THOMAS MANN – EXIL IN ZÜRICH

The Manns are in the public spotlight. Having been expelled from Germany in the spring of 1933, they decide to go into exile in Zurich. Erika Mann performs her cabaret «Die Pfeffermühle» (The Pepper Mill) in the Niederdorf district, while Klaus Mann founds the first exile magazine. Thomas Mann keeps a low profile. But, pressured by the media against literary emigration, he changes his mind. He openly and directly opposes the Third Reich. The celebrated Nobel Prize winner becomes a political publicist. His writings take on the character of manifestos. He fights dictatorship by defending democracy and is heard worldwide. He has close ties to the Schauspielhaus theatre. He bids farewell to Zurich with a reading on the Pfauenbühne stage. In 1938, he went into exile in the USA for the second time. After the war, he returned to Europe. Kilchberg was his last place of residence. Thomas Mann died in Zurich Cantonal Hospital on 12 August 1955.

Thomas Mann called his five years in exile in Zurich a ‘life epoch’. Yet surprisingly little is known about this period. Through letters, diary entries, political disputes and public debates, the reading provides a fascinating insight into Thomas Mann's politicisation, his fight against Hitler's dictatorship, his advocacy for democracy – in short, his rise to become the representative of the exiled ‘other’ Germany. With a new perspective on the Nobel Prize winner and his place of exile, Zurich.