Buddenbrooks

A Hanseatic grain-merchant family declines over four generations in a Baltic city Mann never names but rebuilds street by street. It is unmistakably his native Lübeck: the family's grand house on Mengstraße, the Marienkirche where they worship, the Holstentor and the quays along the Trave, and Travemünde at the river mouth where Tony holidays. The map runs from the old-town islands north-east to the Baltic resort, and brings Germany into the atlas.

Thomas Buddenbrook

The Buddenbrook house, Mengstrasse (the Buddenbrookhaus)

Part 1

The novel opens with the family newly installed in their large house on Mengstraße, its gabled front and long rooms the stage for four generations of dinners, betrothals and funerals. The real house at Mengstraße 4 was the Mann family home; it survives as the Buddenbrookhaus, a museum to the writer and his book.

Part 1

explicit Mann based the family's grand house on his own grandparents' home at Mengstraße 4, the real building that now houses the Buddenbrookhaus museum. The coordinates mark that house.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗

Thomas Buddenbrook

The Marienkirche

Part 1

The Buddenbrooks mark their births, marriages and deaths at the towering brick church at the heart of the old town, its bells sounding over the merchant houses. Lübeck's Marienkirche, the tallest of the Hanseatic churches, is the unmistakable model, standing just north of the family house.

Part 1

explicit The family worships at the great Gothic church that dominates the old town; in Mann's unnamed Lübeck this is the Marienkirche, whose brick towers stand a step from Mengstraße. The coordinates mark that church.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