2017-06-06 Tue

Thomas Mann, a German novelist was born today in 1875. He was also a short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, and essayist. He won a Noble Prize in Literature Laureate in 1929. His novels are known for their symbolic and ironic insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. He used ideas of the Goethe, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.

Deutsche Post (Post of Germany) issued this 20 German pfennig commemorative stamp of Thomas Mann on 11th August, 1956.

He published his first book of short stories, Der Kleine Friedemann in 1898 and his first novel, Buddenbrooks in 1901. These books earned him international acclaim. More books followed over the years, including a verse-based drama, the novella Death in Venice, and a series of novels depicting the story of Joseph from the Bible.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he moved to the United States, returning to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur, literature written in German by those who opposed or fled the Hitler regime.