The problem of freedom

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The problem of freedom is a speech that Thomas Mann wrote but did not deliver for the 17th International PEN Congress in Stockholm in September 1939.

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First printed in 1939

Thomas Mann, who speaks about democracy , goes back to Plato and describes his book Politeia as a socialist utopia because Plato wants to abolish personal property. Goethe's understanding of democracy is discussed. The old Goethe hopes for human happiness and peace shortly before his death . And Heine is quoted as saying: "We no longer live in the old helmet and armor times of warlike knighthood, but in the peaceful bourgeois era of warm waistbands and under jackets." Civil time is the keyword. Civil time that began in France in 1789 with the call for freedom and equality .

According to Thomas Mann - from a purely logical point of view - freedom and equality are mutually exclusive , because freedom relates to the individual, but equality relates to social issues. Both concepts can, however, be combined naturally with the help of Christian humanity : all people are equal before God. Democracy is the human balance between a logical opposition, the reconciliation of freedom and equality, of individual values ​​and the demands of society .

The speaker turns to the atrocities in recent European history. There are those horrors that may be excusable in retrospect if necessary because at the beginning something like a generous will drove the perpetrators. What is meant are the crimes after 1789 in France and after 1917 in Russia . But Thomas Mann makes it clear that the misdeeds of the German National Socialists are unforgivable. How did that start Why did the ruling bourgeois world in Germany fall victim to National Socialism? Under National Socialism the workers were disenfranchised and the unions destroyed. It looks like the golden age of entrepreneurship has arrived. The so-called National Socialist Revolution , emphasizes Thomas Mann, is the destruction of the foundations of our civilization .

Thomas Mann, under the impression of the attack on Poland that began on September 1, 1939, encourages his audience: We again dare to use words like freedom, truth and justice .

annotation

  • Plato: For the time being, nobody should own anything as their property.
  • Kurzke lectures on Thomas Mann's political essays.

literature

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notes

  1. ↑ There are innumerable editions of this single book
  2. ↑ Contains: Thoughts on the War 1914, About the German Republic 1922, Culture and Socialism 1928, German Speech 1930, Confession to Socialism 1933, Correspondence with Bonn 1936, About the Coming Victory of Democracy 1937, Brother Hitler 1939, The Problem of Freedom 1939, Germany and the Germans 1945, Meine Zeit 1950, address to Hamburg students in 1953