A Devil's Pact with
Hitler:
Klaus Mann's Mephisto
- Klaus Mann and the Mann Family
- Thomas Mann
- Heinrich Mann
- Klaus Mann
- Erika Mann
- Mephisto as roman-à-clef
- The Characters
- Gustaf Gruendgens as Hendrik Hoefgen
- Erika Mann as Barbara Bruckner
- Thomas Mann as Professor Bruckner
- Klaus Mann as Sebastian
- Marlene Dietrich as Dora Martin
- Emil Jannings as Joachim
- Goebbels and Goering
- The Controversy
- The Lawsuit & The Banning of the Book
- Klaus Mann's Reaction
- "I visualize my
ex-brother-in-law
as the traitor par excellence, the macabre embodiment of corruption and
cynicism. So intense was the
fascination of his shameful glory that I decided to portray
Mephisto-Gruendgens
in a satirical novel." - from Klaus Mann's autobiography The
Turning Point
- "It was not the writer's
intention to tell the story of a particular person . . . In your
announcement
you make the unfortunate suggestion that my Mephisto bears the traits
of
a currently successful German actor -- I don't want to repeat his name
here. Yes, I did indeed know this actor. But what is his
significance
for me now? . . . Have I sunk so low, as to write novels about private
individuals?" - Klaus Mann in a telegram to the Paris Daily
News
- "This book was not aimed
at a particular person, rather: it was aimed at the careerist, against
the German intellectual who sold and
betrayed the German mind and spirit. Hoefgen - Hoefgen as
a type, Hoefgen as a symbol - places a great talent at the disposal of
a ruthless and blood-bespattered power." - from The Turning
Point
- The Preface to
Mephisto
