For the third time, the town of Bad Tölz is honoring its famous summer visitor with a festival. From 1909 to 1917, Thomas Mann owned a country house on the outskirts of the town with a view of the Alps.
It has been preserved almost in its original state to this day - as the only home of the Manns in the German-speaking world. The town is organizing this festival from 1 to 7 June to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth. Renowned academics and artists are coming to the Bavarian spa town on the theme of "Exile": The Vice President of the German Thomas Mann Society, Prof. Friedhelm Marx, will shed light on the Nobel Prize winner's trip to Germany in 1949 in his lecture, while Stefan Hunstein and August Zirner will read from the correspondence between Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig.
The exhibition Architects in Exile at the City Museum compares the Mann houses in Bad Tölz and Los Angeles. Dr. Diek Heißerer, director of the Munich Thomas Mann Forum, will lead a literary walk to the houses of Mann's friends in Munich. Dr. Magali Nieradka-Steiner will report on the exile in the south of France in her lecture. Music was Thomas Mann's great passion. That is why two internationally renowned string quartets will be playing at the Kurhaus in Tölz: the American Abeo Quartet and the Prague Zemlinsky Quartet.
June 1 to 7, 2025
