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Heinrich Breloer, Horst Konigstein. Die Manns: Ein Jahrhundertroman. Frankfurt a.M. S. Fischer. 2001. 478 pages, ill. EUR25. ISBN 3-10-005230-7
IF THE POPULAR (mainly biographical) interest in Thomas Mann and his family had ever seriously flagged, the recently televised 308minute program on Die Manns by Heinrich Breloer and Horst Konigstein would have most certainly rekindled it. Die Manns is indeed a "Jahrhundertroman," with an accent on roman in the fullest sense. Despite numerous hitherto unknown or visually unavailable details, the primary intention of the documentary drama following this book had to be simplification. By now we also have available some very painstaking studies on a large number of biographical aspects and several solid biographies of Thomas Mann and his entire family; utilization and clever Vermarktung of this incomparable clan on TV seemed overdue whether, ultimately, we ought to lament this or not.
Perhaps it is needless to point out that both the book and the TV program rather...