Child this time

Kind of this time is the first autobiography by Klaus Mann , which was published in 1932 by Transmare Verlag, Berlin. The book was published in France in 1933 under the title Je suis de mon temps . Child of this time describes the author's childhood and adolescence from 1906 to 1924.

content

The autobiography describes Klaus Mann's early urge to write, his pranks as a teenager in Munich , his encounter with the youth movement of the Wandervögel , the time at various boarding schools and his first dramatic and literary successes. Various drug experiences are described in the work, thoughts about suicide and hints of homosexual tendencies can already be found in this early work. It contains interesting statements about the close relationship with his sister Erika Mann and the problematic one with his father Thomas Mann .

effect

The work was judged differently by contemporary literary critics. While the German reviews were rather derogatory and reviled the book as an immature work by an author favored by the name of the father, the international press judged it more positively. For example, the American translator Samuel Putnam, in addition to the weaknesses of Klaus Mann's so-called “Childhood Book” in his diary , emphasized its importance as a document of German youth during the war, revolution and inflation in Germany. Kind of this time was banned and burned by the National Socialists in 1933 like all of Klaus Mann's writings . Today, the book is an important source for historians and literary researchers to understand the person of Klaus Mann and the Mann family in the context of their time, as the corresponding passages in his second autobiography, the turning point , were considerably more concise.

Literature and source

• Klaus Mann: Child of this time (= Rororo 22703). With an afterword by Uwe Naumann . Extended new edition. Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-499-22703-7 .