Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 he had won the Noble Prize. He was known for his series of symbolic and ironic novels. His work was noted for its insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. Mann was a member of the Hanseatic Mann family, and portrayed his own family in his book Buddenbrooks.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann moved to Switzerland. A few years later when World War II broke out in 1939, he fled to the United States,Thirteen years later he returned to Switzerland in 1952. He would never again live in Germany.
In 1930 Mann gave a public address in Berlin titled "An Appeal to Reason", in which he strongly denounced National Socialism and encouraged resistance by the working class. This was followed up by countless essays and lectures atttacking the Nazis. Due to his unliking of the Nazis policies his son advised him not to return and in 1939 the Nazi government took away his German citizenship. During the war, Mann made a series of anti-Nazi radio-speeches, Deutsche Hörer! They were taped in the USA and then sent to Great Britain, where the BBC transmitted them, hoping to reach German listeners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann
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