Heinrich Mann

Luiz (Ludwig) Heinrich Mann (27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950) was a German novelist who wrote works with strong social themes. His numerous criticisms of the growth of fascism forced him to flee for his life after the Nazis came to power in 1933.

Born in Lübeck, as the oldest child of Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann and Júlia da Silva Bruhns, he was the elder brother of novelist Thomas Mann. His father came from an affluent family of grain merchants and was a senator of the Hanseatic city. After the death of his father, his mother moved the family to Munich, where Heinrich began his career as a freier Schriftsteller (free novelist).

Mann's essay on Émile Zola and the novel Der Untertan earned him much respect during the Weimar Republic, since they satirized German society and explained how its political system had led to the First World War. Eventually, his book Professor Unrat was freely adapted into the legendary movie Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel). Carl Zuckmayer wrote the script, and Josef von Sternberg was the director. The book's author wanted his girlfriend, the actress Trude Hesterberg, to play the lead, but Marlene Dietrich was given her first sound role as the "actress" Lola Lola (named Rosa Fröhlich in the novel).

Together with Albert Einstein and other celebrities in 1932, Mann was a signatory to the "Urgent Call for Unity", asking (unsuccessfully) the voters to reject the Nazis. Einstein and Mann had previously co-authored a letter in 1931 condemning the murder of Croatian scholar Milan Šufflay.

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