Thomas Mann / Heinrich Mann

Barely 25 years old Thomas Mann writes his greatest prose work, the "Buddenbrooks". A little later he is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Originally the novel about the decline of a family was planned as a joint work with his elder brother Heinrich. But whereas Thomas was more interested in life and art Heinrich had developed into a social critic. However, with "Reflections of an Unpolitical man" written during the First World War Thomas Mann had created an impressive apology of imperial Germany at the moment of its collapse. At about the same time he starts his work on the "Magic Mountain" which is published in 1924. After 1938, in his American exile, Thomas Mann develops into a powerfully eloquent enemy of National Socialism. Heinrich Mann, author of "The Loyal Subject" a time and character portrayal, escapes to the USA. And here is where he dies before his planned return to Germany. His ashes will be transferred to Dorotheenstädtischer Cemetery in Berlin. In 1952 Thomas Mann moves from California to Zurich where he dies in 1955 aged 80.