By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — When I was reading about the life and times of renowned German writer Thomas Mann (Nobel Prize Laureate in 1929) in Colm Toibin’s biography of him entitled The Magician, a passage made me stop and ponder its relevance for us today.
It was the paragraph describing the correspondence between Thomas and his brother, Heinrich, who was also an author (he wrote the novel, Professor Unrat on which the movie The Blue Angel was based). The brothers had a complex relationship, with extensive periods of rivalry and alienation from one another, though they were reconciled later in life.
Although the brothers held differing views about World War I, Thomas made a point of reading Heinrich’s articles and following reports of his activities. At an anti-war meeting in Munich in 1914, Heinrich was reported as saying: “War is nothing to enthuse over, it does not civilize, it does not cleanse, it does not make anything true or just, and it does not make people more brotherly.”
In those years of national enthusiasm about the war it was not the intellectual and well-informed Thomas who opposed the war, but his less distinguished older brother. Thomas himself was caught up in the spirit of national fervor in favor of the war, He continued to regard German culture and history as admirable and worthy of pride and support.
At war’s end, however, Thomas Mann, like many Germans, felt puzzled and betrayed, unable to fathom how a country which had led the world in making scientific and cultural progress for many decades could have been defeated. As we now know, this sentiment was shared by many Germans, and when the punitive compensatory payments imposed on the country by the victors led to galloping inflation, hardship and misery, the path was cleared for the rise to power of Hitler’s ultra-nationalism, fascism and virulent antisemitism.
Thomas Mann, of course, did not subscribe to Hitler’s views, and his allegiance to Germany was tested to the full when he found that, together with members of his family, he was subject to the opprobrium of the Nazi party. In the final event, Thomas, Heinrich and all the members of the Mann clan fled Germany, ultimately finding refuge in the USA.
But the voice and sentiments of Heinrich Mann still ring true. War is not desirable or commendable in and of itself, and statements proclaiming its necessity or desirability should be treated with the suspicion and contempt they deserve.
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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson is an author and freelance writer based in Mevasseret Zion, Israel.