Thomas Mann House

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Thomas Mann House

Residency center and space for transatlantic debate | Los Angeles, Berlin The Thomas Mann House is a residency center owned by the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles aims to create a vibrant transatlantic space for debate, where outstanding personalities, in dialogue with each other and the host country, address fundamental contemporary and future issues related to politics, society, and culture. The Thomas Mann Fellowships enable academics, pioneering thinkers, and intellectuals who live, or have lived, in Germany to tackl

e the pressing challenges of our time and to foster the intellectual and cultural exchange between Germany and the United States. The interdisciplinary program of the Thomas Mann House owes much to the spirit of Thomas Mann. During his time in the United States, the writer, in his literary works, lectures and essays, extensively dealt with issues such as the roots of fascism, democratic renewal, freedom, migration, and exile. Following in the tradition of Thomas Mann’s radio broadcasts to “German Listeners!,” the Thomas Mann House, as a central element of its activities, focuses on the big issues of our time. The Thomas Mann House builds on the socio-political work of the Nobel Laureate in Literature. It brings together German and American interlocutors from different disciplines, intellectual and artistic traditions, and political backgrounds. Fellowships and events facilitate encounters and intellectual exchange. Various media formats make heard important voices from Germany and the United States and bring them into an open dialogue with the wider public. The Thomas Mann House takes into account the diversity of the German immigrant nation. Its program also includes positions from the Pacific region and Latin America in particular. Via lecture tours, workshops, and symposia, as well as radio broadcasts and digital media, it is to radiate out from Pacific Palisades across the United States and to Germany. Part of the cultural, academic, and political networks in Southern California, the Thomas Mann House provides important inspiration and ideas for German-American relations.

06/06/2026

Today, we celebrate Thomas Mann’s 151st birthday! Exactly one year after the re-opening of the Thomas Mann House, we are excited to host our sister institution on the occasion of the launch of a critically acclaimed edited volume marking the Villa's 30th anniversary.

We would like to dedicate this birthday post to the relationship between Lion Feuchtwanger and Thomas Mann: From their early days in the Munich literary scene to exile in Sanary-sur-Mer and later Los Angeles, the friendship between Thomas Mann and Lion Feuchtwanger was shaped by displacement, literature, and a shared fight against fascism. Both of their books were burned by the N***s in 1933, and years later, they found themselves reading manuscripts to each other in the hills above the Pacific. At what is now Villa Aurora, the Feuchtwangers created a refuge for artists and exiles, a place Mann once called “a veritable castle by the sea.” Even after the Manns left the United States again, both writers mourned the loss of those evenings of conversation, literature, and friendship. As Thomas Mann once wrote in a letter to Feuchtwanger: “As you’ve probably noticed, I am fond of you.”

Today, we remember and celebrate two important literary voices, a friendship in exile, and their former homes that are now Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House!

If you’d like to learn more about Lion & Marta Feuchtwanger, we recommend the new Villa Aurora book, edited by Claudia Gordon and Jakob Scherer, out via .

Quote: Letter from Thomas Mann to Lion Feuchtwanger, August 6, 1951, in Lion Feuchtwanger: Briefwechsel mit Freunden, edited by Harold von Hofe, Aufbau Verlag 1991.

Images:

Feuchtwanger: © Ulrich Strauss
Mann: ETH Library Zurich, Thomas Mann Archive
Villa Aurora 2026 © Mike Kelley
Villa Aurora (archive)

06/05/2026

Our recording of the conversation between Krista Tippett, author and award–winning host of the renowned podcast , and Navid Kermani, one of Germany’s most acclaimed writers, hosted by the is finally online! The event titled "Search of a Common Cause" featured the two renowned thinkers discussing literature, politics, and spirituality in a free and open exchange that touched on what it means to be a writer in a polarized world, how the concept of “the West” is changing, and how literature, poetry, and religion can foster solidarity in a fractured world.

🔗▶️ Find the full conversation via our bio!

The event was organized by the Thomas Mann House & the Los Angeles Public Library, and filmed on January 11, 2026 in the LAPL's beautiful Mark Taper Auditorium.

05/22/2026

▶️ Folge Neun der Thomas Mann BBC-Reden

📻 Michel Friedman kommentiert Thomas Manns Radioansprache von Januar 1945, in der Mann schonungslos die Tötungspraktiken der kurz zuvor entdeckten und befreiten Konzentrationslagern Ausschwitz und Majdanek schildert. Um die Glaubwürdigkeit zu untermauen, nennt er Quellen und Fakten seiner Argumente. Die Verbrechen seien zu groß, als dass die deutsche Zivilgesellschaft keine Schuld tragen würde.

