Thomas Mann sits in his study, thinking and writing, deliberately and intentionally removed from the distracting events of daily life around him. This is how the great author is often portrayed in many books. But this depiction misses an important facet: Thomas Mann was also a political activist who passionately advocated that it is everyone’s responsibility not just to endure politics but to actively engage with it. Thomas Mann’s highly multifaceted political commitment is vividly reflected in the debate over Zionism. As early as the 1920s, he was a member of a pro-Zionist support association. After World War II, he strongly advocated for the establishment of a Jewish state that would provide a safe homeland for the survivors of the Shoah—whose horrors and scale Mann was among the first intellectuals to publicly acknowledge before the world.
In Kai Sina’s masterfully written portrait, this lesser-known side of Thomas Mann comes to life—vividly, compellingly, and with all his humanity.
Kai Sina, born in 1981 in Flensburg, holds the Lichtenberg Professorship for Modern German Literary Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Münster and leads the Thomas Mann Research Center affiliated with his chair.