Paul Thomas Mann was born on 6 June 1875 in Lübeck, an old Hanseatic city, as the second son of Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann, owner of an established grain business and one of the city’s most respected citizens, and Julia Mann, née da Silva-Bruhns, a beautiful, artistically inclined woman of German and South American origins. He was the second of five children. The eldest, Heinrich (1871-1950), became a writer; Julia (1877-1927) committed suicide after an unhappy life; Carla (1881-1910) ended her life after an unsuccessful attempt to give up her bohemian existence; the youngest, Viktor (1890-1949), became a banker. Thomas Mann grew up in a world that expected him to enter a mercantile career. But his interests were, like his mother’s, of artistic nature. He learned to play the violin…
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Citation: Mundt, Hannelore G.. "Thomas Mann". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2919, accessed 21 November 2024.]
