The unbelievable talent of the Mann family

In his new biography on the Mann family, Tilmann Lahme writes that Thomas Mann's children never managed to free themselves from their father's influence. The book begins in the 1920s, when all six of them have already been born. Pictured with him in 1924, from left to right: His wife Katia, with Monika, Michael, Elisabeth, Klaus and Erika Mann. Golo is missing in the photo.

Thomas Mann gained world fame with his first major work, "Buddenbrooks," published in 1901. As hard as his children tried, they would never outdo him. The family called him the "magician," based on his 1924 novel "The Magic Mountain." Mann won the Nobel Prize in 1929.

They were "a brother and sister who made their way in the world through their wit, audacity and their father's name," writes Lahme to describe the two older children, Erika and Klaus. They were part of Berlin's artistic scene under the Weimar Republic. Erika was an actress and Klaus established his name as a writer. Pictured here: Gustaf Gründgens, Erika Mann, Pamela Wedekind, and Klaus Mann.

Erika Mann married the actor Gustav Gründgens. Klaus Mann got engaged to Pamela Wedekind, but she later married Carl Sternheim, who was the father of a mutual friend, Dorothea. And Erika was actually in love with Pamela. The Mann family would openly speak and write about homosexuality.

Klaus Mann wrote about homosexuality in his novel in a clearly autobiographical way. His brother Golo was more discrete about it. He was also a writer, but later became an established historian, who is still recognized to this day. It would also earn him his father's recognition.

During the family's exile in the US, as they fled from the Nazis, Erika Mann would develop her political voice and served to a certain extent as the "public relations officer of the family," according to biographer Tilmann Lahme. Erika publicized the Mann family's struggle against Hitler.

The entire family was opposed to Hitler earlier than practically all intellectuals at the time. Thomas Mann's brother, author Heinrich Mann, was also one of the strongest voices against the Nazis, but he is not part of Lahme's biography. He chose to focus on Thomas Mann's nuclear family.

Exile bound the family together. They relied on each other - financially, too - and couldn't avoid each other. The fact that they could not live in Germany during Nazi rule and were not received with open arms in 1945 strongly contributed to their unhappiness, believes author Tilmann Lahme.

The children could hold on to happy memories spent on the Curonian Spit on the Baltic Sea, as pictured here in 1930. Thomas Mann poses with his children Elisabeth and Michael, as well as two other kids, in front of their summer house in Nida. These cheerful days would not guarantee a happy end: Klaus Mann committed suicide in 1949 in Cannes. Thomas Mann died in 1955.

The last member of Thomas Mann's immediate family died on February 8, 2002. The youngest daughter was the only one in the family who, according to Lahme, managed to break away from her father's influence. She also happened to be Thomas Mann's favorite child. Just a day before she died, she was skiing in St. Moritz, Switzerland.