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 tackle 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.

10/06/2026

The Thomas Mann House is thrilled to present "The Librarians – On Censorship and Book Bans" together with the Los Angeles Public Library this Saturday, on October 11, 2026!
The event starts with a screening of the award-winning documentary THE LIBRARIANS film (2025) following librarians across the United States who resist growing efforts to ban books from schools and public libraries. The screening is followed by a conversation with Kim Snyder, Oscar-nominated and Peabody award-winning filmmaker and director of "The Librarians", John Szabo (John Szabo), the City Librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, Taylor Dwyer (Taylor Dwyer), USC Special Collections Librarian & Nikki High, owner of the independent bookshop Octavia's Bookshelf.

Join us at the library this Saturday & mark you calendars:

🗓️October 11, 2026 at 1.30PM
📍LA Central Library, Downtown LA

👉🏻Find out more + RSVP via the link in our bio!

This program will be translated by a live ASL interpretation from Inclusive Communication Services.

10/02/2026

Welcome to our new Fellow Miriam Meckel! 🤖
Miriam is a professor at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), where her work explores media, communication, and the governance of artificial intelligence. She is co-founder of ada Learning, serves on the board of TX Group, and discusses the business and politics of technology with Handelsblatt editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes on their podcast "Meckel & Matthes".

"Democracy lives on the promise of a common cause, and that promise is under pressure from polarization, disinformation, and what I call 'attention authoritarianism.' During my fellowship, I want to explore how AI, designed responsibly and with democratic guardrails, can help people listen to each other again. Inspired by experiments like vTaiwan and the 'Habermas Machine,' I will bring citizens, tech leaders, and academics together at the Thomas Mann House to debate contested questions, with AI helping to map where common ground emerges. Thomas Mann spoke to his fellow Germans by radio from this very house. I want to find out how today's technology can help democracies speak with rather than past each other."

We're excited to reimagine democracy with you this fall 🍂

09/25/2026

We had the pleasure of hosting the workshop & conversation “After the Fires: Intersectional Approaches to Wildfire Resilience” with our Fellow and Metabolic Studio at their wonderful site “The Moon” last week! Bringing together a diverse group of experts from the fields of climate activism, land tending, wildfire resilience, environmental humanities, and the natural sciences, the gathering highlighted different knowledge sharing systems around fire prevention and the need to inform one another to create new alliances around wildfire resilience and ecological care through active practice, education & new narratives.
Thank you to all participants and Metabolic Studio for making time & space to have this insightful & urgent conversation with us!

photos by Dondo Gar

09/09/2026

Over the last weeks, we had the pleasure of hosting Thomas Mannn Fellow Düzen Tekkal at the House! 🌴

Düzen is a multi-award-winning journalist, human rights activist, political scientist and social entrepreneur. She is the daughter of Kurdish-Yazidi refugees from Turkey who was born and raised in Germany. In 2014 she documented the Yazidi genocide in Iraq as a war journalist and produced three documentary films dealing with this event and its aftermath: “HÁWAR” (2015), “JIYAN”(2020) and “BÊMAL” (2024). She is the founder of the human organization HÁWAR.help and the educational movement .de.

“During my fellowship in want to explore the intersection between democracy and remembrance culture in connection with the Yazidi genocide. I also want to raise the question if the Yazidi experience can teach us how to confront current threats against ethnic/ religious minorities.

By working together with respected scholars of genocide and the social sciences as well as with landmark institutions in the field of remembrance culture, I want to shed light on the Yazidi history and tradition of survival and resilience – and use it as vantage point to elaborate strategies for collective transformation in order to face the contemporary challenges to our societies and democracies – both in Europe and in the United States. For me, to explore these themes, there could be no better place than the Thomas Mann House in the Pacific Palisades – a place that became a refuge for critical minds during times of utmost persecution and terror in the war-torn Europe of the 20th century.“

Thank you for spending time with us during the late summer months, Düzen!

08/21/2026

Welcome to our new Fellow Morgane Llanque! 🌴Morgane is a journalist and writer. Her debut non-fiction book, Diversity: Another History of Humankind (Vielfalt- Eine andere Geschichte der Menschheit), was published in 2025 and received a nomination for the Best Science Book of the Year Award. She studied history, politics and cultural journalism, and was a fellow of both the Catholic School of Journalism and the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Transatlantic Media Fellowship programme. She was also a fellow of the IJP (International Journalists' Programmes) in London. She writes for the magazine of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) and, amongst others, for Die Zeit, taz and Good Impact magazine, in which her column 'Histourism' appears.

“During my fellowship, I want to examine contemporary alliances in the US, including interethnic, queer-feminist, and environmental initiatives relating to the values of the Rainbow Coalition, which was founded by Fred Hampton in 1969. My focus is on intersectional resistance that advocates for a more just society in the US and unites rather than divides.”

