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 pays tribute to this outstanding personality and offers a central platform for worldwide celebrations and critical reflections on Mann's literary and political legacy. All Thomas Mann Houses worldwide are celebrating 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 6 June 1875 and which he later described as his "heartland of the North", is dedicating a wide-ranging anniversary program to the great writer and cosmopolitan. At its heart is an exhibition that traces Thomas Mann's political emancipation from reactionary to democrat. The exhibition is highly topical and presents Thomas Mann's political commitment in his life and work in a multimedia format, including a graphic novel and audio stations. In addition to the exhibition, the birthday will be celebrated throughout the city: Panel discussions, readings and a specialist conference are dedicated to Thomas Mann and do not spare critical facets such as Mann's anti-Semitic, sexist and racist tendencies. Literary city walks will follow the biographical and literary traces through the old town and a radio play on the life and work of the writer will be produced for a young audience.
Exhibition view "My time" Buddenbrookhaus © Leevke Draak
An exhibition with current relevance: focus on political emancipation
In "My Time. Thomas Mann and Democracy", the Buddenbrookhaus tells the story of Thomas Mann's political transformation and his commitment to democracy. Thomas Mann himself has his say in the exhibition: his original voice, handed down in countless articles, essays, diary entries, speeches, interviews, radio reports, etc., provides the narrative thread for the show. Large exhibits, from Thomas Mann's school magazine Frühlingssturm to the Volksempfänger, stage Thomas Mann's written and spoken word. In this way, the text - to which Thomas Mann owes his fame in its many forms even 70 years after his death - becomes the most important object in the exhibition.
The focus is on his famous speech My Time, which Thomas Mann delivered in Chicago in 1950 and 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 conservative loyal to the rich to a rational republican to a convinced democrat.
The exhibition also builds a bridge to the present day, for example when Thomas Mann's speeches in defense of the Republic from the 1920s are contrasted with political speeches of our time in an audio station, and invites visitors to get involved themselves. In interactive modules, they can write an open letter, take part in surveys or cast a vote and thus question their own democratic actions. In addition, participatory exhibition modules incorporate works by Lübeck schoolchildren and their engagement with Thomas Mann and democracy, for example as a political podcast based on 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 our view. His warning not to fall for the easy answers and populist seducers remains as valid as ever. The republic is in our hands, in the hands of each individual, said Thomas Mann in 1922. Democracy needs us all or it will fail. That 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 literature, from Buddenbrooks to Doctor Faustus, forms the transition between the individual sections of the exhibition: graphic novels created especially for the exhibition by comic artist Jan Soeken stage selected literary scenes that emphasize the political content of Thomas Mann's literary texts. The biography is also included in the exhibition: In photo albums to leaf 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
The Buddenbrookhaus has developed various event formats for the anniversary year. Here is a brief insight:
"Man of Four. The great stories"
A 'literary quartet' with changing guests discusses Thomas Mann's four most famous stories in public. All events will be moderated by Katrin Krämer (Radio Bremen Zwei). All evenings will be accompanied by music from the Lübeck University of Music to match the texts.
"Texts of an apolitical man? Thomas Mann's novels"
In an intimate atmosphere, two alternating celebrities will speak on three evenings about a selected novel by Thomas Mann, paying particular attention to its political content. Actors and actresses will stage the respective novel.
"Long debut night"
With "Buddenbrooks", Thomas Mann wrote one of the most successful debuts in literary history. Following in this tradition, contemporary first novels will be presented by their authors on two 'Debut Nights' in Lübeck, staged with contemporary music and discussed by the audience.
"Leaps in time - points of view"
A panel format of the Buddenbrookhaus in cooperation with the German Thomas Mann Society, the Heinrich Mann Society and the Friends of the Buddenbrookhaus e.V. A selected text by Heinrich or Thomas Mann becomes the occasion for discussion and a hook to take a fresh look at a current topic. The panel is made up of two high-caliber guests from public life and a moderator.
"Death! Death! Kill everything!" - Violence and society (Literary text: Heinrich Mann, "The Youth of King Henri Quatre", moderation: Prof. Dr. Thomas Wortmann)
November 13, 2025
"Democracy will win"
The actor Mark Waschke reads and performs Thomas Mann's diaries with a special focus on 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
