By JEANNE SMITH
An internationally recognized authority on Thomas Mann, the German writer who in 1942-45 was a consultant to the Library, lectured March 25 on "The Tragic German Patriot: Thomas Mann's American Years" in LC's Mumford Room.
The occasion was the fourth in the Carl Schurz lecture series, established in 1989 in cooperation with the German- American Cultural Fund of Washington, to honor the German-born Schurz (1829-1906), author, journalist and abolitionist who served as a senator, Cabinet member, Union Army general and ambassador.
As early as 1942 exiled German novelist Thomas Mann spoke out against the Nazi death camps as he struggled to reconcile his love for his native land with his hatred for the evil it was doing, according to Hans Rudolf Vaget of the Smith College faculty.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington opened the 1994 event and told the audience that the Library's German-language collections, which comprise more than 2.25 million volumes, include approximately 1,200 titles by and about Thomas Mann. He also expressed appreciation to Margrit B. Krewson, German/Dutch area specialist in the Library's European Division, for organizing the evening's program. And he introduced Lothar Griessbach, president of the German-American Cultural Fund and sponsor of German cultural events in Washington, who introduced the speaker. Guests at the lecture were invited to view a small exhibition of Mann memorabilia relating to the author's tenure at the Library.
Dr. Vaget, recent recipient of the Thomas Mann Medal given by the German Thomas Mann Society, is Helen and Laura Shedd Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Smith. He also is the editor of the 1937-1955 correspondence between Mann and Agnes Meyer, wife of then owner of The Washington Post Eugene Meyer and herself a journalist.
It was Mrs. Meyer who arranged for Mann's well-known affiliation with the Library of Congress, in which he served as consultant in Germanic literature for three years beginning in 1942. He continued as a Library fellow in German literature until his death.
"Thomas Mann's American years would hardly have become the success story that they undeniably were without the good will and generosity of many private persons and institutions in this country, of which he was to become a proud citizen in 1944," Dr. Vaget told his audience. "No one played a more crucial role in all of this than Agnes Meyer, and no institutional affiliation filled him with greater pride than the one Agnes Meyer arranged for him at the Library of Congress."
The speaker quoted frequently from the Mann-Meyer letters in describing Mann's years in America between 1938 and 1952 as years in which Mann abandoned the concept of two Germanys, one good and one evil.
"Not only did he realize that most nations would be unable to distinguish between Nazi Germany and an invisible yet supposedly more authentic other Germany, but he also came to doubt the very existence of the other Germany," said Dr. Vaget. In the end, Mann settled for a significantly modified version of the One-Germany theory: Yes, there was only one Germany, but, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it had two identities, one good, the other evil.
"The sad truth was that in the final analysis it was simply not possible to separate one from the other. This, then, is the central notion of his famous and controversial address on the subject of 'Germany and the Germans,' which was given on May 29, 1945, here at the Library of Congress."
Dr. Vaget said Thomas Mann accepted the premise that there was only one Germany, "whose very best was turned into the very worst through machinations worthy of the devil," only slowly and reluctantly because its implications were painful and far- reaching, not the least for himself and for his work.
"Mann was unsparing in naming the German-generated evils, of which the most monstrous were the death camps; that is to say, the Holocaust, the magnitude of which was coming to light at only that time. Mann began speaking out about the death camps in September of 1942, at a time when rumors of the Holocaust still met with incredulity and indifference. He very accurately predicted that the camps would become the most potent symbol of the Third Reich and its legacy.
"For Mann, most disquieting of all was the fact that these horrors came from the very same country that had produced some of the greatest glories of Western music," Dr. Vaget continued. "Pursuing this, though, could lead only to a melancholy and deeply tragic realization, the realization that everything German, even the German mind and spirit, is implicated. By everything German, Mann means just that. It includes -- indeed first and foremost -- his own work."
As evidence of this, Dr. Vaget quoted Mann's words to a Library of Congress audience:
"It is all within me; the truths that one tries to utter about one's own people can only be the product of self- examination."
Mann never returned to Germany to live after World War II, but he did visit both East and West Germany and in 1952 moved to Switzerland because he wanted to be buried in European soil, according to Dr. Vaget. Mann also had become disenchanted with America during the McCarthy era when he was accused of being a communist dupe, the speaker said; but his friendship with Agnes Meyer never wavered.
In a letter to Mrs. Meyer, written six months before his death in 1955, Mann likened himself to the Steadfast Tin Soldier, the hero of Hans Christian Andersen's tale, by calling him "the symbol of my life." The soldier showed "fabulous steadfastness" in his love for a beautiful but indifferent and unattainable dancer," Dr. Vaget said.
"The secret of his steadfastness is revealed only after the soldier's death; when his body is melted down it is miraculously reconfigured in the shape of a heart. What kept him going all along, then, was his loving heart."
The speaker concluded that "Mann refrains from hinting at the object of his own undying though tragic love, but there is no doubt as to its identity; it was Germany, his Germany.
"Love of country is a prerequisite of patriotism; love of Germany in this century is a love of anguish and despair. Yet this is the grand, but sorrowful, thought that stood before Mann's eyes at the end of his life and that warrants the characterization, 'tragic German patriot.'"
Jeanne Smith is a public affairs specialist in the Public Affairs Office.