We look forward to the rest of summer with you ☀️

08/14/2026

Many thanks to our distinguished speakers and guests for such a lively debate at the Thomas Mann House last night! 2026 Thomas Mann Fellow Grégoire Roos, Director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Programs at Chatham House London, explored how cities can become engines of innovation, resilience and cooperation in an era marked by both growing interdependence and renewed geopolitical rivalry. The conversation featured Professor Stephanie Pincetl, founding Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA, Erin Bromaghim, Chief of Staff to LA City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, and was moderated by Jonathan Blake, Director of the Planetary Program at the Berggruen Institute.

Geopolitical competition around the globe has returned, yet many of the defining challenges of our time—from climate change and resource scarcity to artificial intelligence and technological disruption—transcend national borders and political systems alike. Cities increasingly find themselves at the centre of this new reality: As hubs of scientific research, technological innovation, investment, culture and civic experimentation, they are often where planetary challenges are experienced most directly and where new solutions are first developed. How can new transatlantic urban partnerships be built—and what role can Los Angeles, Berlin, and other global cities play in shaping them?

08/13/2026

"The next time you measure the success and vibrancy of a democracy, don’t be satisfied by large election votes, huge rallies and protests, impressive leaders’ speeches, or exemplary founding documents. Examine its true balance sheet, its Life Ledger. How long can its citizens expect to live?"

On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of independence in the United States, renowned sociologist Sanyu A. Mojola (Princeton University) revisits the Declaration of Independence and its promise to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens. She examines how public policies shape life expectancy and produce profound inequalities across neighborhoods, cities, and nations. Mojola asks us to judge a democracy not only by its elections, rally sizes or political rhetoric, but by a simple question: "How long can its citizens expect to live?”

▶️Find the full speech via our link in bio!

Sanyu A. Mojola is Maurice P. During Professor of Demographic Studies, and Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She is a leading scholar of health inequality, demography, and public policy, and the author of "Death by Design: Producing Racial Health Inequality in the Shadow of the Capitol.”

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

07/31/2026

▶️ Folge Zwölf der Thomas Mann BBC-Reden
📻 Charlotte Knobloch kommentiert Thomas Mann Ansprache von Mai 1945, in der die Kapitulation Deutschlands und das Ende des Krieges behandelt wird. Thomas Mann bringt dabei noch einmal die Enttäuschung über die nicht erfolgte Selbstbefreiung vom NS-Regime zum Ausdruck. Er prophezeit schwere Jahre, die bevorstehen, betont aber auch, dass der Sieg über die Nationalsozialisten eine Rückkehr zur Menschlichkeit für Deutschland bedeuten kann.
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.
📸 Charlotte Knobloch: Daniel Schvarcz
📸 Thomas Mann: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Thomas-Mann-Archiv, TMA_1504
📸 Visual Charlotte Knobloch & Deutschland, höre: Studio Pandan ()

▶️ Episode Twelve of Thomas Mann’s BBC Broadcasts
📻 Charlotte Knobloch comments on Thomas Mann's speech from May 1945, which deals with Germany's surrender and the end of the war. Thomas Mann once again expresses his disappointment at the failure to liberate themselves from the N**i regime. He predicts difficult years ahead but also emphasises that victory over the N**is could mean a return to humanity for Germany.
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.

07/17/2026

Last night, Thomas Mann Fellow and Ukrainian writer Margaryta Surzhenko hosted an intimate literary and musical evening: the program, titled “Breaking the Silence,” combined readings from previously unpublished work by Surzhenko about the ongoing war in Ukraine with original music by composer and pianist Luis RosaLebron, joined by violinist Andrew Krastins. Together, they reflected on war, memory, displacement, and the search for a voice after trauma. RosaLebron performed on Thomas Mann’s historic Faustus piano, connecting past and present experiences of exile through the healing power of literature and music.

Many thanks to our guests for a meaningful Q&A and exchange after the program.

literature

07/10/2026

How does religion shape societies? And does religious affiliation decline? What role does religion play in democracies today? Last night at the Thomas Mann House, 2026 Thomas Mann Fellow & theologian Michael Seewald (University of Munich) and sociologist Sanyu A. Mojola (Princeton University) explored the paradoxical role of religion in contemporary society. Their conversation examined why religion remains a powerful political tool and discussed its influence on democracy, social inequality, the health sector, public life, and social change.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for an engaging evening of interdisciplinary dialogue and thoughtful discussion at the Thomas Mann House.

Sanyu A. Mojola is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs and the Maurice P. During Professor of Demographic Studies at Princeton University. She has held numerous fellowships, including at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. In 2016, she received the Distinguished Scholarly Book Award (Best Book of the Year) of the American Sociological Association. Her most recent book is entitled “Death by Design: Producing Racial Health Inequality in the Shadow of the Capitol” (University of California Press, 2025).

Michael Seewald holds the Chair of Dogmatics and the History of Dogma at the University of Munich, and is a Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin. His books have been translated into 11 languages. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, one of the most prestigious and highest-endowed research awards worldwide. His most recent book is entitled “Theories of Doctrinal Development in the Catholic Church” (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Seewald is a 2026 Fellow at the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.

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