Mario und der Zauberer nach der Novelle von Thomas Mann

In the organizer's words:

"The memory of Torre di Venere is atmospherically unpleasant." Thomas Mann's novella "Mario and the Magician" from 1930 begins with these words, in which the author processes experiences from his own vacation in Italy in the summer of 1926. He describes the growing nationalist mood in the country.

The first-person narrator is on vacation at the grand hotel in the seaside resort of Torre di Venere. Italians are clearly given preferential treatment. The grandly announced show by hypnotist Cipolla promises a change. This overgrown man with evil eyes seems to have infinite power over his audience. He forces some spectators to do impossible things and apparently breaks their will.

"Freedom exists, and will also exists, but freedom of will does not exist, because a will that is directed towards its freedom comes to nothing," says Cipolla, depriving the show's visitors of any hope of resisting him. Despite his degrading activities, the audience follows the spectacle unfolding before their eyes with captivated and disgusted admiration. When the waiter Mario becomes the next victim of Cipolla's malicious manipulation, the evening takes a dramatic turn. In retrospect, "Mario and the Magician" was interpreted as a parable of the rise of fascism: Cipolla as a seducer and leader of the masses, who cannot be resisted despite inner resistance, found his counterparts in politics at the time and he still finds them today: sinister and highly dangerous.