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Heinrich Mann was early.

The exodus of German intellectuals did not begin until after the fire in the Reichstag on February 27, 1933.

Now the rumor was going around that after the Reichstag elections, i.e. at the beginning of March, a large wave of arrests would come, which would then also fall victim to prominent representatives of the Weimar Republic such as Heinrich Mann.

What made the author of the novel, who had gone around the world only a few years earlier in the film version of the "Blue Angel", so unpopular with the Nazis?

Well, he had been agitating against them since they had gained strength, had fought for a left united front in 1931 in order to break their power, and the appeal he had initiated had once again been on the advertising pillars after Hitler was appointed Chancellor.

The new masters did not want to accept that.

Bernhard Rust, who was still provisional in his later office as minister of culture, then put pressure on the president of the Prussian Academy of the Arts: If Heinrich Mann does not immediately resign from his position as head of the poetry section, the venerable institution will be dissolved.

On foot over the Rhine bridge

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Both the President and Heinrich Mann bowed to the pressure on February 15.

Well, and six days later Heinrich Mann left his apartment at Fasanenstrasse 61, bought a ticket to Frankfurt, boarded the train with only a small suitcase.

The next day he drove on to Karlsruhe, from there to Kehl.

He crossed the Rhine bridge on foot - and was safe.

He should never enter Germany again.

Heinrich Mann in his heyday around 1930

Source: ullstein picture - Atelier Balassa

As I said: he was lucky enough to be early.

But how did he come to such a far-sighted, wise decision?

Who warned him?

Heinrich Mann provided a version in his memoir "An Age Is Visited" according to which he had been alarmed since the events in the academy.

But he still held out, “in anticipation of one last, unmistakable sign.

It took place as requested, in a friendly house, wonderful music was made, the buffet was in a safe state - the movers were already waiting outside - when the French ambassador François-Poncet came up to me.

He only spoke this sentence: 'If you come across Pariser Platz, my house is open to you.' "

Count Kessler again

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Both the academy and the French embassy were on Pariser Platz;

the narrative is therefore conclusive and not without effect.

Thanks to Manfred Flügge's excellent Heinrich Mann biography, we know, however, that it was not a high-potential personality like François-Poncet who gave the writer the important hint at the time, but the far less well-known State Secretary of the Interior, Wilhelm Abegg, who was also on the hit list was standing.

Heinrich Mann (r.) In the Prussian Academy of the Arts

Source: ullstein picture - Erich Salomon

And from whom has it fledged?

Again from Harry Graf Kessler.

He is and remains the primary source for everything that happened in Berlin society between 1900 and 1933, thanks to his famous diaries.

And there is another, more precise version of that evening at Georg Bernhard, the editor-in-chief of the “Vossische Zeitung”, on February 19th.

There it says: “Abegg spoke to me for a long time about the situation.

The Nazis planned a bloodbath.

Proscription lists were drawn up, according to which murder should be systematically carried out, probably shortly after the elections.

I should be careful.

He also warned Heinrich Mann. ”He reacted immediately.

Kessler was still waiting and left Germany on March 8th.

It was a lot more complicated and risky then.

It is said that all life as a writer is paper.

In this series we provide counter-evidence.