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German Film Adaptations of Jewish Characters in Thomas Mann

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German Film Adaptations of Jewish Characters in Thomas Mann Yahya Elsaghe German Film Adaptations of Jewish Characters in Thomas Mann Jewish characters figure prominently in Thomas Mann’s narrative works and are, espe- cially in his early novels and novellas, regularly marked by anti-Semitic stereotypes. This article examines the comparatively large number of films based on the works of Thomas Mann in the light of the question whether and how the anti-Semitic undercur- rent of the written texts surfaces when they are adapted for film. In one way or another, all of these post-war productions are related to the specific role Thomas Mann played, and continues to play, in the process of German collective self-reassurance. Jewish characters appear in almost all of Thomas Mann’s novels, and in many of his novellas. Especially in the early works, on which the author’s canonical status is founded and which have also been predominantly considered for film adapta- tions, such Jewish characters carry the stereotypical marks of anti-Semitism. To name only a few examples of the most ubiquitous of all somatic stereotypes, the “Jewish” “nose”:1 In Buddenbrooks, Hermann Hagenström’s “rather flat nose” ‘hangs’ “down over his upper lip”.2 In the novella Tristan, Detlev Spinell’s “nose” is “squat and a bit too fleshy”.3 In Blood of the Volsungs, the Aarenhold twins have the “same slightly downpressed nose”.4 And in Royal Highness, Doctor Sammet’s “nose, which” is “too broad at the bottom, point[s] to his origin”.5 That these noses tend to be only “rather”, “slightly” or “a bit too” “flat”, “fleshy” and “downpressed” ‘points to’ the position of Mann’s texts within the history of Jewish assimilation. The origin of these slightly downpressed noses is usually not made explicit, which is part and parcel of a specific experimental arrangement. The experiment, in which the texts are thus offering to engage their readers, 1 Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain. A Novel. Trans. by John E. Woods. New York: Vintage 1996. P. 379; Gesammelte Werke. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer 2nd ed. 1974. Vol. 3. P. 534: “Judennase”. 2 Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks. The Decline of a Family. Trans. by John E. Woods. New York: Vintage 1994. P. 59; Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 1. P. 64: “aber seine Nase lag ein wenig platt auf der Oberlippe”. 3 Thomas Mann: Death in Venice and Other Tales. Trans. by Joachim Neugroschel. Harmondsworth: Penguin 1998. P. 112; Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 8. P. 223: “die Nase gedrungen und ein wenig zu fleischig”. 4 Death in Venice and Other Tales. P. 256; Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 8. P. 381: “dieselbe ein wenig niedergedrückte Nase”. 5 Thomas Mann: Royal Highness. Trans. by A. Cecil Curtis. London: Sidgwick & Jackson 1916. P. 18; Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 2. P. 28: “seine Nase, zu flach auf den Schnurrbart abfallend, deutete auf seine Herkunft hin”. 134 consists in identifying ‘the Jew’even where his typical markers are only “slightly” visible. With regard to the namings of the characters, the texts play the same sort of detective game. The significance of the ‘Jewish’ names is usually not made explicit; instead, it is left to be deduced by the readers themselves. Thus, the texts are again meeting the readers’ desire to recognize ‘the’ Jew under any given cir- cumstances. Held against Wagner’s Ring, “Hagenström” certainly becomes a telling name – the traitor Hagen in Fritz Lang’s Nibelungen also carrying a set of overstereotyped ‘Jewish’markers –; besides, in the early conceptions of the novel, this character was supposed to bear the probably most typical of all Jewish last names: “Kohn”; and even now, in the final version, Hagenström’s mother is née Semlinger from Frankfurt, whose name at closer scrutiny thus ‘points’ back ‘to’ Shem, the common ancestor of all Semites.6 Likewise, the Aarenholds’ surname ‘points to’ a descendant of Shem’s. The Aarenholds’ family’s friends in turn bear a ‘Jewish’ name too: “Erlanger[]”, a marker of Jewishness by way of its typical reference to city of origin (Erlangen). Furthermore, in accordance with a frequent type of Jewish self- naming – after merchandise – Dr Sammet is the bearer of a ‘textile’ name eas- ily decipherable as Jewish. And the same generative grammar of Jewish names seems also to have generated the name “Spinell”, which is as such not verifi- able: As Mann’s excerpts from an encyclopedia complacently state, ‘spinel’ is a mineral and only in certain instances a jewel7 (the jewel, of course, being a typically ‘Jewish’ merchandise). It is here that the significance of the name as stigma is addressed, if only indirectly, when a character asks back: “What is the gentleman’s name, […] Spinelli?”.8 Dr Leander, a successfully assimilated Jew and a textbook example of ‘Jewish self-hatred’, answers by playing down, yet simultaneously emphasizing his own knowledge of Spinell’s obviously shame- ful origin: “Spinell… not Spinelli […]. No, he’s no Italian. He was simply” – “bloß”9 – “born in Lemberg, as far as I know…”.10 Thus, the game that Mann’s early works keep offering their readers might be called: How can we recognize the Jew under the circumstances of his virtually perfect assimilation? Therefore, these texts and their early reception belong to 6 Gen. 10:21–32; The Bible. Authorized King James Version with Apocryphia. Introd. by Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1997. P. 11. 7 Thomas Mann: Notizbücher. Ed. by Hans Wysling and Yvonne Schmidlin. Vol. 2. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer 1992. P. 28; italics added. 8 Death in Venice and Other Tales. P. 114; Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 8. P. 225: “‘Wie heißt der Herr?’ fragte sie… ‘Spinelli?’ ”. 9 Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 8. P. 225. 10 Death in Venice and Other Tales. P. 114; Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 8. P. 225: “Spinell… nicht Spinelli […]. Nein, er ist kein Italiener, sondern bloß aus Lemberg gebürtig, soviel ich weiß…”.
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