Thomas Mann

He travelled a lot and went to places like Spain, Warsaw and London. He was invited to be the guest of honour of the newly established PEN club in London

He was suffering from atherosclerosis and died on August 12, 1955 due to its complications, in a hospital in Zurich. He was buried in Kilchberg.

Paul Thomas Mann was born on June 6, 1875 in Free City of Lübeck, German Empire. He was the second son of Thomas Johann Mann and Julia da Silva Bruhns.

His father was a senator and grain merchant who followed the Lutheran religion. His mother was a Brazilian of German and Portuguese ancestry and followed the Roman Catholic faith.

He completed his schooling from the science division of Lubeck Gymnasium School with great difficulty, and then spent time at the Ludwig Maximillians University of Munich and Technical University of Munich.

He studied history, economics, art history and literature at the university to educate himself about the happenings around, in preparation for his career in journalism.

Mann lived the major part of his adult life in Munich. He started his career with the South German Fire Insurance Company, after the family grain business was liquidated, following his father’s death.

He started his writing career when he began writing for simplicissimus. His first published work was the short story ‘Little Mr.Friedemann’ in 1898.

In 1901, the epic Buddenbrooks was published and gave him popular recognition. The inspiration for the story was his family. It paints the picture of the decline of a merchant family over three generations.

The tetralogy ‘Joseph and his brothers’ is the largest and most noteworthy of Mann’s works. It is an epic novel which was written over a period of nineteen years.

In 1903, the volume of a collection of short stories ‘Tristan’ was published. Of this, the North-South artist’s novella ‘Tonio Kroger’ is considered the most distinguished.

His first collection of stories ‘Der Kleine Herr Friedemann’ was published in 1898. The success and popularity of his first publication motivated him to write more novellas.

When in Rome, he began to write the novel ‘Buddenbrooks’ which was published in 1901. This is the all time favourite of the German public - even today over a million copies are in circulation.