Klaus Mann (1906-1949) German writer, publicist. A troubled, vibrant individual, the son of Thomas Mann. The author, who rejected National Socialism and inhumanity, was stripped of his citizenship and forced to emigrate in 1933. This novel of his, published in Amsterdam in 1936, is now a teaching material in German schools.
The book is a worldwide success, but perhaps the love of the Hungarian public is the most constant. The film version of the play, directed by István Szabó, won an Oscar, and Róbert Alföldi, as director of the National Theater, said goodbye to the theater with the stage adaptation in 2013.
The main character, Hendrik Höfgen, played what was asked of him: "He could be worldly elegant, but he could also be tragic... His sparkling wit charmed, his haughtily raised chin, his snappy commanding words and his nervously proud demeanor impressed him, his humble, helplessly brooding gaze, aloof, kind he was moved by his confusion. He was kind or rude, gruff or tender, perky or broken - exactly according to the role on the show."
In life, the actor played the role of a lover, a friend, a husband, later that of a revolutionary theatre-maker, and then, as a benefactor of the Third Reich, the court jester. He studied and grew fat in power, all the while "carefully avoiding uttering a single word of truth."