Mitteilung des Instituts

The novel Buddenbrooks. Verfall einer Familie celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2026. To mark the occasion, the Buddenbrookhaus / Heinrich and Thomas Mann Centre and the Lübeck University of Music are jointly organizing a multi-part lecture series at Villa Brahms. Over the course of seven events, beginning on February 17, distinguished speakers will be invited to Lübeck.

For what is arguably the most successful debut novel in the German language, Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 28 years after the publication of Buddenbrooks. The novel traces the fate of the merchant family Mann across four generations—from their social ascent to their financial decline. While the text articulates a farewell to the bourgeois age of the nineteenth century, it simultaneously addresses themes of enduring relevance beyond its specific historical context. Viewed from diverse perspectives—ranging from politics and religion to family, society, and work—the novel explores the relationship between the individual and the community.

Among the speakers in the lecture series are the author Susanne Fritz, the renowned Thomas Mann scholar and former director of the Lübeck Museums, Hans Wißkirchen, the literary scholar Irmtraud Hnilica, and the initiators and operators of the Lübeck columbarium DIE EICHE. Each lecture will be framed by the music theorist Jan-Christian Wagner with carefully curated musical works that play a central role in Buddenbrooks. Students of the Lübeck University of Music will thus render the novel sensorially tangible and musically audible.

The lecture series “Eine Stadt liest einen Roman – 125 Jahre Buddenbrooks” will take place at four-week intervals beginning February 17 at Villa Brahms. Each evening begins at 7:00 p.m., with admission from 6:30 p.m. Afterwards, guests are warmly invited to continue the conversation over a drink.

The lectures will be recorded and subsequently made available online.

Location:
Brahms-Institut an der Musikhochschule Lübeck
Jerusalemsberg 4
23568 Lübeck

Eintritt: 11€/8€
Tickets unter www.buddenbrookhaus.de oder im Museumsshop »Buddenbrooks am Markt« (Markt 15).