Monika Mann
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Monika Mann (7 June 1910 – 17 March 1992) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
American author and feature writer. She was born in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, the fourth of six children of the Nobel Prize–winning author
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
and
Katia Katia is a feminine given name. It is a variant of Katya. Notable people with this name Actresses and models * Katia Dandoulaki, Greek actress * Katia Margaritoglou, Greek fashion model and beauty contestant * Katia Winter (born 1983), Sw ...
, née Katharina Pringsheim. She trained as a pianist and her early attempts at a musical career seemed promising, but were not met with success and she instead pursued a career as a writer. She married in 1939 but lost her husband the following year, when the ship on which they were travelling to Canada was sunk by a German submarine. Later that year she joined her family in
Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
, and was granted US citizenship in 1952. Between 1954 and 1986, she lived with her partner Antonio Spadaro in '' Villa Monacone'' on
Capri Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...
. This was her most productive time as a writer and her books and several magazine articles were written during this period. After the death of her partner she left Capri and spent her last years until her death with her brother Golo's adopted family in
Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. The city is part of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.


Family and early life

Thomas Mann was already well established as a novelist and short story writer at the time of Monika's birth, although his Nobel Prize came many years later. Her mother, born Katharina Hedwig Pringsheim, was the daughter of the
German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...
mathematician and artist
Alfred Pringsheim Alfred Pringsheim (2 September 1850 – 25 June 1941) was a German mathematician and patron of the arts. He was the father-in-law of the author and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann. Family and academic career Pringsheim was born in Ohlau, Prov ...
and the actress
Hedwig Pringsheim Hedwig Pringsheim (born Gertrud Hedwig Anna Dohm; 13 July 1855 – 27 July 1942) was a German actress. Born in Berlin, she was the daughter of Ernst Dohm and Hedwig Dohm-Schleh, who were Jewish converts to Christianity. She married Alfred Prin ...
. Due to her being the granddaughter of
Júlia da Silva Bruhns Júlia da Silva Bruhns (14 August 1851, Paraty – 11 March 1923, Weßling) was the Brazilian mother of Thomas and Heinrich Mann and one of the matriarchs of the Mann family. Biography Da Silva Bruhns was born in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro stat ...
, she was also of Portuguese-Indigenous Brazilian partial descent. Monika had an elder sister, Erika (1905–1969) and two elder brothers,
Klaus Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus * Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American base ...
(1906–1949) and "Golo" (1909–1994). A year after Monika's birth her mother was ill with a lung complaint and was one of the first patients to be admitted to the ''Wald Sanatorium'' in
Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...
, Switzerland. There was an interval of eight years before the birth of the last two children, a sister Elisabeth (1918–2002) and a brother
Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...
(1919–1977). Her uncle was the novelist
Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; March 27, 1871 – March 11, 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German writer known for his sociopolitical novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...
. She was not her parents' favourite. Her father confessed frankly in his diary that, of the six children, he preferred the two oldest, Klaus and Erika, and little Elisabeth. Her mother wrote in 1939 to Klaus that she was determined not to say any more unfriendly words about Monika and to be kind and helpful.Katia Mann letter of 29 August 1939 In the family letters and chronicles she was often described as weird. ". . . after a three week stay here (in the parental home) she is still the same old dull quaint Mönle (her nickname in the family), pilfering from the larder . . .". After boarding school at
Schule Schloss Salem Schule Schloss Salem (Anglicisation: ''School of Salem Castle'') is a boarding school with campuses in Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It offers the German Abitur and the International Baccalaureate (IB). With se ...
she trained as a pianist in
Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
and spent her young years in Paris, Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin. In 1933 when
Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
came to power she emigrated with her parents to
Sanary-sur-Mer Sanary-sur-Mer (, literally ''Sanary on Sea''; ), popularly known as Sanary, is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Southeastern France. Sanary-sur-Mer is located in coastal Provence on the Mediterranean S ...
in southeastern France. In 1934 she studied music and history of art in
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
, taking private piano tuition from the Italian composer
Luigi Dallapiccola Luigi Dallapiccola (3 February 1904 – 19 February 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions. Biography Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current Pazin, Croati ...
.From the article on
Monika Mann Monika Mann (7 June 1910 – 17 March 1992) was a Germans, German American author and feature writer. She was born in Munich, German Empire, Germany, the fourth of six children of the Nobel Prize–winning author Thomas Mann and Katia Mann, Katia, ...
in German Wikipedia.


