opening lines of Unwritten Memories are, "My father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Munich," and that's it. Her father in fact was persecuted by the Germans when the Nazis came to power and in 1938 was, like other Jews, forced to add the name "Israel" to his legal name to indicate he was Jewish, thus becoming "Alfred Israel Pringsh." His ceramic collection was confiscated on Kristallnacht and sold by Sothby's. Her father was able to survive the Nazi slaughter in October 1939, while Katia and Thomas were living in Princeton, NJ, because politically and intellectually influential friends were able to obtain a passport for him to escape to Switzerland.
Katia does, however, include one incident when she and her husband were in New York in 1938, she is asked:
"Mr. Mann of course is Jewish?"
I said, "Not a bit."
Her followup to that only is a sarcastic comment about how her response was covered in the press.
The Manns return to Germany in 1954, reporting only "aged faces." There's no mention of the many Jewish friends - including her father, who having escaped to Switzerland there died - and inhabitants now gone (either lucky to obtain passports and escape, or murdered by the Nazis), their homes and businesses confiscated and sold to non-Jews, and more.
Unwritten Memories has value to those who appreciate literature and writers such as Thomas Mann, and who want to have a better picture of life and culture in 20th century Germany. This book certainly shows that. But unfortunately it also reveals a very shallow culture even among its prized intellectual class, certainly at least on the part of Katia Mann.
Unfortunately Katia does disservice to her husband by her omissions.
She does no favor to the record of history, either.
May 18, 2023
This was a perfect read for me. I learnt so much about Thomas Mann and his world. A brilliant read for anybody interested in T.M's life, his friendships, his enemies, his daily routine and how he used people around him to build up his characters. I also got to know why they call him THE MAGICIAN. There is so much in this small book that it felt like you are actually talking to Katia Mann.
This book is an expansion/ based on the interviews with Katia Mann. She was nearly in her nineties when this work came to life. It definitely doesn't read like a Biography but more like a chat with Katia. She is very candid and offers personal views about the environment they used to live in, about people surrounding T.M, her family life and the celebrities they rubbed shoulders with. All in all an excellent, very informal and informative read.
My recommendation would be for any reader, to read the book and find out yourself. Negative reviews of this book are 'tunnel vision reviews' and not representative of this excellent informal view of T.M. and Katia's life spent together. This book is definitively 100% better than the fictitious THE MAGICIAN by Colm Toibin.
This book is an expansion/ based on the interviews with Katia Mann. She was nearly in her nineties when this work came to life. It definitely doesn't read like a Biography but more like a chat with Katia. She is very candid and offers personal views about the environment they used to live in, about people surrounding T.M, her family life and the celebrities they rubbed shoulders with. All in all an excellent, very informal and informative read.
My recommendation would be for any reader, to read the book and find out yourself. Negative reviews of this book are 'tunnel vision reviews' and not representative of this excellent informal view of T.M. and Katia's life spent together. This book is definitively 100% better than the fictitious THE MAGICIAN by Colm Toibin.
November 7, 2025
Eks me või lossiaknast kaeda, kuidas pidu keerleb sees. Silmaklappide ja enesetsensuuriga kindlasti ka. See suhtlus, meie, matsid, ei saa kunagi aru nendest peentest nüanssidest - kuidas ja kui sügavalt ja millise kirjavahemärgi või sõna peale solvuda. Kommentaaride osa on tõeline who's who saksa (või juudi) sajandialguse kultuuriruumis. On paar helget hetke. On hetk, mis resoneerub kaasajaga: Me käisime ju muide iga aasta Euroopas, algul aurikuga, viimastel aastatel lennukiga, mis oli ju tegelikult äärmiselt ebapraktiline ja kulukas.. Aga ikkagi on tunne, et saksa kirjandus on selline väga tõsine raudbetoonist asi.
September 3, 2025
Thomas Manni naine Katia räägib suu puhtaks. Nende elust ja loomisest ja seltsielust. Mis on tore. Või vähemasti v õ i k s olla tore. Igast teisest lõigust õhkuv arrogants aga polnud seda teps mitte. Siin oli mõningaid võluvaid vaimukusi, ent paraku kahvatusid need lõpuks kaaskondsetesse üleoleva suhtumise tõttu. Väga klassiteadlik, nagu sellele rahvakillule omane.
Peamine väärtus: Manni raamatute tausta avamine.
Peamine väärtus: Manni raamatute tausta avamine.
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June 1, 2020Srpski prevod (prevodilac: Jasmina Burojević, izdavačka kuća: Filip Višnjić, 2010.) je najblaže rečeno očajan, sa masom ozbiljnih grešaka u imenima, nazivima i toponimima. Rečenice su bukvalno prevedene, reč po reč, gotovo je nečitljivo.
November 28, 2025
Katia Mann doesn't talk much about herself. I wish we could have had a better view of her life, but as a Thomas Mann reader, I loved to know more about the man behind the books and how his life inspired his writings.
October 15, 2022
Light fare to be sure, but if you love Thomas Mann, a must read. Great anecdote like the Arnold Schoenberg superstitiousness and how the Magic Mountain was supposed to be a novella!
August 25, 2024
Es plätschert so vor sich hin, liest sich schnell weg und am Ende ist es vielleicht auch nur ein Buch, das Germanist*innen gerne lesen, die viel Mann gelesen haben.
October 20, 2024
Bisweilen ganz netter Hausfrauenklatsch, der an der Legende vom "Tommy" weiterstrickt.
March 4, 2021
Ein spannender Einblick in das Innenleben der Familie Mann und das intellektuelle Leben einer uns heutzutage nicht bloß temporal ziemlich fern liegenden Zeit, aber auch ungeachtet dessen eine ganz witzige und ungeheuer charmante, in ihrem flotten Plauderton recht kurzweilige Lektüre.
July 10, 2015
Katia Mann does not strike as a warmhearted and sympathetic person from this memoir, but she tells some interesting stories about Thomas Mann and other German writers of the 20th century.
September 13, 2015
Often very interesting memoirs by the wife of Thomas (she called him "Tommy") Mann. Heinrich Mann, Bruno Walter, Adorno, Brecht, Alma Werfel, Charlie Chaplin, and many others appear in anecdotes.
December 5, 2015
Bisweilen ganz netter Hausfrauenklatsch, der an der Legende vom "Tommy" weiterstrickt.
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