Well, how is your German? I think the only family study translated into English is the one by Marcel Reich Ranicki, who is such a Thomas fanboy that "but Thomas was superior" is the constant red thread through all his utterings.
In German in recent decades, you have Helmut Koopmann's study of the entire relationship as well as Hanjo Kesting's collection of documents relating to the feud. But for my money, you can't beat the original source, i.e. the correnspondance. There used to be a wonderful audio version but alas, I don't think it's available anymore.
Fictionalized stuff: one of my complaints about Heinrich Breloer's Die Manns. Ein Jahrhundertroman (tv docudrama in several episodes) is that he starts with the Thomas and Heinrich reconciliation in the early 20s (and only very briefly mentions what they were arguing about). Now it could be claimed he did this because his main focus was on Thomas & his children (with a subplot about Heinrich's relationship with Nelly, which, btw, is quite well done), as well as Thomas & his repressed homosexuality, but I do suspect it's because Breloer didn't want to devote at least one episode to his main character being entirely wrong about world historic event. That, and Armin Müller-Stahl plays Thomas so static, with bare flickers indicating when he's troubled by a pretty waiter etc., that you can't imagine him pulling something footstomping like "no, your behaviour was extreme!"
Then there's Tales from Hollywood by Christopher Hampton. (Yes, of Dangerous Liasons fame.) Its premise is a "what if?" where Ödön von Horvath isn't hit by a branch on the Champs Elysees and dies, as in reality, but ends up in exile in Hollywood with the rest and is our entertaining pov character, with the brothers Mann and Brecht being the German writers most prominently featured. It's take on Thomas Mann and Brecht is hilarious, while Heinrich is written very sympathetically, and Nelly is the tragic heroine of the play. There's a tv version directed by Howard Davies, with Jeremy Irons as Horvath, Alec Guinness as Heinrich Mann, Robin Bailey as Thomas Mann and Sinead Cusack as Nelly. If you can get a hold on it, watch, same if the play is staged near your vicinity.
What's utterly lacking is a good take, either non fiction or fiction, on their younger days or even just the era leading up to WWI, which is a shame because that one would have to use the sisters, Carla and Julia (aka Lula), who I feel are always overlooked when it comes to the sibling dynamic to which they were pretty important. Not to mention that with their two suicides, they make a case of something being seriously off in that family long before Thomas' children started to kill themselves.
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In German in recent decades, you have Helmut Koopmann's study of the entire relationship as well as Hanjo Kesting's collection of documents relating to the feud. But for my money, you can't beat the original source, i.e. the correnspondance. There used to be a wonderful audio version but alas, I don't think it's available anymore.
Fictionalized stuff: one of my complaints about Heinrich Breloer's Die Manns. Ein Jahrhundertroman (tv docudrama in several episodes) is that he starts with the Thomas and Heinrich reconciliation in the early 20s (and only very briefly mentions what they were arguing about). Now it could be claimed he did this because his main focus was on Thomas & his children (with a subplot about Heinrich's relationship with Nelly, which, btw, is quite well done), as well as Thomas & his repressed homosexuality, but I do suspect it's because Breloer didn't want to devote at least one episode to his main character being entirely wrong about world historic event. That, and Armin Müller-Stahl plays Thomas so static, with bare flickers indicating when he's troubled by a pretty waiter etc., that you can't imagine him pulling something footstomping like "no, your behaviour was extreme!"
Then there's Tales from Hollywood by Christopher Hampton. (Yes, of Dangerous Liasons fame.) Its premise is a "what if?" where Ödön von Horvath isn't hit by a branch on the Champs Elysees and dies, as in reality, but ends up in exile in Hollywood with the rest and is our entertaining pov character, with the brothers Mann and Brecht being the German writers most prominently featured. It's take on Thomas Mann and Brecht is hilarious, while Heinrich is written very sympathetically, and Nelly is the tragic heroine of the play. There's a tv version directed by Howard Davies, with Jeremy Irons as Horvath, Alec Guinness as Heinrich Mann, Robin Bailey as Thomas Mann and Sinead Cusack as Nelly. If you can get a hold on it, watch, same if the play is staged near your vicinity.
What's utterly lacking is a good take, either non fiction or fiction, on their younger days or even just the era leading up to WWI, which is a shame because that one would have to use the sisters, Carla and Julia (aka Lula), who I feel are always overlooked when it comes to the sibling dynamic to which they were pretty important. Not to mention that with their two suicides, they make a case of something being seriously off in that family long before Thomas' children started to kill themselves.