Yes, certainly the German reader recognized himself in the simple-minded but shrewd young hero of the novel. He could and would be guided by him."
Mann's works represent a successful synthesis of the artist's egotistical need to produce and the world citizen's desire to express his ideas in a universally intelligible way. He saw Der Zauberberg as a document of the "europäischen Seelenverfassung und geistigen Problematik im ersten Drittel des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts" (European mentality and intellectual dilemma of the first third of the twentieth century). He realized that for a work to be successful, the artistic wishes of the author and the concerns of the times must be fused into one whole. To achieve this aim, Mann consciously assumed the task of representing Germany's venerable cultural tradition in the intellectual world.
After receiving the Nobel Prize Mann regarded it as his responsibility to play the role of diplomat for the "good" Germany, particularly in the face of the historical catastrophe he saw coming. Americans harbored no suspicion that Mann might be a National Socialist, and, unlike many contemporary intellectuals, he did not look to Moscow for a utopian solution, either.
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