Salon kontrovers: Briefe – schreiben und lesen - „Am deutschen Volk rächt sich sein Wahn und Rausch“ – Thomas Manns BBC-Rundfunkreden an „Deutsche Hörer“ von 1940-45
“Am deutschen Volk rächt sich sein Wahn und Rausch” – Thomas Manns BBC-Rundfunkreden an „Deutsche Hörer“ von 1940-45
Cooperation event with S. Fischer Verlag for the 150th birthday and 70th death anniversary of Thomas Mann in 2025
The original recordings of the speeches will be commented on by Hans Sarkowicz in conversation with Ruthard Stäblein; Concept: Ruthard Stäblein
“Where I am, is Germany” – Thomas Mann defied. Hitler had stripped him of his citizenship while he was still living in exile in Switzerland. And when he went to the USA in 1938, he wrote this sentence: “Where I am, is Germany”. Yes, one can take away a German citizen's passport, but one cannot take away Thomas Mann's Germanness. For he embodied the German language with his literary works, he represented “German culture”. And he could take it with him anywhere.
At first, he hesitated whether to publicly express his abhorrence of National Socialism along with the other emigrants. He had already been outraged against this “bloodlust” of the Nazis long before 1933, “this miserable mixture of musty souls and mass buffoonery”. For he was still afraid in the early days of his exile that he would see his books banned in the Reich and lose his readers there. After being urged particularly by his oldest children, Erika and Klaus, Thomas Mann became increasingly combative and polemical in his words against Nazi barbarism starting in 1936. This was especially the case when, from October 1940, he had the opportunity to give speeches for the BBC to “German listeners”, which the English broadcaster transmitted to the German Reich.
Initially, he appealed with the “warning voice of a friend of the Germans” to reason, conscience, and the high values of “German culture” in order to persuade his countrymen to resist Hitler.
As early as 1941, he mentioned “mass exterminations”: “What is happening, you know, but do not want to know.” But soon he reminded and admonished in his radio speeches that the Germans must “pay” for their crimes, that following the bombing of English Coventry, there would be the bombing of his hometown Lübeck, and that guilt must be followed by atonement.
And yet he referenced, he hoped, for the return of a “free spirit”, a truly “German culture”.
With his clearly articulated, urgent voice, Thomas Mann still presents a presence, even an aura, that radiates further upon re-hearing his speeches.
Image: Thomas Mann, photograph by Carl van Vechten, 1937 (Van Vechten Collection at Library of Congress, public domain via Wikimedia)
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
