Editing Heinrich Mann

{{Short description|German writer (1871–1950)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2013}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2010}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Heinrich Mann
| image            = Heinrich Mann in seinen Münchner Jahren.png
| caption          = Heinrich Mann in his "Munich years" (1894–1899)
| birth_name       = Luiz Heinrich Mann
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1871|3|27}}
| birth_place      = [[Free City of Lübeck]], German Empire
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1950|3|11|1871|3|27}}
| death_place      = [[Santa Monica]], California, US
| occupation       = Novelist, essayist
| period           = 
| notableworks     = ''[[Der Untertan]]''<br />''[[Professor Unrat]]''
| relatives        = Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann (father)<br />[[Júlia da Silva Bruhns]] (mother)<br />[[Thomas Mann]] (brother)
| signature        = Heinrich Mann Signature.svg
}}
'''Luiz Heinrich Mann''' ({{IPA|de|ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈman|lang|De-Heinrich Mann.ogg}}; March 27, 1871 &ndash; March 11, 1950), best known as simply '''Heinrich Mann''', was a German writer known for his [[Social criticism|socio-political]] novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the [[Prussian Academy of Arts]]. His fierce criticism of the growing [[Fascism]] and [[Nazism]] forced him to flee Germany after the Nazis came to power during 1933. He was the elder brother of writer [[Thomas Mann]].

==Early life==
Born in [[Lübeck]], as the oldest child of Senator Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann, [[grain trade|grain merchant]] and finance minister of the [[Free City of Lübeck]], a state of the [[German Empire]], and [[Júlia da Silva Bruhns]]. He was the elder brother of the writer [[Thomas Mann]] with whom he had a lifelong rivalry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hmann.htm |title=Heinrich Mann |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904060528/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hmann.htm |archive-date=September 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Kontje |first=Todd |title=Mann's Modernism |date=2015 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-the-modernist-novel/manns-modernism/6C2C60116AEB7FB097880F9DF00950BE |work=A History of the Modernist Novel |pages=311–326 |editor-last=Castle |editor-first=Gregory |access-date=2023-08-25 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-03495-2}}</ref> The [[Mann family]] was an [[affluent]] family of grain merchants of the [[Hanseatic League|Hanseatic]] city of Lübeck. After the death of his father, his mother relocated the family to [[Munich]], where Heinrich began his career as a ''freier Schriftsteller'' (free writer). In 1914, he married a Czech actress, Maria "Mimi" Kanova. They divorced in 1930. Mimi, being Jewish, died from the consequences of a five-year detention in the concentration camp [[Theresienstadt family camp|Theresienstadt]].

==Work and exile==
Mann's essay on [[Émile Zola]] and the novel ''[[Der Untertan]]'' (published over the years 1912–1918) earned him much respect during the [[Weimar Republic]] in the left-wing circles, since they demonstrated the author's anti-war and defeatist stance during the World War I, and since the latter satirized Imperial German society; both the novel and the essay became a major impulse for [[Thomas Mann]] to write ''[[Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man]]'', a work supporting the efforts of the German Empire in the war and condemning Heinrich as one of "Civilisation's Literary Men" (''Zivilisationsliteraten''), the writers who served the West in its struggle against German "Culture"; later Thomas called the novel an example of "national slander" and "ruthless ruthless aestheticism", while the novel had such admirers as [[Kurt Tucholsky]]. During the revolution, Heinrich became a major supporter of [[Kurt Eisner]], a social democrat revolutionary who [[People's State of Bavaria|proclaimed Bavaria a Socialist republic]]; after Eisner's assassination by a far-right activist, Mann spoke at Eisner's funeral.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heinrich Mann |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/Heinrich_Mann.htm |access-date=2024-08-18 |website=Spartacus Educational |language=en}}</ref>

Later, in 1930, his book ''[[Professor Unrat]]'' was freely adapted into the movie ''[[Der Blaue Engel]]'' (''The Blue Angel''). [[Carl Zuckmayer]] wrote the script, and [[Josef von Sternberg]] was the director. Mann wanted his paramour, the actress [[Trude Hesterberg]], to play the main female part as the "actress" Lola Lola (named Rosa Fröhlich in the novel), but [[Marlene Dietrich]] was given the part, her first sound role. The film helped her achieve her breakthrough, including in Hollywood, and became an icon in film history.

Together with [[Albert Einstein]] and other celebrities during 1932, Mann was a signatory to the "[[Urgent Call for Unity]]", asking the voters to reject the Nazis. Einstein and Mann had previously co-authored a letter during 1931 condemning the murder of [[Croatia]]n scholar [[Milan Šufflay]].

