Erika Mann Lecture Series – engaging with society

Enlarge

“Get involved – it’s your planet!” urged Erika Mann in 1934 in her political chanson Kälte, which she wrote for her anti-fascist cabaret Die Pfeffermühle. The poem revolves around indifference as a “cold pillow” and is a passionate appeal for political engagement, for humanity, and for resistance against National Socialism. In memory of Erika Mann’s courageous spirit, every year during the summer semester LMU invites outstanding thinkers to address questions of our time in a public lecture as part of the Erika Mann Lecture Series.

Erika Mann was not only a writer, cabaret artist, and journalist, but also an actress, a race car driver, a globetrotter, and a prominent political voice. With analytical acuity and intrepid courage, not to mention “wit and deeper meaning” as the essayist Asal Dardan once wrote, Mann combined cultural engagement with social responsibility. “In her honor, we wanted to create an annual lecture series that would have a broader impact on society from within the university,” says Professor Claudia Olk, Chair of English Literature at LMU and initiator of the Erika Mann Lecture Series, which is organized by the Faculty of Languages and Literatures.

This year’s Erika Mann Lecture is taking place on May 27 and will be delivered by journalist, essayist, and writer Gabriele von Arnim. Born in Hamburg in 1946, von Arnim has written for publications such as Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit. After many years in New York, she now lives in Berlin. Her lecture will address the topic of “response-ability” – that is, the ability to exercise personal responsibility in society.

Erika Mann as a role model: incorruptible sharpness of mind and intellectual freedom

“As an author who helps shape public discourse with her best-selling, widely read works on diverse topics, Gabriele von Arnim is an excellent speaker for our series,” said Claudia Olk. “She is an important, critical voice who continuously asks us not merely to follow the majority opinion, but to have the courage to take responsibility and engage with the realities of our time with honesty, integrity, and rationality.”

This places von Arnim in the company of other female thinkers who, as part of the Erika Mann Lecture Series, critically engage with the issues of our time in the tradition of the public intellectual. The series debuted in 2023 with a speech by essayist Asal Dardan, followed by journalist Carolin Emcke in 2024 and writer Morgan Jerkins in 2025, each of whom related Erika Mann’s work to contemporary issues and political debates from their own unique perspective. “Part of what made Erika Mann such a dazzling figure was her embodiment of such a wide variety of initiatives and activities. As a cabaret artist, journalist, theater producer, and war correspondent, she makes it possible to relate to her in many ways” observes Olk. Speakers will continue to be invited who engage in public discourse and walk in Erika Mann’s footsteps from their own various experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives.

Vibrant coming together of university and public

Claudia Olk is pleased that the series has established itself over the past years and become a fixed item in the academic calendar. This year we have already over 700 pre-registrations for the event, and many bookstores are organizing their own book displays or book signings during the week of the lecture. “It’s a vibrant coming together of the university and the public,” says Olk.

Zur Erika Mann Lecture Series:

Enlarge

The event is open to the public. Participation is free of charge subject to prior online registration. The series is a joint project of LMU, the Monacensia literary archive, the City of Munich, Rowohlt Verlag, and Holtzbrinck Berlin. For more information, visit: www.erika-mann-lecture.de.


Erika Mann was a writer, playwright, and cabaret artist. Forced to leave Nazi Germany in 1933, she first emigrated to Zurich and later, like her parents Katia and Thomas Mann, to the United States. In her capacity as a war correspondent, she returned to liberated Berlin in 1945. She also observed the Nuremberg trials.