The Conservative Romance of Hans Pfitzner and Thomas Mann

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>During World War I, the novelist Thomas Mann found a kindred spirit in the composer Hans Pfitzner, especially his opera “Palestrina,” which he saw as embodying German values of tradition and conservatism. But, after the war, the two artist’s paths diverged as Mann became a defender of democracy and Pfitzner an ardent Nazi. Pfitzner accused Mann of abandoning their shared principles, but really it was Pfitzner himself who betrayed them. Both men agreed that the artist should be conservative, ironic, aristocratic. But only Mann understood that while these qualities are in tension with the democratic ethos, they are completely incompatible with totalitarianism, which wants to destroy the past and drown the individual.</jats:p>