Overview

• Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier honored Thomas Mann at a Lübeck Festakt, invoking his 1938 warning that democracy must be actively defended.
• The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades reopened on June 6 after surviving early-2025 wildfires, resuming its role as a transatlantic cultural meeting place.
• The Buddenbrookhaus in Lübeck unveiled the “Meine Zeit. Thomas Mann und die Demokratie” exhibition to explore his evolution from monarchist to democratic champion.
• Mann’s World War II radio broadcasts to Germany under the title “Deutsche Hörer!” and his outspoken critiques of Hitler continue to shape his legacy as both writer and activist.
• A newly released biography by Tilmann Lahme examines Mann’s suppressed homosexuality and its profound influence on his personal life and work.