Thomas Mann House Events Archive
March 2024
"Opera & Democracy: Den gewaltsam Verstummten zuhören …" : Music and conversations about composers murdered during the nazi era
Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich
Information
The event commemorates three artists who were forcibly silenced. The composer, répétiteur and conductor Viktor Ullmann was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942 and murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on October 18, 1944. Gideon Klein, composer and pianist, was also taken to Theresienstadt in 1941; he was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. Both composers created a great deal of music in Theresienstadt, including an opera. The Czechoslovakian German-language writer Ilse Weber was taken to Auschwitz after her internment in Theresienstadt. Before the outbreak of war, she was a successful artist and had been published several times. In the camp, Weber worked as a nurse in the children's hospital, read and sang for the little ones and tried to give them hope with her texts. Her texts and songs were presumably widely distributed in the camp, smuggled out of the ghetto and subsequently written down from memory by survivors. Some were probably accompanied on the guitar by Weber herself. Ilse Weber was killed in the gas chamber in 1944 along with her son and other children she was caring for.
In two discussions, the biographies and circumstances in Theresienstadt will be examined in more detail based on the sounds of the works. They will also discuss what we can do as a society in the 21st century to make silenced voices audible, where the democratic potential of music and opera can be found, and what contribution they can make to a diverse and inclusive society. Christopher Warmuth.
Program
Gideon Klein (1919–1945)
Streichtrio
für Violine, Viola und Violoncello (1944)
Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944)
Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke
12 Stücke aus der Dichtung Rainer Maria Rilkes für Sprecher und Klavier (1944)
Drei Lieder (Herbst / Lieder der Tröstung) für mittlere Singstimme und Streichtrio (1943)
I. Georg Trakl: „Herbst“
II. Albert Steffen: „Lieder der Tröstung“:
1. „Tote wollen nicht verweilen“
2. „Erwachen zu Weihnachten"
Participants
Moderation: Andrea Thilo
Speakers: Lydia Grün, Vladimir Jurowski, Tomáš Kraus, Kai Hinrich Müller
Violine: Susanne Gargerle
Viola: Tilo Widenmeyer
Violincello: Allan Bergius
Alt: Noa Beinart
Recitation: Robert Dölle
Piano: Vladimir Jurowski
Tickets
Partners
An event of the Bayerische Staatsoper in cooperation with the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles and in collaboration with the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste.
100 years of "The Magic Mountain:" Conversation & Concert with Samantha Rose Hill, Paul Holdengräber & David Kaplan
Los Angeles
Information
Published in Germany in 1924, Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain tells the story of Hans Castorp, an ordinary young man who goes to visit his cousin Joachim in a Swiss tuberculosis sanatorium for three weeks and ends up staying for seven years. Set on the precipice of World War One, the novel captures the spirit of prewar Europe and the ailments of the modern world: isolation, mass epidemics, the plight of progress and industrial alienation. Mann’s ever-timely novel offers meditations on love, loss, time, what it means to become a person in the world, and what it means to face death.
To mark the 100th anniversary of Mann’s modernist masterpiece, we cordially invite you to the living room of the writer's home in exile for a conversation on pilgrimage between author and scholar Samantha Rose Hill and curator and interviewer Paul Holdengräber. What does it mean to leave the world of everyday life and undertake a journey? How does travel inform one’s perception of text, artwork, love, loss? In what ways does one’s experience of time change when one finds oneself perpetually caught in between the longing for home and flight of adventure? Can Mann’s work help us to think about our world today, a world defined by a sense of displacement, longing, loneliness, and war? Is it the x-ray we need to help us see more clearly right now?
Before and after the conversation, acclaimed pianist David Kaplan and students from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will perform pieces by Claude Debussy and Franz Schubert on Thomas Mann’s historical piano: Singer Andres Delgado accompanies Kaplan in Die Post, Einsamkeit, and Der Lindenbaum from Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise; and pianists Alexandre Tchaykov and Biguo Xing will play Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d’un faune, a favorite piece of music of Hans Castorp in the novel.
This event is part of a seminar on The Magic Mountain offered by the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research & the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center. Led by Samantha Rose Hill, this course reads the entirety of The Magic Mountain alongside short selections from medical journals, critical reviews, Mann’s correspondence, and lectures, while asking: What does it mean to be healthy? How does modernity change our conception of time? How might we think about enchantment in the modern world? Learn more here.
Participants
Samantha Rose Hill is the author of the critically acclaimed book Hannah Arendt (2021) and the editor and translator of What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt (2017). She is associate faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research in New York City. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, LitHub, OpenDemocracy, and the journals Public Seminar, Contemporary Political Theory, and Theory & Event.
Paul Holdengräber is an interviewer, curator of public curiosity, and was the Founding Executive Director of Onassis Los Angeles (OLA). Prior he was Founder and Director of The New York Public Library’s LIVE from the NYPL cultural series where he interviewed and hosted over 600 events, including interviews with Patti Smith, Wes Anderson, Mike Tyson, Werner Herzog and many more. Before his tenure at the library, he was the Founder and Director of The Institute for Art & Cultures at the LACMA. He holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Princeton University. In 2003, the French Government named him Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and then promoted him in 2012 to the rank of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. In 2010, The President of Austria awarded him the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.
David Kaplan, pianist, has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Britten Sinfonia and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Known for diverse and creative recital programs, he has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Washington’s National Gallery, Strathmore, and Bargemusic. Kaplan’s New Dances of the League of David, mixing Schumann with 16 new works, was cited in the “Best Classical Music of 2015” by The New York Times.
