Thomas Mann Museum, Klaipeda County, Lithuania

4ToL_123 5:00 PM Oct 2, 2022

Worth to visit
Thomas M. chose a perfect spot on a hill above the courland lagoon for his summer house. Breathtaking view from a spot on the property, called italian panorama. This alone is worth the visit. The museum itself is nice and give some insights to not so much known aspects of his life as the complicated relation to his brother Heinrich. It is almost a miracle, that such a nice place was preserved, during turbulent Lithuanian, German, Russian and again Lithuanian times. Summary: to be recommended!

3DeanMurphy2020 5:00 PM Sep 16, 2016

the ‘Mann’ lived here☺
German novelist, social critic, and philanthropist Paul Thomas Mann (1875–1955) took home the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature. His symbolic and ironic epic novels are noted for insight into the psychology of the artist and intellectuals. His brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann, and three of his six children also became important German writers. He built a seaside retreat on the Curonian Spit, which is now the museum. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann and his family fled to Switzerland, as his wife was a Jew. They never again occupied the seaside cottage. When WWII exploded in 1939, he moved to the US, returning to Switzerland in 1952—three years before his death. When Soviets occupied Lithuania and many other European countries after WWII, Mann’s cottage became property of the Russian government, which allowed artists and writers it approved of to occupy the cottage with a fabulous view. Only in 2004 was the cottage converted into a museum, but few objects of “the Mann” are here. If you’re a Mann follower and want to visit the museum, early mornings are best, as tour buses arrive later in the day. This building was constructed as a family cottage, and not intended to hold 40 people milling about. There’s precious little about Mann’s works and insight to his life, or how an oppressive regime tried to control his intellect. There is a timeline at the entrance, something that can be learned from the Internet. The most impressive thing I found was the phenomenal view of the Baltic Sea, the reason Mann had his family’s retreat built at this location.