Liars, Grifters, Martyrs, and Fait Accomplis: Thomas Mann’s Antifascist Radio Addresses, 1940–1945
Monday, December 1, 202512:30 - 2:00 pm ET (US)
Hybrid in-person and online
Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library, Brandeis University Campus
Refreshments will be available for in-person attendees.
About the Event
The German author and novelist Thomas Mann, winner of the 1929 Nobel prize for literature on the strength of his monumental novels Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain, chose exile upon Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933, moving with his family to the United States in 1938. From 1940 to 1945, he authored and narrated a series of anti-Nazi radio addresses that were broadcast to Germany by the BBC; German listeners risked severe punishment. Mann’s radio addresses constitute his most sustained contribution to the Allied war effort. In them, Mann comments on the progress of the war, contrasts fascism with democracy, measures Hitler against Roosevelt, and counters German propaganda with international consensus. After initially encouraging the Germans to resist the Nazi regime, Mann prepares them for the consequences of defeat by explaining that although their current suffering is the responsibility of the entire nation, the future brings hope.
Today, when democracy is again endangered in much of the world, Mann’s antifascist radio addresses have acquired new urgency. A new volume by Jeffrey High and Elaine Chen presents English translations of all of Mann’s 58 radio addresses for the first time, with a foreword by Mann’s grandson Frido Mann, an introduction by leading Mann scholar Hans Rudolf Vaget, careful annotations, and a selection of photographs.
About the Speakers
Elaine Chen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Departments of Germanic Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature at Harvard University and holds an M.A. in German Studies from California State University, Long Beach. In 2018, Chen received a Fulbright Combined Grant to Salzburg, Austria to teach English, intern at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg, and conduct research on the influence of Heinrich von Kleist’s suicide on the works of Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig for her M.A. thesis, entitled A Portrait of the Artist as a Dead Man: Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig on Kleist’s Literary Suicide(s). Her 2022 Kleist-Gesellschaft lecture on Immanuel Kant, Kleist, and Stefan Zweig appeared in the 2023 Heinrich-von-Kleist-Jahrbuch. She is the co-author of the chapter “Receptions, Homages, and Anti-Occupational Allegories of Autonomy: The Case of Schiller's Bohemian cup and Kleist's Broken Jug" in Heinrich von Kleist: Literary and Philosophical Paradigms (2022), which she co-edited with Jeffrey L. High and Rebecca Stewart-Gray. Chen’s article, "Stranger than Fiction: Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig on Kleist’s Struggle with the Daemon," for which she received the 2021 Kleist-Gesellschaft Award for the Best Student Essay, appeared in Heinrich von Kleist: Artistic and Aesthetic Legacies, edited by High and Carrie Collenberg-González (2024), and her chapter on Gothic and Jugendstil elements in Thomas Mann's "The Blood of the Walsungs," Zweig's "Scarlet," and Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" will appear in the 2025 Anthem Press volume German Gothic Literature, edited by High and Curtis Maughan. She is a co-editor and co-translator for recently the published Thomas Mann’s Antifascist Radio Addresses, 1940–1945 Listen, Germany! with Jeffrey L. High and Hans Rudolf Vaget.
Jeffrey L. High received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches in the German Studies, University Honors, and Comparative and World Literature programs at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), as well as serving as Guest Professor at Portland State University’s German Summer School of the Pacific. He has published widely on Schiller, Kleist, Thomas Mann, Sophie Mereau, and María de Zayas. He is the author of Schillers Rebellionskonzept und die Französische Revolution (2004), the editor of Die Goethezeit: Werke – Wirkung – Wechselbeziehungen (2001) and Schiller’s Literary Prose Works (2006), the co-editor of Who is this Schiller Now? with Nicholas Martin and Norbert Oellers (2011), Heinrich von Kleist: Artistic and Political Legacies with Sophia Clark (2014), Inspiration Bonaparte? German Culture and Napoleonic Occupation with Seán Allan (2021), Heinrich von Kleist: Artistic and Philosophical Paradigms with Rebecca Stewart-Gray and Elaine Chen (2022), and Heinrich von Kleist: Artistic and Aesthetic Legacies with Carrie Collenberg-Gonzalez (2024). He is a 2018 recipient of the CSULB “President’s Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Scholarship and Mentoring,” the 2019 recipient of the University Honors Program’s “Most Valuable Professor” award, the 2020 recipient of CSULB-wide awards for both Advising and for Scholarly Mentoring, as well as the 2022 award for “Outstanding Club Advisor.” He is a co-editor and co-translator for recently the published Thomas Mann’s Antifascist Radio Addresses, 1940–1945 Listen, Germany! with Elaine Chen and Hans Rudolf Vaget.