Later career

In Florence she met the Hungarian art historia
Jenő Lányi
and in 1938 the couple left Italy for London, where they married on 2 March 1939. They left for Canada in 1940 on the ''
SS City of Benares Ship prefix#Usage, SS ''City of Benares'' was a British steam turbine ocean liner, built for Ellerman Lines by Barclay Curle, Barclay, Curle & Co of Glasgow in 1936. During the Second World War, ''City of Benares'' was used as an evacuee ship t ...
'', carrying 90 child evacuees, their ten escorts, 91 paying passengers (including 10 children), and 215 crew. On 17 September the ship was sunk by a torpedo from the German submarine, U-48. The couple managed to climb into Lifeboat 6 (also containing Anthony Quinton and his mother). As the lifeboat began to lower, the blocks slid out of place, and the stern end of the boat fell, flinging more than two thirds of the roughly sixty people into the sea. The couple fell into the water. Monika grabbed and clung on to a large piece of wood floating nearby. Jenő, however, drowned, and she heard him call to her three times before he went under. She floated around in the sea for several hours, before a lifeboat, the same Lifeboat 6 from which she had fallen, found her drifting in the sea. The lifeboat was heavily waterlogged and only 23 people were still in the lifeboat. Slowly, one by one, 15 of the occupants died. Mann was one of eight people who survived. Only one other woman, Letitia Quinton, in this lifeboat survived. The only child survivor was Quinton's son, Anthony. After 20 hours they were rescued by a British ship and taken to Scotland. Of the 406 people on board the ''Benares'', only 148 had survived. Among the 258 people who had died, were 81 children out of 100. She reached New York on 28 October 1940 on the troopship '' Cameronia'', and joined her parents, who had moved to the US in 1939, at the outbreak of World War II. For a while she lived with her parents, who showed little sympathy for her. Her traumatic loss of her husband and her attempts at a new beginning with them were ignored. Later she moved into her own apartment near her parents. From 1943 to 1952, with short breaks, she lived in New York. After attempts to renew her career as a pianist she turned to employment as a writer. In 1952 she was granted US citizenship, but she was already planning her return to Europe. In September she travelled with her sister Elizabeth's family to Italy. After a few months in
Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
,
Bordighera Bordighera (; , locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Imperia, Liguria (Italy). Geography Bordighera is located from the land border between Italy and France, the French coast is visible from the town. Having the Capo Sant'Ampel ...
and
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
she fulfilled her desire to live in a beautiful region by moving to Capri, where she lived in the Villa Monacone with her partner, Antonio Spadaro. In Capri she blossomed. During this period she wrote five books and contributed regular feature pages to Swiss, German and Italian newspapers and magazines. She remained in Capri for 32 years until the spring of 1986, a few months after the death of Spadaro in December 1985. She was not able to realise her desire to live in
Kilchberg, Zurich Kilchberg (High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Chilchbèèrg'') is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Horgen (district), Horgen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zürich (canton), Zürich in Switzerlan ...
with her parents, who had returned to Europe. She spent her last years at Leverkusen,
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
, in the care of Ingrid Beck-Mann, the widow of her brother Golo's adopted son, and died on 17 March 1992. She was buried in the family grave in Kilchberg.


Selected works

* * * English translation by * ''Der Start. Ein Tagebuch.'' Steinklopfer-Verlag, Fürstenfeldbruck 1960 * ''Tupfen im All''. Hegner, Köln/Olten 1963 * ''Wunder der Kindheit. Bilder und Impressionen.'' Hegner, Köln/Olten 1966 * ''Der letzte Häftling. Eine wahre Legende in onore eines (letzten) Komponisten.'' Lemke, Lohhof 1967 * ''Das fahrende Haus. Aus dem Leben einer Weltbürgerin.'' Hrsg. with an epilogue by Karin Andert. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007, (Interviews, Texte und Briefe)


See also

*
Dohm–Mann family tree The Mann family ( , ; ) is a German dynasty of novelists and an old Hanseatic family of patricians from Lübeck. It is known for being the family of the Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Thomas Mann. History Originally the Manns were merc ...


Notes


References

* Hans Wißkirchen: ''Die Familie Mann.'' Rowohlt, Reinbek 1999, * Uwe Naumann (Hrsg.): ''Die Kinder der Manns. Ein Familienalbum.'' Rowohlt, Reinbek 2005, * Katia Mann: ''
Meine ungeschriebenen Memoiren Meine is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a village and member municipality of the Samtgemeinde Papenteich. The Municipality Meine includes the villages of Abbesbüttel, Bechtsbüttel, Grassel, Gravenhor ...
.'' Fischer-TB, Frankfurt, 2000. * Die angeführten Briefe sind Teil der Handschriftensammlung der
Monacensia The Monacensia, or ''Monacensia in Hildebrandhaus'', is the literary archive and a research library of the city of Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Germany, which is devoted to preserving and providing public access to the city's cultural history ...
, München bzw. der Sammlung des Deutschen Literaturarchivs Marbach.


External links


"Monika Mann"
In: FemBio (Frauen-Biographieforschung). {{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Monika 1910 births 1992 deaths American women non-fiction writers Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States German autobiographers Jewish women writers German people of Jewish descent Jewish American non-fiction writers Monika German women autobiographers 20th-century American women writers Alumni of Schule Schloss Salem 20th-century American Jews German people of Portuguese descent