PACIFIC PALISADES. THOMAS MANN HOUSE

April 18, 1938, Thomas Mann wrote in his diary: "warm summer day, wearing light suit, on an architectural tour with Richard Neutra and his wife…"

Mann had just arrived in Los Angeles with his wife and their daughter Erika, a visit that was part of a tour of talks titled "The Coming Victory of Democracy" that had been organized by his publisher. Over the course of the tour, the Manns decided to spend a few days in Los Angeles, and it was precisely in that circumstance that for the first time Mann met the famous Modernist architect in the city that would soon become his new residence.

The political and social climate in Germany had become unbearable as early as 1933, the year of Mann's last public appearance at the University of Munich. On that occasion Mann criticized the links between Nazism and German art, referring in particular to Wagner whom he was a great fan of, and upsetting the Nationalists who were present in the room, and not only them.

Mann soon understood that Germany had become a place that was not for the free thinker like him, whereupon he moved to Küsnacht, near Zurich, in Switzerland.

The first years of voluntary exile were tough ones for the German writer. Years of torment, doubts, and endless night-time reflections that convinced him to leave a Europe that was being torn apart by the winds of Nazism.

After three semesters of teaching at Princeton, Thomas Mann, tired of the sleepy town in New Jersey and probably thinking about that walk he had taken with Richard Neutra in California, decided to settle permanently on the West Coast.

The first place where the writer and his family lived, 740 di Amalfi Drive in Brentwood, was rather modest. However, the new neighborhood was filled with stimuli. Pacific Palisades is an area in the western part of the city of Los Angeles, located between Brentwood, Malibù, Topanga, and Santa Monica. The Riviera, which was the name of the neighborhood, was a safe haven for a large number of European exiles, including Eva Herrmann, Aldous Huxley, Bruno Frank, Ludwig Marcuse, Salka Viertel, Max Horkheimer, Arnold Schoenberg, and many others, and it was becoming an example of gentrification ante litteram of that corner of California. Besides that, Thomas Mann very much admired the nature there and wrote down in his diary: "hilly landscape strikingly similar to Tuscany. I have what I wanted—the light; the dry, always refreshing warmth; the spaciousness compared with Princeton." This ensemble of factors led him to make the decision to build a permanent home in this part of America. And that was when the figure of Richard Neutra came into the picture.

A great deal has been written about the architectural tours that Richard Neutra would organize with his clients. He even went so far as to fly by night over several areas to evaluate the exposure that his buildings could have had under the moonlight.

At the time of his walk with the Manns, Neutra was already an affirmed architect, the champion of new architectural theories that were about to change the landscape of some parts of California. In 1938 Neutra had already built across the vast area of Los Angeles: Lovell Health House, Van der Leeuw House, Scheyer House, Sten-Frenke House, to name some of the most important ones. Although we do not know which houses were actually visited, we do know that Thomas Mann was rather struck by the architect's style. The note he jotted down in his diary on April 18 was concise and to the point: "…cubic glass-box style, very unpleasant."

And that was when an unexpected, almost singular quarrel began between the two men.

On the one hand, the architect, a follower of Frank Lloyd Wright and someone who was revolutionizing the building style and panorama of most of California; on the other, the Nobel Prize winner who wanted to be as much a part of the new reality around him as possible.

This desire to be immersed in Californian culture could also be seen in the shape that he wanted his new house to have. Neutra, with the incredible intuition he was famous for, had understood exactly what Mann wanted, and had convinced himself that he and he alone could be the architect who designed the home of the famous writer. It was this very conviction that complicated things between them.

Neutra didn't understand how Mann could possibly not be blown away by his style; he could not imagine that that very modern "cubic glass-box style" was not admired and desired by Mann. The writer, on his part, had a very clear and personal vision of his new home which, unfortunately, did not reflect the style of the highly acclaimed architect.

Legend has it that Neutra did everything he possibly could to meet and convince Mann. The Riviera was a lively neighborhood and there were lots of dinner parties and chances to meet. But at the umpteenth attempt made by the architect to meet with Mann during a party at the home of Vicki Baum, Thomas Mann put an end to the matter, shouting out in no uncertain terms: “Get that Neutra off my back!”

Neutra was probably greatly offended, but now Mann could finally continue his search for the best architect for his needs.

Two names came up: Paul Laszlo and Julius Ralph Davidson. Names prevalently chosen because they were both of European origin, they were both native speakers of German, and—probably most importantly of all—because they were part of that group of intellectuals who animated the life of the Riviera.

The projects put forward by Paul Laszlo at first attracted the writer and his wife Katia, but the costs were too high, and there were other problems related to the plan as well, so in the end the couple chose JR Davidson.

1550 San Remo Drive, Pacific Palisades: this was the address chosen by the Manns and their architect to finally build their home in California.

Mann's desire to live in a Modernist home, albeit not his favorite style, was due to his aspiration to  fit into the California milieu as much as possible; he wanted to immerse himself in the culture that had so intrigued and welcomed him. These in fact were the words he wrote in his diary:  “it is a blessing to me to sink roots into this soil, and every new tie confirms me in my feeling of being at home… I find people here good-natured to the point of generosity in comparison with Europeans, and feel pleasantly sheltered in their midst.”

While the outside of the home reflected, in a watered down version, the Modernist style that was characterized by large windows and the total absence of non-functional ornamentation, the interior  was initially quite striking.

While the architectural project was entrusted to one of the architects closest to the Modernist Movement—it should come as no surprise that the works of JR Davidson were the subject of the photographic research of the prophet of this particular style, Julius Shulman—for the interiors Thomas Mann hired Paul Huldschinsky, a friend from Berlin whose style was quite distant from the Modern California taste that was usually chosen to decorate the new residences in the state.

It seems the choice really irked Davidson who had to give in to his client's wishes. After crossing the threshold of "Seven Palms," as the Mann home was referred to because of the marvelous palm trees that adorned it, one was indeed catapulted into another dimension made up of traditional wooden furniture, sofas with floral upholstery, and numerous Persian carpets set down on the wall-to-wall carpeting. The feeling was that you were entering Mann's villa in Munich, a sort of museum dedicated to his beloved lost homeland. And it is precisely thanks to the exteriors and the interiors  of "Seven Palms" that we can understand something more about the complexity of the entire episode, and glimpse an interesting aspect of the writer's psychology. A duality that well explains Mann's complex relationship, and presumably that of all the German exiles on American soil, between the nostalgia for of the country they had left and that of the new country.

Today, after it was acquired by the German federal government and after its subsequent restoration, "Seven Palms" can be visited by appointment. It has become the site of an important residency program that offers intellectuals the chance to do research in harmony with the spirit of its original owner, breathing in that duality that permeated all those years of Mann's own residence in America.