Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Thomas Mann

  • August Von Platen, inspiration for Death in Venice

    Nicolas Roberto RoblesBandajoz, Spain Weil da, wo Schönheit waltet, Liebe waltet Because where beauty reigns, love reigns – Sonette aus Venedig. August von Platen was a German poet whose death inspired Thomas Mann to write Death in Venice. Descended from an impoverished noble family, he attended the Cadet School at Munich from ages ten to…

  • Battling poverty, injustice, ignorance and fear, and despair

    Tonse N. K. RajuGaithersburg, Maryland, United States At the entrance hall of the Library of the Health Sciences of the University of Illinois Medical Campus in Chicago, one can see an ensemble of surgical and anesthetic equipment such as knives, forceps, speculum, towel clips, hemostats, kidney trays, IV poles, crutches, x-ray films, anesthetic balloon bags,…

  • Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain: About a whistling pneumothorax and pulmonary tuberculosis

    Peter KorstenGöttingen, Germany Originally intended as a novella, Thomas Mann’s (1875–1955) multilayered novel The Magic Mountain documents in fine detail the methods used to treat lung diseases and especially pulmonary tuberculosis at the beginning of the twentieth century. Mann’s protagonist, Hans Castorp, who intended to spend only three weeks in the sanatorium in the Swiss mountains…