News

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.

The Villa Aurora juries have selected the 2019 Fellows for the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.

Wolf von Lojewski, longtime US correspondent and presenter of the ZDF heute-journal, gives his valuable collection of Thomas Mann original editions to the Thomas Mann House.

In our video blog, Heinrich Detering, a fellow at Thomas Mann House, tells the story of Thomas Mann's relationship with the Unitarian Church in Los Angeles.

On September 15th, "Zeige deine Klasse" by Villa Fellow Daniela Dröscher will be available in Bookstore. The book is a clairvoyant portrait of social background. From a radically subjective perspective, Dröscher examines how class affiliation shapes one's own self-image and social interaction to this day, but also how much shame the term is still occupied with.

"Styx", the first collaboration between Villa Fellows Ika Küntzel and Wolfgang Fischer, comes into cinemas on thursday.

Villa Fellow Carolina Hellsgård's new film “Endzeit” (Ever After) celebrates its world premiere in the Discovery Program of the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff).

The Board of Directors of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V., in agreement with the Board of Trustees, has appointed Ms. Heike Catherina Mertens new Executive Director of the association, based in Berlin and effective October 1, 2018. Ms. Mertens succeeds Ms.Annette Rupp, who at her own request will leave the association end of September.

The Advisory Council of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V., which includes representatives from culture, science, civil society and business, has selected the 2019 Thomas Mann House Fellows.

At the end of June, the VATMH-supported conference of Wirtschaftswoche "Morals & Machines" took place in Berlin.

On Monday night, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier inaugurated the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. More than 250 guests from the fields of culture, science, politics, and the media gathered in the house on San Remo Drive in Pacific Palisades, where the Mann Family lived during their US exile in the 1940s.

Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.   V. and Literaturhaus Berlin took the annual event in remembrance of the book burning on May 10, 1933 as an opportunity to explore the limits of the sayable together with Linguistics-Professor Anatol Stefanowitsch.

Jana Schulz has been a fellow of the German Studienstiftung at the Villa Aurora in the spring of 2018. In an interview with the Studienstiftung she talks about boxing and her experiences in L.A.

Director, author and Villa Fellow Ulrich Köhler receives his first invitation to the International Film Festival Cannes (May 8th through 19th) with his new film "In My Room". Main producer is Pandora Film Produktion from Cologne. The film is invited to section Un Certain Regard.

Villa Fellow Stefan Goldmann curates f(t) festival. The two day festival will highlight alternative concepts of time in music: Irregular metres, miniatures, works of gargantuan duration, idiosyncratic patterns, new practices for historic instruments and obsolete media, humanised machine time, mechanised improvisation, space-time relations in close proximity and at vast distance... and much more.