The book was first published in German in November of It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of twentieth-century German literature. Mann started writing The Magic Mountain in It began as a novella that revisited aspects of Death in Venice another novel written by Mann in a humorous way. The newer work reflected his experiences and impressions during a period when his wife, whom was suffering from respiratory disease , resided at Dr.
Friedrich Jessen's [ de ] Waldsanatorium in Davos , Switzerland. In May and June , Mann visited her and became acquainted with the team of doctors and patients. According to Mann, in the afterword, that was later included in the English translation of his novel, this stay inspired his opening chapter "Arrival".
The outbreak of World War I interrupted his work on the book. Like many other Germans, Mann supported the German Empire. In response to intellectuals with an anti-war stance, Thomas Mann wrote a long essay, Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man , which came out in However, his position was shaken by these intellectuals, such as his older brother Heinrich , who, unlike Thomas, did not support the German state. On the contrary, Heinrich was the author of the satirical novel Der Untertan and the essay " Zola ", where he defended the idea of an inevitable defeat of Germany which would then lead to its democratization.
The end of the war led Thomas Mann to rethink his position, and in he changed the tone of the novel to reflect the reality of war rather than a romanticized depiction of it, and to include conflict between characters that was inspired by the one between his brother and himself.
Mann undertook a major re-examination of European bourgeois society. He explored the sources of the destructiveness displayed by much of civilized humanity. He was also drawn to speculate about more general questions related to personal attitudes to life, health, illness, sexuality, and mortality.