Zum 150. Geburtstag Thomas Manns wurden die BBC-Radioansprachen von der Schauspielerin Sandra Hüller neu eingesprochen. Vierzehn herausragende zeitgenössische Stimmen aus Politik, Wissenschaft und Kultur kommentieren diese, treten mit Manns Texten in einen Dialog und diskutieren ihre heutige Relevanz.
Die Folgen sind auf unserer Website in voller Länger zu hören. Link in Bio.

📸 Michel Friedmann: Nicci Kuhn
📸 Thomas Mann auf der Terrasse in Pacific Palisades, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, TMA_3060
📸 Visual Deutschland, höre: Studio Pandan ()

▶️ Episode Nine of Thomas Mann’s BBC Broadcasts

📻 Michel Friedman comments on Thomas Mann’s radio address from January 1945, in which Mann relentlessly describes the killing practices of the Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps, which had been discovered and liberated shortly before. To underpin his credibility, he cites sources and facts to support his arguments. The crimes are too great for German civil society not to bear any guilt.

Thomas Mann’s BBC broadcasts from 1940 to 1945 are a unique testament of resistance against the N**i regime — and at the same time a powerful appeal to humanism, democracy, and responsibility. To mark the 150th anniversary of Thomas Mann’s birth, the BBC radio addresses have been newly recorded by actress Sandra Hüller. Thirteen outstanding contemporary voices from politics, scholarship, and culture comment on them, enter a dialogue with Mann’s texts, and discuss their relevance today.

The episodes can be heard in full length on our website. Link in Bio.

germanlisteners democracy radio

05/15/2026

We are thrilled to welcome our new Fellow Patricia Hein! ☀️
Patricia is an Assistant Professor of Sustainability at the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, and focuses on the question of how inequality exists in organizations and how it can be overcome. Her research challenges us to look at inequality from an unexpected angle: through the eyes of wealthy individuals who advocate for taxing themselves more.

Patricia's fellowship project explores what happens when millionaires lobby for higher taxes on themselves, the contradictions they navigate, the elite circles they move through, and what motivates them: “Questions surrounding growing wealth disparities are at the center of contemporary public debate. My goal is to explore the diversity, tensions, and contradictions within elite circles, and to understand why and how some individuals seek to use their privilege to pursue positive social change, and what outcomes this has.”

Her interviewees include members of Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity, and Tax Me Now. We are excited to have you at the House and look forward to your findings, Patricia!🌴

05/07/2026

💭 “Thomas Mann warned American audiences that fascism was a mortal threat the democracies would have to resist. We can almost envy him the clarity of his task for today's threat is harder to see. It's coming from inside our own house. It's something we Americans are doing to ourselves. Authoritarianism in the 21st century is different from the fascist and communist versions. Political scientists have tried to find a new term for it: Illberal democracy, competitive authoritarianism, right-wing populism.”

In his address, the award-winning journalist and author George Packer examines the characteristics of modern authoritarian states.

🔗Link to the full video in our bio!

George Packer is an author, journalist, and staff writer at The Atlantic. He has written many books, including "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America" (winner of the National Book Award) and, most recently, "The Emergency" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025).

The series is presented by the Thomas Mann House in cooperation with and the .

05/05/2026

A warm welcome to our Fellow Hila Amit! 🌞 Amit studied Creative Writing at Tel Aviv University and holds a PhD in Gender Studies from SOAS, University of London. She is an author and essayist whose work explores q***rness, gender, sexuality, and the political situation in Israel/Palestine.

During her fellowship, Amit explores notions of a "Jewish homeland" in the face of anti-democratic processes in Israel and global Anti-Semitism. Drawing on concepts from q***r theory—such as weak resistance, vulnerability, pessimism, and failure—she approaches these narratives as sites for rethinking resistance to state power.

"In the US, I am interviewing q***r American anti-Zionist Jews, engaging them in conversations about Jewish dissent, belonging, and the idea of a Jewish homeland. The project takes the form of a contemporary oral history, documenting the lives, political trajectories, and personal reckonings of q***r anti-Zionist Jews in the aftermath of October 7. It explores quieter, more ambivalent forms of refusal, asking what it might mean to inhabit dissent as an ongoing, unresolved condition."

