,,Das ganze Haus“. Wilhelms Riehls Die Familie (1855) und Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks

Abstract

This article deals with the complex relationship between Thomas Mann’s first novel Buddenbrooks and the study Die Familie (1855) by the conservative historian Wilhelm Riehl. It attempts to show that Riehl’s thinking might have had a much stronger influence on Buddenbrooks than previously assumed. The article also seeks to clarify the attraction this particular source appears to have held for the young Thomas Mann: his fascination for Riehl may be part and parcel of a complex governing Mann’s early work that only recently started to attract scholarly attention, namely Mann’s attempts to come to terms with the reconfiguration of the relationship between ‘center’ and ‘periphery’ in a newly unified German Empire. (JR; in German)