Katia Mann

Katia Mann (born Katharina Hedwig Pringsheim; July 24, 1883 – April 25, 1980) was the youngest child and only daughter (among four sons) of the German Jewish mathematician and artist Alfred Pringsheim and his wife Hedwig Pringsheim, who was an actress in Berlin before her marriage. Katia was also a granddaughter of the writer and women's rights activist Hedwig Dohm. Her twin brother Klaus Pringsheim was a conductor, composer, music writer and music pedagogue, active in Germany and Japan. She married the writer Thomas Mann.

Katia's childhood home, Pringsheim Palace, Munich

Katia was born in Feldafing near Munich, into one of the wealthiest families in Germany. She was the granddaughter of German-Jewish industrialist Rudolf Pringsheim and the great-niece of the banker Hugo Pringsheim. At the age 21, in the fall of 1904, she aborted her studies of physics and mathematics on the request of her mother and aunt, to marry the writer Thomas Mann on February 11, 1905, in Munich. She continued her studies as a guest student for another four semesters. Katia and Thomas Mann had six children (see section "Children" infra). Katia later converted to her husband's Lutheranism.

Children

Portrait of Katia Pringsheim as a child, Franz von Lenbach

The tomb of Katia, Thomas and Michael Mann, in Kilchberg

Katia Mann became ill in Autumn 1911, a year after Monika's birth. The illness was first suspected to be tuberculosis, but later X-ray examinations could not find any physical changes. Her mother, Hedwig, put the illness down to exhaustion. Katia had given birth to four children and suffered two miscarriages in less than five years. In addition, she typed for her husband and arranged his appointments on top of the tasks of a large household. Hedwig realised that her daughter needed rest, and in January 1912, Katia was one of the first patients to be admitted to the Wald Sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. Thomas Mann's visits to her there inspired his novel The Magic Mountain. Up to May, 1914, Katia spent several months in sanatoriums, which (according to her) strengthened her so that she could "stand it all".

As the Mann family lived in exile, Katia Mann took care of her six children and husband. She was not just the good spirit of the family, but the connection point that kept them all together. She taught her children, was her husband's manager, and was the family provider. She outlived three of her children (Klaus, Erika and Michael) and her husband. She died in Kilchberg near Zürich.

Thomas Mann made a sort of "portrait" of her in his novel Royal Highness.