Partners
This event is a collaboration between the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.
Rethinking Democracy – How Megatrends Shape Our Future: Talk by Andrea Römmele
Online
Information
Andrea Römmele, Professor of Political Communication, Dean and Vice President at the Hertie School in Berlin, researches the impact that major societal 'megatrends' – such as technology and AI, urbanization, demographic and social change, climate change and resource scarcity, or global growth markets – have on Western democracies.
How do different systemic and societal structures in Germany and the U.S. affect these developments? She is currently a Fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles, a residency center and space for transatlantic debate in the former exile home of the German Nobel-laureate Thomas Mann. During her residency in Los Angeles, she explores the consequences of these megatrends for democracy from a transatlantic perspective: How can democratic systems shape these consequences? How can we overthink traditional political approaches and implement political systems that not only administer but lead the way into a visionary future?
Participant
Andrea Römmele holds a master’s degree from San Francisco State University, a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg, and a habilitation from Freie Universität Berlin. Römmele’s research interests include digital democracy, elections, and electoral campaigns and parties. For Römmele, a central issue is mediating between science and practice. One of her current projects is the “Democracy Report,” developed jointly with German TV station ARD, which she moderates herself.
Partners
An event by the Department of Political Science at the University of New Mexico in collaboration with the Thomas Mann House, Los Angeles.
Student Council on "Democracy and Vulnerability" – with Triston Ezidore
Online
Information
Join the Wende Museum, the Thomas Mann House, and dublab radio for the second program in the series on the current state of democracies. How should a democracy deal with its own vulnerabilities? How do democracies need to evolve to deal successfully with increasing global levels of ecological crisis, geopolitical tensions, economic disparities, and culture wars? How much vulnerability can a democracy endure? The Student Council consists of a team of highly engaged, talented, and diverse undergraduate and graduate students who invite prominent guest speakers to discuss topics relating to society, politics, culture, and art. In conversation with academics, journalists, politicians, and artists, the students will explore the various threats to democratic institutions and principles worldwide, as well as strategies to potentially overcome these threats.
Participant
At 19 years old, Board Member Triston Ezidore made history as the youngest elected official in the history of Los Angeles County and the first black male to serve on Culver City Unified Board of Education. As a recent high school graduate, Board Member Ezidore is a staunch advocate in building a school district in which all students can thrive. He currently works as a Youth Employment Manager with the Housing Authority of the City of LA, and has served his community as an Equity Specialist, Legislative Organizer, and committee member on the District’s Equity Advisory Committee, Restorative Practice’s Committee, Positive Behavior and Intervention’s Support Committee, and the Sexual Assault and Misconduct Reform Committee.
Watch our February interview with Thomas Mann Fellow, author, and journalist Friedemann Karig!
You can watch previous episodes on YouTube, listen to the recordings on dublab radio, or read our students' recap on the Thomas Mann House blog.
Meet the 2024 Student Council
Sara Abrahamsson is a fourth-year student at UCLA studying Art History and French. As a culmination of her artistic and academic interest in political graphics, Sara is currently writing her senior thesis paper on the internationalist poster art of post-revolutionary Cuba. Upon graduating, she plans to continue working in museums before pursuing graduate studies in Art History or Art Conservation.
Amy Cabrales is a First-Generation fourth-year undergraduate student at UCLA, studying Sociology and the Russian Language. She is a Mexican-American, Los Angeles native born in Lynwood, California. Her career interests include cross-cultural education via museum work or language instruction and immigrant resettlement, while her academic interests include immigrant integration and self-identity across immigrant generations. She is anticipating returning to Almaty, Kazakhstan for the 2024-25 academic year to inform these interests and advance her Russian proficiency.
Elsa Coony is a fourth-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles double majoring in Global Studies and German. She has previously worked at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as both a docent and translator and is excited to join this year's council. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in international development.
Biruke Dix is currently a 2nd year student at UCLA studying Applied Mathematics. He joined the Wende Student Council in 2024 and is deeply invested in the ever-changing properties of art as well as social habits. He hopes that he can create language and conversation that promotes the spread of cultural shifts and social justice.
Matthew Jones is a third-year PhD student in Claremont Graduate University’s Cultural Studies and Museum Studies program. His research currently explores how sites connected to authoritarian regimes function as pilgrimage destinations and what strategies states and institutions employ to reduce extremist attachment at these sites. He is thrilled to continue his training with the Wende Museum through this collaboration with the Thomas Mann House.
Emma Larson is a master's student at Columbia University's Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies. There, she focuses on the gender, social, and political history of Central Asia. Before starting at Columbia, Emma taught English in Kazakhstan with the Fulbright Program. She graduated from Williams College with degrees in History and Russian in 2021.
Zora Nelson is a current undergraduate student at New York University, where she is studying Harp Performance and Media, Culture, and Communication. As an east coaster born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she discovered the Wende Museum in the summer of 2022 and is honored to be a part of the council. With a passion for writing, Zora sees a future in storytelling to promote social justice.
Lexi Tooley is a current sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Political Science and Art History, minoring in Chinese Language and Culture. She is originally from Los Angeles, California, and attended the Archer School for Girls. Lexi has been working with the Wende Museum for the past 2 years. She looks forward to continuing the search for truth and examining the vulnerability of democracy through this program!
Partners
The event series is a collaboration with the Wende Museum Culver City, dublab and the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.
