„Man kann die Liebe nicht stärker erleben“ – Thomas Mann und Paul Ehrenberg

In the organizer's words:

Reading:

Venue: Forum Atelier

"You have made my life rich. It blossoms..." Thomas Mann wrote these lines around 1901, but they remain unpublished. Because the rapturous words are addressed to a young man. Almost the same age as Mann himself - and also an artist: Paul Ehrenberg, a student of animal painting and the center of the world for Thomas Mann in those months.

But things are complicated: Thomas loves Paul - certainly. But above all, Paul loves women and flirts with them in the Munich salons. And even if he is very fond of Thomas Mann, how could they become a couple in those years when same-sex relationships were stigmatized and forbidden under Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code?

In his new book "Man kann die Liebe nicht stärker erleben" (Rowohlt, 2024), Oliver Fischer tells the whole story of Mann and Ehrenberg's friendship for the first time and with many unknown details. He tells of their beginnings in the artists' quarter of Schwabing, of Paul Ehrenberg's long summer trips as an open-air painter, of Thomas Mann's rise to international fame and their very different attitudes to National Socialism. The result is not only a fascinating double biography, but also an impressive picture of an entire era.

Reading: Oliver Fischer
Moderation: Dr. Uwe Naumann

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Oliver Fischer, born in 1970, studied German language and literature, art history and Catholic theology. He works as a freelance journalist for "Geo Epoche" and "Merian", among others. Since 2016, he has been chairman of the Thomas Mann Society Hamburg, which he founded, and a member of the advisory board of the German Thomas Mann Society.

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