Buddenbrooks

Thomas Mann’s story of the Buddenbrooks, a merchant family, describes the decline of a bourgeois world in which commercial virtues, marrying well, and an impeccable family history are given precedence over the happiness of the individual. In the generation of siblings Thomas, Tony and Christian, the Buddenbrooks’ commercial and family fortunes gradually dwindle, culminating in the death of Hanno, the last possible son and heir. As “links in a chain,” the Buddenbrooks are subject to familial and economic constraints, fear of failure and excessive pressure. At the same time, the novel heralds far greater cultural and social upheavals, which involve the renegotiation of seemingly immutable, unilateral privileges. Initially conceived as a novella by Thomas Mann, the novel grew into the monumental family saga for which he would later be awarded the Nobel Prize. Bastian Kraft, who most recently directed “Homo faber” at the Schauspielhaus, is now bringing his own version of this seminal novel to the stage.