News

Thomas Mann House sat down with Fellow Lisa Riedner and Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) founder and director Pete White to discuss the global housing crisis through the lens of Los Angeles and Germany.
We found that similar structures and dynamics exist in both places and that houselessness should be regarded as a global crisis.

How is fear currently shaping our society? And can art play a role in addressing those fears? These questions were at the core of “Raising Fear: Film, Literature, and Political Responsibility” on Friday, July 5, at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles.  Moderated by Steven Lavine, chairman of the Thomas Mann House advisory board, the evening drew deep insights from the event’s esteemed guests: German state minister Monika Grütters, filmmaker Werner Herzog, and cultural scientist Ulrich Raulff. From art’s relationship with democracy, to misguided demonization, to fighting for an open culture, the relevancy of the night’s conversation was emphasized and punctuated by the rumblings of a distant 7.1 earthquake.

Following in his grandfather's tracks, Frido Mann is going to give lectures in more than a dozen cities in the United States and Canada. He will address the current crises in the American and European democracies and the need for their restoration, on the basis of transatlantic dialogue.

On May 27 and May 28, Thomas Mann House and UCLA Digital Humanities hosted "Moral Code: Ethics in the Digital Age". The conference with over 150 attendees and participants in total discussed the ethical implications of artificial intelligence.

Starting in 2020, Villa Aurora &Thomas Mann House will award the Michael Ballhaus Fellowship under the patronage of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas. The annual fellowship is given to outstanding directors of photography in cooperation with the German Film Academy. The first laureate is the Berlin based D.P. Judith Kaufmann. The prize, in honor of the late director of photography Michael Ballhaus, consists of a three-month residence at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and is financed by the German Foreign Office.

The Egyptian journalist Hadeer El-Mahdawy is awarded the 2019 Feuchtwanger Fellowship by Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House and the University of Southern California. The fellowship was named after the Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger who had to leave Nazi-Germany in 1933 and lived at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles starting in 1943 until his death in 1958.

During his time as Thomas Mann Fellow from April to July, Andreas Platthaus is writing a blog sharing his impressions, life and research at the Thomas Mann House, Los Angeles. The blog is accompanied by artworks of illustrator Burkhard Neie.

Last Saturday, the day before the Oscars, the traditional reception in honor of the German Oscar nominees took place at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. This event was organized by Villa Aurora together with the German Consulate General L.A. and German Films. Partners of the reception are the German sponsors of the Oscar contributions, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the Federal Foreign Office. The event was sponsored by Volkswagen, Dr. Hauschka and Crosby Doe Associates.

The ninth biennial meeting of the International Feuchtwanger Society (IFS) will take place on October 17-20, 2019 in Munich. What role did the “Munich milieu” play for the young intellectual? Which of the impressions and influences of the Munich art, theater and literary scene can be demonstrated? Which networks and connections motivated the ambitious young author? Proposals that are closely related to the conference topic are welcome along with papers that explore Munich’s cultural scene between 1900 and 1925. Papers should not exceed 20 minutes.

During his lifetime, German-Jewish novelist Lion Feuchtwanger claimed not to keep a diary. Yet, in the 1990s, a treasure trove of his diaries from the years 1906-1940 was found in the apartment of Feuchtwanger’s long-time secretary Hilde Waldo. Now, for the first time ever, these diaries have been published by Aufbau publishing house in Berlin, allowing us to get to know Feuchtwanger as a chronicler of his life and of a central part of German history. Last December we presented the book at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. You can rewatch the event in this video:

For a stay at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles in 2020 Thomas Mann Fellowships are tendered. The fellowships will be awarded for the year 2020 and for a period of 3 to 10 months. The former home of Thomas Mann in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, is a residence house of the Federal Republic of Germany with the aim of stimulating debates on the political, social or cultural situation on both sides of the Atlantic.[Text in German]

As a Thomas Mann Fellow in 2018, Jutta Allmendinger has been conducting her research on housing and homelessness in Los Angeles. We accompanied her during the “Skid Row Festival” in Downtown. Skid Row is an area of 0.4 square miles containing one of the largest populations of homeless people in the United States. Together with her colleague, Jürgen Robert von Mahs (New School, NY), Allmendinger made use of the opportunity to speak to some of Skid Row’s residents.

On November 29th and 30th, representatives of "Thomas Mann Houses International", a network that curates the heritage of the famous autor, came together in Zürich. The institutions (Lübeck: Buddenbrookhaus, Munich: Monacensia in the Hildebrandhaus, Nidden / Lithuania: Thomas Mann Cultural Center, Pacific Palisades / USA: Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V, Zurich / Switzerland: Thomas Mann Archive of ETH Zurich) first gathered in Lübeck in 2017. The network was doudned in order to enrich and strengthen each other.

In cooperation with Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V., the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes grants another scholarship in 2019 for a stay at the artist's residence called Villa Aurora. Out of a variety of applications, the choice fell on the video and performance artist Max Göran. He will live and work in Los Angeles from early January to mid-February.

In our video blog, Jennifer and Brad Johnson from Johnson Rare Books & Archives give insights on the reconstruction of Thomas Mann's library at his home on San Remo Drive.

Sculptor and Villa Aurora Fellow Natascha Sadr Haghighian will represent Germany at the 58th Venice Biennale under the pseudonym Natascha Süder Happelmann. Franciska Zólyom, curator of the German Pavilion 2019, announced the collaboration with the artist on Thursday.

Entrepreneur and patron Berthold Leibinger died on October 16, 2018 in Stuttgart/Germany. He was 87 years old. The team and the Board of Directors of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. mourn this great loss and wish his family, friends and colleagues much strength.