Golo Mann

René Descartes: Discours de la méthode et choix de lettres françaises (title page) | © BSB

In addition to books from the private library of Thomas Mann, also one book owned by his son Golo (1909 – 1994) could be located.

Thomas Mann (restitution)

It is the book "Discours de la méthode et choix de lettres françaises" by René Descartes, published in 1884 (BSB classification mark: 41.909). It could be allocated to Golo Mann on the basis of a handwritten note dated 1928. He presumably bought the book in the summer of 1928 during his six-week stay in Paris. An earlier stamp indicates that the Lycée Lakanal there had been the previous owner.

Lycée Lakanal

After the National Socialists had confiscated Thomas Mann's villa in Munich on 25 August 1933, the title came to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in 1940 via the Gestapo. With the permission of the heirs, the book was handed to the Swiss Literature Archive in Bern on 3 February 2017, where Golo Mann's personal papers are preserved.

Swiss Literature Archive

The restituted title is still shown in BSB DISCOVER! and can be viewed in the form of a digital copy.

René Descartes: Discours de la méthode et choix de lettres françaises (digital version)