Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann

Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann
Personal details
Born	18 November 1906 Munich, Germany
Died	21 May 1949 Cannes, France
Nativity	Great Britain
Known for	Novelist
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Rank	Staff Sergeant

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Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann (18 November 1906 – 21 May 1949) was a German-born writer and anti-fascist activist who trained at Camp Ritchie in 1943, served as a staff sergeant in psychological warfare with the 1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company and the Fifth Army in Italy, and is best known for his 1936 novel Mephisto. He was the son of Thomas Mann, a nephew of Heinrich Mann, and the brother of Erika Mann and Golo Mann.

Biography

Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann was born on 18 November 1906 in Munich, the son of the writer Thomas Mann and Katia Pringsheim; his father had been baptized a Lutheran, and his mother came from a family of secular Jews. He described a romantic childhood in upper-class surroundings, but his homosexuality complicated his early adulthood and his relationship with his father. He began writing short stories in 1924, became drama critic for a Berlin newspaper the following year, and published his first works in 1925; his first novel, Der fromme Tanz (1926), is set openly in Berlin's gay milieu. In 1924 he became engaged to his childhood friend Pamela Wedekind, daughter of the playwright Frank Wedekind, but the engagement was broken off in January 1928. In 1927 he traveled around the world with his sister Erika, with whom he kept a lifelong close relationship, and they described the journey in the travelogue Rundherum (1929). From young adulthood he used opiates, to which he became heavily addicted, and he later underwent detoxification in Budapest and at the Kilchberg sanatorium in Switzerland.

In 1932 Mann wrote the first part of his autobiography. In 1933 he took part with Erika in the anti-Hitler political cabaret Die Pfeffermühle and, to escape prosecution, left Germany in March 1933 for Paris, later spending time in Amsterdam and Switzerland. With Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Fritz Landshoff, and the Dutch publisher Emanuel Querido he founded the exile literary magazine Die Sammlung in Amsterdam in September 1933 and edited it until it closed in 1935. The Nazi regime stripped him of German citizenship in November 1934, and he became a Czechoslovak citizen. His novel Mephisto (1936), first published in Amsterdam, portrays an actor who sells his soul by tying his career to the rise of the Nazis; its protagonist was modeled on his former brother-in-law, the actor Gustaf Gründgens, and the book was long banned in West Germany on personality-rights grounds. It was later adapted for the stage by Ariane Mnouchkine and filmed in 1981 by István Szabó, starring Klaus Maria Brandauer.

Mann moved to the United States in 1936, living in Princeton, New Jersey, and New York; he arrived in Hollywood on 20 December 1937 but returned to Europe, to Spain, in June 1938. His novel Der Vulkan (1939) portrayed European exiles, and Escape to Life, written with Erika, sought to unite German intellectuals against Nazism. In 1940 he founded the exile magazine Decision while living at February House in Brooklyn, where his housemates included W. H. Auden and Carson McCullers, and he later moved to his father's house in Pacific Palisades when he could no longer support himself.

Mann entered Camp Ritchie on 5 April 1943 and was assigned to the 1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company as a staff sergeant. His naturalization, delayed by an FBI investigation into his political and personal life, was completed at Camp Crowder on 25 September 1943. In his autobiography The Turning Point he criticized the segregation of Black soldiers he observed at Camp Ritchie. On 11 February 1944 he sailed for Italy, where he was assigned to the Fifth Army's Psychological Warfare Branch and also served with British forces, designing leaflets aimed at German soldiers and taking part in difficult interrogations of German prisoners, including SS officers. In summer 1945 he was sent to Germany and reported for Stars and Stripes; visiting liberated concentration camps in an official capacity, he was among the first eyewitnesses to report on the Nazi mass murders.

Mann died in Cannes, France, on 21 May 1949 of an overdose of sleeping pills. His death is generally described as suicide, linked to financial pressures, addiction, and his treatment in the United States as a gay man and alleged communist, although his biographer Frederic Spotts argued it may have been accidental. He was buried in Cannes at the Cimetière du Grand Jas. His books Escape to Life and The Turning Point remain frequently cited records of the German intellectual exile.

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Technical record

Field	Imported value
MRBC1	1
Approx Age at Death	43
row_source	demographics

Timeline

• Born 18 November 1906 in Germany, son of Thomas and Katia Mann (Jewish).
• 1925 — First literary works published; drama critic for a Berlin newspaper.
• March 1933 — Moved to Paris.
• September 1933 — Founded Die Sammlung in Amsterdam (editor until 1935).
• November 1934 — Stripped of German citizenship; became a Czech citizen.
• 1936 — Published Mephisto; moved to the United States.
• 20 December 1937 — Arrived in Hollywood, but in June 1938, returned to Europe (Spain).
• 1939 — Published Der Vulkan.
• 1940 — Founded the magazine Decision.
• 5 April 1943 — Entered Camp Ritchie and assigned to MRBC1 as S/Sgt.
• 25 September 1943 — Naturalized as U.S. citizen at Camp Crowder.
• 11 February 1944 — Sailed to Sicily, assigned to Fifth Army Psychological Warfare Branch.
• Summer 1945 — Reported from Germany for Stars and Stripes.
• 21 May 1949 — Died in Cannes, France of sleeping pill overdose.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Klaus Mann
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Mann, Klaus for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Mann, Klaus for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: KLAUS MANN.doc)