In 2025, we celebrate the 150th birthday of Thomas Mann, one of the most influential German writers of the 20th century. MANN 2025: 150 YEARS OF THOMAS MANN honors this outstanding figure and provides a central platform for global celebrations and critical reflections on Mann's literary and political legacy. All Thomas Mann Houses worldwide will commemorate this anniversary together.
Lübeck is celebrating the birthday of the city's most famous son: 150 years of Thomas Mann. The Hanseatic city, where the writer was born on June 6, 1875, and which he later described as his "heart's home in the north," is dedicating a wide-ranging anniversary program to the great author and cosmopolitan. At its center is an exhibition that traces Thomas Mann's political emancipation from reactionary to democrat. The show is highly topical and presents Thomas Mann's political engagement in his life and work in multimedia formats, including a graphic novel and audio stations. Beyond the exhibition, the birthday will be celebrated throughout the city: panel discussions, readings, and a conference will be dedicated to Thomas Mann, also addressing critical aspects such as Mann's anti-Semitic, sexist, and racist tendencies. Literary city walks will follow biographical and literary traces through the old town, and a radio play on the writer's life and work will be produced for a young audience.
Exhibition view “My Time” Buddenbrookhaus © Leevke Draak
An exhibition with a current relevance: Political emancipation in focus
In "My Time. Thomas Mann and Democracy," the Buddenbrookhaus tells the story of Thomas Mann's political transformation and his democratic commitment. Thomas Mann himself speaks in the exhibition: His original voice, handed down in countless articles, essays, diary entries, speeches, interviews, radio broadcasts, etc., provides the show's narrative thread. Large-scale exhibits, from Thomas Mann's school newspaper, "Frühlingssturm" (Spring Storm) to the Volksempfänger (People's Radio), showcase Thomas Mann's written and spoken word. Thus, the text—to which Thomas Mann owes his fame in its many forms, even 70 years after his death—becomes the most important object of the exhibition.
The focus is on his famous speech "My Time," which Thomas Mann delivered in Chicago in 1950, in which he clearly rejects any "total state" and any "dogmatic dictatorship." The text marks a high point in Thomas Mann's political development from a loyal conservative to a rational republican to a committed democrat.
The exhibition also builds a bridge to the present, for example, when Thomas Mann's speeches in defense of the republic from the 1920s are contrasted with political speeches of our time in a listening station, and invites visitors to get involved. In interactive modules, they can contribute to an open letter, participate in surveys, or cast a vote, thus questioning their own democratic actions. Furthermore, participatory exhibition modules include works by Lübeck schoolchildren and their engagement with Thomas Mann and democracy, for example, a political podcast inspired by Thomas Mann's famous BBC speeches.
Thomas Mann at his desk, ETH Library Zurich, Thomas Mann Archive, photo unknown
"My time is our time. Looking at the current crisis of democracy with Thomas Mann sharpens one's perspective. His warning not to fall for easy answers and populist seducers remains true. The republic is placed in our hands, in the hands of each individual, Thomas Mann said in 1922. Democracy needs all of us, or it will fail. This is as true today as it was a hundred years ago." Dr. Caren Heuer, Director of the Buddenbrookhaus
The fact that Thomas Mann always reflected his political stance in literary form, from Buddenbrooks to Doctor Faustus, forms the transition between the individual exhibition sections: Graphic novels, created especially for the exhibition by comic artist Jan Soeken, stage selected literary scenes that highlight the political content of Thomas Mann's literary texts. His biography is also included in the exhibition: In photo albums to browse through, Thomas Mann tells his life story, from his childhood in Lübeck to his marriage to Katia Pringsheim and the awarding of the Nobel Prize to his appointment as an honorary citizen of Lübeck.
June 6, 2025 to January 18, 2026
https://buddenbrookhaus.de
Exhibition view “My Time” Buddenbrookhaus © Leevke Draak
For the anniversary year, the Buddenbrookhaus has developed various event formats. Here's a brief overview:
"Man to Four. The Great Stories"
A 'Literary Quartet' with a changing cast of guests will hold a public discussion about Thomas Mann's four most famous stories. All events will be moderated by Katrin Krämer (Radio Bremen Zwei). All evenings will feature musical accompaniment to the texts from the Lübeck University of Music.
"Texts of an Apolitical Man? Thomas Mann's Novels"
In an intimate atmosphere, two different celebrities will speak on three evenings about a selected novel by Thomas Mann, with particular emphasis on its political content. Actors and actresses will accompany the presentations.
“Long debut night”
With "Buddenbrooks," Thomas Mann wrote one of the most successful debut novels in literary history. Following this tradition, contemporary first novels will be presented by their authors on two "debut nights" in Lübeck, accompanied by contemporary music, and discussed by the audience.
“Time Leaps – Viewpoints”
A panel format organized by Buddenbrookhaus in cooperation with the German Thomas Mann Society, the Heinrich Mann Society, and the Buddenbrookhaus Friends' Association. A selected text by Heinrich or Thomas Mann will serve as a starting point for discussion and a starting point for re-examining a current topic. The panel will feature two distinguished guests from public life and a moderator.
"Death! Death! Kill everything!" – Violence and Society (Literary text: Heinrich Mann, "The Youth of King Henri Quatre," moderated by Prof. Dr. Thomas Wortmann)
November 13, 2025
“Democracy will win”
The actor Mark Waschke reads and performs Thomas Mann's diaries with special attention to their political content.
September 27, 2025, Theater Lübeck, Beckergrube 16, 23552 Lübeck
„>Repräsentatives Dasein<.
Inszenierung und Selbstdarstellung –Autorinnen und Autoren in der Öffentlichkeit“
November 2025, wissenschaftliche Nachwuchstagung, Lübeck
