Mann, Gottfried Angelo

▪ 1995

      ("GOLO"), German-born historian (b. March 27, 1909, Munich, Germany—d. April 7, 1994, Leverkusen, Germany), was best known for his classic text Deutsche Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts (1958; The History of Germany Since 1789, 1968) and for his somewhat unorthodox conviction that National Socialism was "an historically unique phenomenon, dependent on an individual and on a moment," rather than an expression of the German national character. Mann, who was the son of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann, studied philosophy at the Universities of Munich, Berlin, and Heidelberg (Ph.D., 1932). After leaving Germany with his family in 1933, he taught German literature and history at Rennes (France) University (1935-36) and edited (1937-40) a Swiss literary journal, Mass und Wert. He was interned by the Nazis in 1940, but he escaped and moved to the U.S., where he taught at Olivet (Mich.) College (1942-43) and Claremont (Calif.) Men's College (1947-57). He returned to Germany in 1958 and was professor of history and political science at Stuttgart Technical University from 1960 until he retired from academia in 1964. Later he worked as a television commentator. Mann's other published works include Wallenstein: Sein Leben erzählt (1971; Wallenstein: His Life Narrated, 1976) and an autobiography, Erinnerungen und Gedanken: Eine Jugend in Deutschland (1986; Reminiscences and Reflections: A Youth in Germany, 1990). He won the Goethe Prize in 1985.

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