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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2009
Klaus Mann, the eldest son of Thomas Mann, was among the first emigrants to leave Germany after the Nazi takeover in 1933. From the vantage point of his early exile in Amsterdam, he looked back disapprovingly at German artists and intellectuals who appeared to thrive under Hitler's regime. Especially galling to him was the success of actor/director Gustaf Gründgens (1899–1963), his former brother-in-law:
I visualize my ex-brother-in-law as the traitor par excellence, the macabre embodiment of corruption and cynicism. So intense was the facination of his shameful glory that I decided to portray Mephisto-Gründgens in a satirical novel. I thought it pertinent, indeed, necessary to expose and analyse the abject type of the treacherous intellectual who prostitutes his talent for the sake of some tawdry fame and transitory wealth.
1. Mann, Klaus, The Turning Point: Thirty-five Years in this Century (New York, L. B. Fischer, 1942), p. 282.Google Scholar
2. Göring, Hermann (1893–1946)Google Scholar was named Minister President of Prussia following the Nazi takeover in 1933. In this capacity he exercised direct control over the Prussian State Opera and State Theatre in Berlin.
3. See Spangenberg, Eberhard, Karriere eines Romans (Munich, Ellerman, 1982).Google Scholar
4. ‘Gustaf-Gründgens-Dokumentation’, a large documentary exhibit prepared by the Dumont-Lindemann Archive of Düsseldorf on the occasion of Gründgens' eightieth birthday, was circulated in cities throughout West Germany during the early 1980s. In 1981, Gründgens' photograph appeared on the cover of the major West German news magazine Der Spiegel (28 09)Google Scholar under the heading ‘Mephisto: Die Gründgens-Legende’. The issue's feature article, ‘Tanz auf dem Vulkan’, reviewed Gründgens' career in the context of Mann's novel and the recent dramatization by Mnouchkine and Szabó. The following year Heinrich Goertz's study Gustaf Gründgens in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumen-ten appeared in the Rowohlt monograph series, and Spangenberg's Karriere eines Romans offered the best information to date on the Gründgens/Mann relationship and the publishing history of Mephisto.
5. Riess, Curt, Gustaf Gründgens: Eine Biographie (Munich, Molden Taschenbuch Verlag, 1978), pp. 252–89.Google Scholar
6. My translation is from the signed copy of Gründgens' denazification statement on file in West Berlin's Document Centre. A slightly revised and expanded version of Gründgens' original statement was uncovered among his private papers following his death in 1963. See Gustaf Gründgens: Briefe, Aufsätze, Reden, ed. Badenhausen, Rolf and Gründgens-Gorski, Peter (Hamburg, Hoffmann and Campe, 1967), pp. 13–22.Google Scholar
7. Riess, , pp. 137–50.Google Scholar
8. Johst, Hanns (1890–1978)Google Scholar. SS-Gruppenführer, poet, dramatist, and cultural functionary in the Third Reich. Dr Franz Ulbrich (b. 1885). Along with Johst, Ulbrich served as the co-director of the Prussian State Theatre for a brief period during 1933–4.
9. Tietjen, Heinz (1881–1967)Google Scholar. Opera director and theatre manager of the Prussian State Theatre, 1927–45. From 1931 to 1945 Tietjen also directed the annual Festspiele in Bayreuth.
10. Ziegel, Erich (1876–1950)Google Scholar. Founded in 1918 the Kammerspiele in Hamburg; married to the Jewish actress Mirjam Horwitz. In 1934 Ziegel joined the ensemble of the Prussian State Theatre.
11. Goebbels, Joseph (1897–1945)Google Scholar. Nazi Propaganda Minister and President of the Reich Culture Council. The Culture Council with its seven subsidiary branches was founded on 22 September 1933.
12. Rosenberg, Alfred (1893–1946)Google Scholar. Nazi ideologist, founder of the anti-Semitic Combat Group for German Culture, and author of The Myth of the Twentieth Century, 1930.Google Scholar
13. Here Gründgens uses a slang expression referring to the brown shirts worn by members of the Nazi SA.
14. An official newspaper of the Nazi Party.
15. The street in Berlin on which the Gestapo headquarters was located.
16. Moissi, Alexander (1879–1935)Google Scholar. Prominent Jewish actor and member of Max Reinhardt's ensemble at Berlin's Deutsches Theater. Moissi was forced into exile in 1933.
17. Heydrich, Reinhard (1904–1942)Google Scholar. SS-Obergruppenführer, head of the Nazi Security Service, and first administrator of the concentration camps.
18. Theo Lingen (b. 1903). Stage and film actor; member of the Prussian State Theatre ensemble from 1930 to 1944.
19. Himmler, Heinrich (1900–1945)Google Scholar. Reichsführer of the SS, leader of the Gestapo, and head of the Third Reich's unified police system.
20. Goebbels ordered the closing of German theatres on 1 September 1944.
21. As quoted (in German) by Spangenberg, , p. 124Google Scholar. The English translation is mine. Mann joined the U.S. Army in 1942.
22. Gründgens continued his career both as actor and theatre director in Düsseldorf, (1947–1955)Google Scholar and Hamburg, (1955–1963)Google Scholar. As Mephisto in Faust I, still his most successful stage role, he made guest appearances in Moscow and Leningrad in 1959, and in New York in 1961. On Gründgens' opposition to the publication of the novel Mephisto in West Germany, see Spangenberg, , pp. 143–60.Google Scholar
23. Rischbieter, Henning, ‘Gründgens unter den Nazis’ Theater heute 4, 1981, pp. 47–57.Google Scholar
24. Grawert-May, Erik, ‘Über die Selbstgerechtigkeit der Gründgens-Kritiker: Der Fall Mephisto ist ein Fall des politischen Theaters heute’ Freibeuler 9, 1981, pp. 1–6.Google Scholar
