Join Goethe-Institut New York for the opening of our exhibition Thomas Mann: Democracy Will Win! featuring a keynote address by Mark Lilla titled “Thomas Mann: Artist in Democracy.”
Intellectuals, scientists, and artists bear a special responsibility in a democracy. Their observations, counter-designs, exaggerations, or warnings are an indispensable part of the social debate. “It is a terrible spectacle when the irrational becomes popular,” said German writer and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann in 1943 in his famous speech at the Library of Congress. How he countered this is of inspiring topicality. For today we are witnessing that the fundamental values of democracy are once again being called into question, that populism and nationalism are putting our democratic society under massive pressure. The exhibition Thomas Mann: Democracy will win! is intended as a concrete contribution to the current debate on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades forms the spatial and metaphorical center of the exhibition. The world-famous writer promoted a new understanding of democracy from his desk in California. Today, the Los Angeles house is once again at the service of intellectual exchange and transatlantic understanding.
Info:
When: 09/09/21 at 6:00pm
Location: 30 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003
For more information please visit www.goethe.de and register here. To attend – proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required, and attendees must wear a mask.