Gespenster von 1938: – Thomas Mann, die Demokratie und der Zionismus

Few political events shook Thomas Mann as much as the Munich Agreement of 1938. In front of tens of thousands of people in New York’s Madison Square Garden, he raised his voice against the attempt to curb Hitler’s expansionist ambitions through Western appeasement and the surrender of Czechoslovakia. Despite such powerful interventions, Mann was rarely taken seriously as a political intellectual, unless he was rejected outright. The reasons for this go deep into the history of (West) German mentality after 1945.

It is time to correct this perception and honour an author who stood up for freedom and democracy with determination, resistance and often at personal risk. This is also and especially evident in his opposition to anti-Semitism, in his differentiated confrontation with political and cultural Zionism - at times linked to the vision of a harmonious and co-operative coexistence of Jewish and Arab populations - and in his clear rejection of any form of ‘appeasement’ towards anti-democratic and fascist forces.