Mann became ''[[persona non grata]]'' in [[Nazi Germany]] and left even before the [[Reichstag fire]] of 1933. He went to France where he lived in [[Paris]] and [[Nice]]. During the German occupation, he made his way to [[Marseille]], where he was aided by [[Varian Fry]] in September 1940 to escape to Spain. Assisted by [[Justus Rosenberg]], he and his wife Nelly Kröger, his nephew [[Golo Mann]], [[Alma Mahler|Alma Mahler-Werfel]] and [[Franz Werfel]] hiked for six hours across the border at [[Port Bou]]. After arriving in Portugal, the group stayed in [[Monte Estoril]], at the Grande Hotel D'Itália, between September 18 and October 4, 1940.<ref>[[Exiles Memorial Center]].</ref> On October 4, 1940, they boarded the ''[[Greek Line|S.S. Nea Hellas]]'', headed for New York City. 

[[File:Heinrich Thomas Mann.jpg|thumb|Heinrich Mann with his brother [[Thomas Mann]], 1902]]
He then lived poor and sickly in [[Los Angeles]], supported by his brother Thomas, who lived in [[Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles|Pacific Palisades]] ([[Thomas Mann House]]). The relationship between the two brothers was always difficult, because Thomas was more successful, received the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, had a rich wife, and the brothers differed considerably politically. Heinrich styled himself as a socialist revolutionary, Thomas, perhaps precisely because of this, at least in his younger years, gave himself a conservative image. They also had little appreciation for each other's very different writing styles and topics.<ref>Hermann Kurzke, ''Thomas Mann: Life as a Work of Art: A Biography'', chapter IV: ''Thomas and Heinrich'' and XVI: ''Hatred for Hitler'', subchapter ''Heinrich'', Princeton University Press (2002).</ref> While Heinrich was considered a womanizer and philanderer who preferred lower-class women, Thomas valued respectability and looked down on his brother's constant string of mistresses and prostitutes, whom Heinrich described quite openly in some of his novels and short stories, but at the same time was [[Thomas Mann#Sexuality and literary work|fascinated by young men]]. In 1911, Heinrich had accompanied his brother and sister-in-law to Venice, where they stayed at the [[Grand Hôtel des Bains]] on the [[Venice Lido]]. There he witnessed Thomas' obsession with a handsome Polish boy, [[Władysław Moes|Władysław (Władzio) Moes]]. Thomas processed his experience in the novella ''[[Death in Venice]]'' (1912).<ref>{{cite book |last= Mann |first= Thomas |title= Diaries 1918–1939 |year=1983|page = 471 |isbn=978-0-233-97513-9 |publisher= A. Deutsch}}, quoted in e.g. {{cite book |first1=Hermann |last1=Kurzke |first2=Leslie |last2=Wilson |title=Thomas Mann. Life as a Work of Art. A Biography |page=[https://archive.org/details/thomasmannlifeas00kurz/page/752 752] |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-691-07069-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/thomasmannlifeas00kurz/page/752 }}</ref> 

The Nazis burnt Heinrich Mann's books as "contrary to the German spirit" during [[Nazi book burning|the infamous book burning]] of May 10, 1933, which was instigated by the then Nazi propaganda minister [[Joseph Goebbels]].

==Later life==
[[File:Grave of Heinrich Mann 2012.jpg|thumb|right|Mann's grave in Berlin]]
During the 1930s and later in American exile, Mann's literary popularity waned. Nevertheless, he wrote ''Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre'' and ''Die Vollendung des Königs Henri Quatre'' about the French King [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]] as part of the [[Exilliteratur]]. The two novels describe the life and importance of the highly controversial, yet successful and womanizing king, who is ultimately murdered. This work was acclaimed by his brother Thomas Mann, who spoke of the "great splendour and dynamic art" of the work. The plot, based on Europe's early [[modern history]] from a French perspective, anticipated the end of [[French–German enmity]], similar to how the king had tried to end the religious wars.

His second wife, {{ill|Nelly Mann|de}} (1898–1944), died by suicide in Los Angeles.

Heinrich Mann died on March 11, 1950, sixteen days before his 79th birthday, in [[Santa Monica, California]], lonely and without much money, just months before he was to relocate to East Berlin to become president of the [[Akademie der Künste der DDR|East German Academy of Arts]]. His ashes were later taken to [[East Germany]] and were interred at the [[Dorotheenstadt Cemetery]] in a [[Ehrengrab|grave of honor]].

