Stefan George, Thomas Mann, and the Politics of Homoeroticism 1

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Stefan George and Thomas Mann envisioned starkly different futures for Germany: the former espoused a geheimes Deutschland , a geistiges Reich that would limit itself to an intellectual elite, while the latter—after coming to terms with the consequences of World War One—championed the cause of democracy. In this paper, I argue that the political differences dividing George and Mann must be read as a disagreement over the question of how homoeroticism would figure in the new Germany. The argument culminates in my claim that, in his novel Der Zauberberg , Mann performs a subtle yet trenchant critique of George, his homoerotic theology, and his circle in general.