Actually, there were supposed to be two museum visits concerning Thomas Mann on this trip, one in Nida (Lithuania) and one in Lübeck (Germany). Lübeck was home to three Nobel Prize winners: Thomas Mann, Willy Brandt and Günter Grass. Unfortunately, the Buddenbrook House [1] was closed due to renovation work, which is why I was all the more pleased about the visit to the Thomas Mann House in Nida.
Thomas Mann was born in Lübeck in 1875 and was a German writer [2]. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. In 1901, the novel “Buddenbrooks” was published, which told the story of a patrician family. Thomas Mann came from the respected Lübeck patrician and merchant family Mann, so you can see a direct connection to the novel. Perhaps also well-known are “The Magic Mountain” (German: Der Zauberberg) and “Death in Venice” (German: Der Tod in Venedig), which I remember better from Visconti's movie [3]. With the beginning of the National Socialist regime in 1933, Mann emigrated to Switzerland and from there to the USA in 1938. He took US citizenship in 1944, but lived in Switzerland again from 1952 until 1955, i.e. his death.
Let us first look at the Curonian Lagoon (German: Kurisches Haff, Lithuanian: Kuršių marios, Russian: Куршский заливund) [4] and the Curonian Spit (German: Kurische Nehrung, Lithuanian: Kuršių nerija, Russian: Куршская коса) [5]. In German, the word "Haff" is used for lagoon, which comes from Middle Low German and is used for the lagoons in the Baltic Sea. The lagoon consists of fresh water, although brackish water can be found at the open connection to the Baltic Sea (near Klaipėda). Freshwater fish are fished, currently more on the Russian side, as the lagoon is a little deeper there and the water is therefore colder (climate change). The lagoon is separated from the Baltic Sea by the spit. The Curonian Spit is 98 km long, of which 46 km are on the Russian side (Kaliningrad) and 52 km belong to Lithuania. The dune is up to 60 m high and at its widest point it measures 3.8 km. Large parts are forested and this is important for the Thomas Mann House.
In his lecture “My Summer House” (German: „Mein Sommerhaus“) [6], Thomas Mann refers to Wilhelm von Humboldt: “I would like to refer here to Wilhelm von Humboldt, who was there and was so impressed by Nidden [now Nida] in particular that he declared that one must have seen this area, just as one must have seen Italy or Spain (“if one does not want to miss an image in one’s soul”).” Thomas Mann and his family fell in love with the summer landscape with the deep blue lagoon, the white coast and the pines that are reminiscent of pine trees. Overall, one had the impression of staying on southern shores. There he had a house built in the local style with a straw or reed roof and a gable with pagan crossed horse heads. Unfortunately, the family was only able to use the house for about five years during the summer.
Look at the boy on the right side, it must be Thomas Mann's son Michael -
I have pictures on which I looked much the same at this age
Today the Thomas Mann Memorial Museum and the Thomas Mann Cultural Center are located there [7]. “The diverse activities of the Thomas Mann Cultural Center are characterized by European thinking, because the care of Thomas Mann's creative legacy in Lithuania shows how highly pan-European values and responsibility for Europe's cultural heritage are valued.”
The Thomas Mann House and surrounding area are worth a visit and I wish we had stayed there longer.
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://buddenbrookhaus.de/
[2] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann
[3] Death in Venice (Italian: Morte a Venezia) is a 1971 historical drama film by Luchino Visconti, starring Dirk Bogarde.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_Venice_(film)
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curonian_Lagoon
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curonian_Spit
[6] Der Vortrag „Mein Sommerhaus“ wurde von Thomas Mann bei der Zusammenkunft des Rotary Clubs München am 1.Dezember 1931 gehalten. Erstmals erschienen in: „Beilage zum Wochenbericht IV/22 des Rotary Clubs München“, Dezember 1931. [The lecture “My Summer House” was given by Thomas Mann at the meeting of the Rotary Club Munich on December 1, 1931. First published in: “Supplement to the Weekly Report IV/22 of the Rotary Club Munich”, December 1931.]
[7] https://www.mann.lt/de/einfuhrung/ueber-uns and https://www.mann.lt/en/lets-meet/about-us (The texts are not identical!)
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