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Faustus in the cathedral city: Freising's place in world literature - and a citizen from a prominent family

Created: 02/05/2022, 02:00 p.m

Viktor Mann came to Freising in 1911.

This picture was taken around this time.

The recording was made in Polling.

As a writer he appeared with the book "We were five: Portrait of the Mann family" in 1949.

© Image rights: Thomas Mann Archive Zurich

Viktor Mann once studied in Weihenstephan.

And his brother, the writer Thomas Mann, created a literary monument in Freising with the Dr.

Faustus.

Freising

– With the “Buddenbrooks”, “The Confessions of the Conman Felix Krull” and “The Magic Mountain”, the writer Thomas Mann (1875 - 1955) created literature that still captivates numerous readers today and it is impossible to imagine life without it Canon of the most important books of our time.

Between 1943 and 1947, however, Thomas Mann wrote a novel that will always and forever associate Freising with his work: "Doctor Faustus - The life of the German composer Adrian Leverkühn, told by a friend" begins his literary journey in the cathedral city

It is possible that Thomas Mann also wanted to erect a quiet memorial to his younger brother Viktor.

The connection

Viktor Mann studied from 1911 to 1914 in the agricultural department of the Weihenstephan Academy.

He lived at "Hauptstrasse 7" in Freising.

© Image rights: Thomas Mann Archive Zurich

Viktor Mann (1890-1949) studied from 1911 to 1914 in the agricultural department of the Weihenstephan Academy in Freising.

The FT research in the city archive shows that Viktor Mann was registered in Freising from October 19, 1910, at Hauptstraße 7, as a subtenant with Kraml.

What is surprising here, however, is that Viktor Mann moved out again on March 19, 1911 and most likely left Freising - or found somewhere else without official notification, which was probably not unusual in student circles.

It was not until 1919 that the trail could be resumed due to a note on the TU Munich registration form for the summer semester of 1911.

Viktor Mann registers with TUM again in 1919 after, according to records, he had served in the army from 1914 to 1918.

However, whether he spent a time here in Freising again can no longer be proven and is also quite improbable.

As a writer, Viktor Mann appeared “only” with his family play “We Were Five: Portrait of the Mann Family” from 1949.

The homage?

However, another person appeared in Freising in 1907, who under certain circumstances could also have inspired Thomas Mann to move the narrator of Doctor Faustus to Freising. The teacher candidate Adolf Ammer (1894 - ?), according to the research of the non-fiction author and Thomas Mann expert Dirk Heiserer (source: Literatur in Bayern, Literaturzeitschrift), sent a letter to Thomas in 1912 with a very specific request for a (probably) literary contribution Man – who, however, kindly declined. At that time, Ammer, who lived on Unteren Graben, was studying at the Royal School Teachers' College in Freising, which was housed on Domberg until 1969. However, it remains unclear whether Thomas Mann knew about it, because the address used by the writer is quite sparse.Whether it was a homage to Viktor Mann, Adolf Ammer or even both remains largely unclear.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

Faustus and Freising

What is certain, however, is that in 1943, in the years after the war, the fictitious high school professor Serenus Zeitblom began to tell the Faust story of his childhood friend and composer Adrian Leverkühn in Freising.

Zeitblom, who has taken early retirement since 1933, has accepted a position as a teacher and lecturer (at the theological college) on Domberg and spends his time in seclusion in a small study room.

Thomas Mann immortalized the cathedral city of Freising and also the mons doctus in his novel Dr.

Faustus.

And there was also a letter contact in the episcopal city.

© Image rights: Thomas Mann Archive Zurich

Whether this room is actually located on the Toompea is not described in the novel, but emerges from the context, because it is quite obvious based on the customs of the time when it came to accommodating teachers.

For the Thomas Mann expert, Hoterer, this small study is more or less a code for the writing room of the Nobel Prize winner for literature.

For Hotter, Thomas Mann keeps flying over to Germany in his “Faustian magic cloak from the Californian place of writing in the Pacific Palisades” to settle down in Freising.

Additionally fascinating

There is one thing that is also fascinating about this novel: Thomas Mann begins writing on the same day as Serenus Zeitblom, namely on May 23, 1943 – although not in Nazi Germany, but from exile in America.

One thing becomes clear: while Freisinger Zeitblom chose internal emigration, Thomas Mann chose an external one by leaving Germany – in contrast to Viktor, who stayed in Munich.

key figures

And that too remains interesting: While Thomas Mann with his novel character Monsignor Hinterpförtner, the fictional head of the Freising Theological University, probably also created a literary monument to the resistance fighter Kurt Huber, in retrospect another name can also be mentioned here, the could be valid for rear porters: Josef Furtmeier, the philosopher of the White Rose from Moosburg an der Isar.

Part of world literature

Were Viktor or Ammer actually indirectly responsible for Zeitblom's study through their stay in Freising?

This thesis cannot be conclusively clarified - the only correspondence from Thomas Mann to Freising is the brief refusal for Ammer, an exchange of letters between the two brothers to and from Freising has not survived.

What is painfully missing in Freising itself, however, are references to Viktor Mann, but also to Zeitblom - because Freising is and will remain a part of world literature.

Reading tips:

Doctor Faustus

by Thomas Mann, Fischer-Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-596-29428-2

We were five

by Viktor Mann, Fischer-Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-596-12275-2,

In the magic garden

- Thomas Mann in Bavaria by Dirk Heiserer, CH Beck-Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-406-52871-2

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