05/01/2026

▶️ Folge Acht der Thomas Mann BBC-Reden

📻 Susan Neiman kommentiert Thomas Manns Ansprache von Mai 1944, in der er den Behauptungen der NS-Presse, der Sieg der Alliierten würde zur Versklavung des deutschen Volkes führen widerspricht. Stattdessen sei ein freies und demokratisches Europa und Deutschland das wichtigste Kriegsziel der Alliierten.

Zum 150. Geburtstag Thomas Manns wurden die BBC-Radioansprachen von der Schauspielerin Sandra Hüller neu eingesprochen. Vierzehn herausragende zeitgenössische Stimmen aus Politik, Wissenschaft und Kultur kommentieren diese, treten mit Manns Texten in einen Dialog und diskutieren ihre heutige Relevanz.
Die Folgen sind auf unserer Website in voller Länger zu hören. Link in Bio.

📸 Susan Neiman: James Starrt
📸 Thomas Mann: Auf der Terrasse in Pacific Palisades, ca. 1944, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Thomas-Mann-Archiv, TMA_3058
📸 Visual Deutschland, höre: Studio Pandan ()

▶️ Episode Eight of Thomas Mann’s BBC Broadcasts

📻 Susan Neiman comments on Thomas Mann’s speech from May 1944, in which he contradicts the N**i press’ claims that an Allied victory would lead to the enslavement of the German people. Instead, he argues that a free and democratic Europe and Germany are the Allies‘ most important war aims.

Thomas Mann’s BBC broadcasts from 1940 to 1945 are a unique testament of resistance against the N**i regime — and at the same time a powerful appeal to humanism, democracy, and responsibility. To mark the 150th anniversary of Thomas Mann’s birth, the BBC radio addresses have been newly recorded by actress Sandra Hüller. Thirteen outstanding contemporary voices from politics, scholarship, and culture comment on them, enter a dialogue with Mann’s texts, and discuss their relevance today.

The episodes can be heard in full length on our website. Link in Bio.

04/24/2026

Welcome to our new Thomas Mann Fellow, theologian Michael Seewald! 🌴 Since 2017, he has held the Chair of Dogmatics and History of Dogma at the University of Münster, and since 2024, he has been a Permanent Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. In 2025, he received the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for his work in dogmatics. In the summer of this year, he will take up a chair in dogmatic theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at LMU.

During his fellowship, Michael examines the changing attitude of U.S. American Catholicism towards a liberal social order. "In his novel 'Doctor Faustus,' Thomas Mann considered the significance of religion for culture, art, and society. I am looking forward to examining the relationship between the Catholic Church and a liberal societal order in the very house where 'Doctor Faustus' was written.”

04/23/2026

German writer, musician, and DJ Thomas Meinecke () joined Lauren Goshinski (), Director of non-profit radio for an evening of transatlantic musical resonances: the experienced DJs and radio hosts led us through an evening full of music, literature, and transatlantic resonances: from the Odenwald to Chicago, from techno to yodeling, and from 18th century German migration to Texas to q***r club culture. Guests were invited to bring their own records and discuss them with the hosts. Stay tuned for the upcoming podcast of the event! The evening was a collaboration with the & .

04/20/2026

🗓️Join our 2023 Thomas Mann Fellow, author Carolin Görgen () at the this Thursday to discuss her new book about the "California Camera Club", a San Francisco–based photographic association that emerged as the largest organization of its kind in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. The club played a decisive role in advancing the careers of Ansel Adams and other famous American photographers, and its most significant legacy lies in fostering collaborative outdoor practices. In telling the story of these largely unknown photographers, Carolin Görgen offers a new perspective on American photography, and how the popular image of California & the American West came to be.

⏰April 23, 6.30-7.30pm
📍Central Library Art Department
🔗Link in our bio!

"The California Camera Club" was partially researched and written during Carolin's 2023 residency at the Thomas Mann House during which she explored an extensive archive of Western American photographers from an environmental perspective. The project focused on the historical and contemporary role of photographers by challenging the common image of the lone artist/explorer in seemingly untouched nature. It considered photographic work against the backdrop of ongoing conflicts over expansion, indigenous dispossession, and violent transformation of the landscape.

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1550 N San Remo Drive
Los Angeles, CA
90272

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http://www.vatmh.org/

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