Thomas Mann Memorial Museum

The Thomas Mann Memorial Museum is one of the most visited museums in Western Lithuania. In 1929–1930 a summer house designed by architect H. Reissmann was built on Uošvės Hill in Nida, where the writer Thomas Mann and his family spent three summers (1930–1932). While on holiday in Nida, Thomas Mann kept to his usual working routine: he continued writing "Joseph and His Brothers", the essay "My Summer House", articles ("What We Must Demand", "Address to Youth"), and letters to editors, publishers, translators and friends. After Hitler annexed the Klaipėda Region in 1939, Mann's summer house was nationalised and turned into a hunting lodge called "Briedžių giria" (Elk Forest). At the end of the war an artillery shell tore off a corner of the house, so in the post-war years there were plans to demolish it. In 1965 the house was handed over to the Klaipėda city library, and two years later a library reading room with a small memorial exhibition opened there. In 1975, for the writer's 100th anniversary, the building was restored and the exhibition renewed with exhibits received from the GDR. The Thomas Mann Society was founded in 1990. In 1995–1996 the house was restored once more according to architect H. Reissmann's surviving drawings and the memories of Thomas Mann's daughter Elisabeth Mann, in an effort to recreate the authentic setting. The museum's living room hosts chamber music concerts, literary evenings, international meetings organised by the Thomas Mann Culture Centre and events of the Thomas Mann Festival.