Heinrich Mann

Heinrich Mann (1871-1950) was a German author and the brother of writer Thomas Mann. While his brother was influenced by 19th-century Russian authors and garnered international attention in German literature, Heinrich was considered more of a leftist and a social critic in the spirit of the French Enlightenment. His attacks through articles and radio broadcasts on militarism, nationalism, and rigid social structures led to his exile by the Nazis in 1933. After the death of his father, which left him financially independent through inheritance, he lived in Berlin and France. His first novella was published in 1893. Although he later lived mainly in Italy and France, his works often satirically depicted the social life of the middle class in Imperial Germany, and in others, the sensuality and individuality in Europe at the turn of the century. He converted to Roman Catholicism but maintained a sympathy for Protestantism, secretly supporting the Dutch opposition to Spain. In 1940, after residing in Berlin where he served as the head of poetry at the Academy of Arts, he moved to Los Angeles with the spread of Nazism in Europe, living with the support of his brother. He died in 1950 in California.