==Popular culture==
Mann was portrayed by [[Alec Guinness]] in the television adaptation of [[Christopher Hampton]]'s play ''Tales from Hollywood'' (1992).<ref>{{cite book |last=Read |first=Piers Paul |author-link=Piers Paul Read |year=2003 |title=Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/alecguinnessauth00read |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |pages=534–535 |isbn=0-7432-4498-2}}</ref>

In ''[[Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman]]'' (2001) he was played by [[Jürgen Hentsch]].

==Film adaptations==
*''[[The Blue Angel]]'', directed by [[Josef von Sternberg]] (Germany, 1930, based on the novel ''[[Professor Unrat]]'')
*''[[Der Untertan (film)|Der Untertan]]'', directed by [[Wolfgang Staudte]] (East Germany, 1951, based on the novel ''[[Der Untertan]]'')
*''[[The Blue Angel (1959 film)|The Blue Angel]]'', directed by [[Edward Dmytryk]] (USA, 1959, based on the novel ''[[Professor Unrat]]'')
*''{{Ill|Madame Legros (film)|de|3=Madame Legros (Film)|lt=Madame Legros}}'', directed by [[Michael Kehlmann]] (West Germany, 1968, TV film, based on the play ''Madame Legros'')
*''[[Man of Straw (miniseries)|Man of Straw]]'', directed by [[Herbert Wise]] (UK, 1972, TV miniseries, based on the novel ''[[Der Untertan]]'')
*''Im Schlaraffenland'', directed by [[Kurt Jung-Alsen]] (East Germany, 1975, TV film, based on the novel ''Im Schlaraffenland'')
*''Belcanto oder Darf eine Nutte schluchzen?'', directed by [[Robert van Ackeren]] (West Germany, 1977, based on the novel ''Empfang bei der Welt'')
*''Die Verführbaren'', directed by {{Ill|Helmut Schiemann|de}} (East Germany, 1977, TV film, based on the novel ''Ein ernstes Leben'')
*''{{Ill|Le Roi qui vient du sud|fr}}'', directed by [[Marcel Camus]] and {{Ill|Heinz Schirk|de}} (France, 1979, TV miniseries, based on the novel ''Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre'')
*''In the Land of Cockaigne'', directed by [[Fritz Umgelter]] (West Germany, 1981, TV film, based on the novel ''Im Schlaraffenland'')
*''Suturp – Eine Liebesgeschichte'', directed by [[Gerd Keil]] (East Germany, 1981, TV film, based on the short story ''Suturp'')
*''{{Ill|Die traurige Geschichte von Friedrich dem Großen|de}}'', directed by [[Alexander Lang]] (East Germany, 1983, TV film, based on the unfinished ''Die traurige Geschichte von Friedrich dem Großen'')
*''Varieté'', directed by {{Ill|Martin Eckermann|de}} (East Germany, 1985, TV film, based on the play ''Varieté'')
*''{{Ill|Endstation Harembar|de}}'', directed by {{Ill|Rainer Wolffhardt|de}} (Germany, 1992, TV film, based on the novel ''Ein ernstes Leben'')
*''[[Henri 4 (film)|Henri 4]]'', directed by [[Jo Baier]] (Germany, 2010, based on the novels ''Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre'' and ''Die Vollendung des Königs Henri Quatre'')

== See also ==
* [[Exilliteratur]]
* [[Dohm-Mann family tree]]
* [[Urgent Call for Unity]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Gross, David: ''The Writer and Society: Heinrich Mann and Literary Politics in Germany, 1890–1940'', Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1980, ({{ISBN|0-391-00972-9}})
* [[Nigel Hamilton (author)|Hamilton, Nigel]]: ''The Brothers Mann: The Lives of Heinrich and Thomas Mann'', [[Yale University Press]], (1978), ({{isbn|9780300026689}})
* Juers, Evelyn: ''House of Exile: The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann'', Giramondo Publishing Co., Australia, 2008, ({{ISBN|978-1-920882-44-0}})
* Mauthner, Martin: ''German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940'', Vallentine Mitchell, London, 2007, ({{ISBN|978-0-85303-540-4}}).
* Walter Fähnders/Walter Delabar: ''Heinrich Mann (1871–1950)''.  Berlin 2005 (Memoria 4)
* Heinrich Mann's life in California during World War II, including his relationship with Nelly Mann, Thomas Mann and [[Bertolt Brecht]], is a subject of Christopher Hampton's play ''Tales from Hollywood'', where he was played in film by Alec Guinness ([[BBC Video]] ''Performance'': “Tales from Hollywood”, 1992) and on stage by Keir Dullea ([[Guthrie Theater]], Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2012).

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=35073| name=Heinrich Mann}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Heinrich Mann}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/011903}}

{{Professor Unrat}}
{{German literature}}
{{Thomas Mann}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Heinrich}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
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[[Category:19th-century German essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century German male writers]]
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