Cinema, Literature

ARTE film screening: "The Magic Mountain"

Monday, 19/05/2025 / 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM / House of Literature Rostock

Film screening & discussion with Dr. Stephan Lesker (Institute for German Studies, University of Rostock)

ARTE/SRF/Florianfilm 2024, 52 min., Director: André Schäfer and Tabea Sperl. Online on arte.tv.

Thomas Mann's monumental novel, first published in 1924, is still a literary sensation today. The author worked on the work for ten years. In the course of this time, the world changed, as did the author: the German Empire became the Weimar Republic, the planned contemporary novel became a historical novel about a bygone era, the staunch conservative Thomas Mann became an even more staunch republican.The novel dissects late bourgeois, decrepit Europe in the closed space of a Davos lung sanatorium: death is near, morals are loose.

Using archive images and newly shot footage, the film delves into the world of "The Magic Mountain", which Thomas Mann developed from his own experience: his wife Katia had been admitted to a sanatorium in Davos due to a lung condition. Mann visited her there and realized what an inexhaustible treasure trove of characters and conflicts opened up to him here. Literary and medical historians, historians and a translator will shed light on the cosmos of the novel and show how modern and topical it remains to this day.

Admission free (registration possible at: reservierung (at) literaturhaus-rostock(dot)de)

Venue: Literaturhaus Rostock (in the Peter-Weiss-Haus), Doberaner Str. 21, 18057 Rostock

An event in cooperation with the broadcaster ARTE and the network of literature houses.
On the occasion of Thomas Mann's 150th birthday on June 6, 2025: Major Thomas Mann focus on ARTE on May 28, 2025.

All statements without guarantee.