My unwritten memoirs

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My unwritten memoir is an autobiographical account of the life of Katia Mann , published in 1974 by S. Fischer Verlag . It relates very strongly to the life of her husband Thomas Mann and is based on oral reports by Katia Mann, which were compiled by Elisabeth Plessen and Michael Mann and supplemented by biographical statements by Erika and Golo Mann .

The presentation largely preserves the oral character; so is z. B. a passage reproduced as a dialogue between Katja and her son Golo. In particular, Katia Mann does not try to paint a coherent picture of the life of Thomas Mann or of her own life. Rather, she reports in many anecdotes and assessments of people around her and tries to supplement the picture of Thomas Mann and his family life with her view, as it has been disseminated to the public through biographical representations.

Particularly noteworthy are the description of her family and the relationship between Thomas Mann and her parents, Alfred Pringsheim and Hedwig Pringsheim , as well as her assessment of their personal influence on his work. She reports that she made the remark that the bleeding of an acquaintance, who saw it as a recurrence of her period, was due to cancer. Thomas Mann was so preoccupied with it that he wrote the story Die Betrogene .

Another notable anecdote is that the Nazi government forced passenger planes that were flying over Germany to fly so low that the people on the plane could be identified. A man was mistaken for Thomas Mann and was therefore shot from the outside through the window.

expenditure