In this first volume of his autobiography, the author describes the period which covers his precocious childhood, his education at Schloss Salem and his studies at Berlin and Heidelberg. The book ends with the author recalling the ominous signs of Nazism and his first sight and sound of Hitler.
Born Angelus Gottfried Thomas Mann, he was a popular German historian, essayist and writer. He was the third child of the novelist Thomas Mann and his wife Katia Mann.