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Two of the most important writers in German literature, Thomas Mann (1875-1955) and his older brother Heinrich (1871-1950), grew up in this house at Mengstraße 4 in Lübeck. They lived here until 1893, when the family moved to Munich, following the premature death of their father, Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann (1840-1891). (Thomas finished school in Lübeck before moving to Munich in 1894.) The house was then owned by various people and the Hanseatic city of Lübeck until its virtual destruction by British bombing in March 1942. Only the facade was left standing after 40 percent of Lübeck's Old Town was destroyed. Following reconstruction that left the facade largely in its original state, but with an entirely new interior, the house reopened in 1957. Since 1993, after the city was able to purchase the house, the former Mann residence has housed the Heinrich and Thomas Mann Center - with exhibits, a library, and archives related to the Mann brothers and their literature. Although the house takes its name from Thomas Mann's Nobel Prize-winning novel, Buddenbrooks, there was a time when the people of Lübeck felt that Mann had insulted them and their city with his novel set in Lübeck. - To find out more, see these links (in German) > WEB 1: Buddenbrookhaus - Lübeck - WEB 2: Geschichte des Buddenbrookhaus.

MORE > Thomas Mann (bio, books, links)
MORE > Heinrich Mann (bio, books, links)

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