Zu den unterschiedlichen Perspektiven auf die Romanfigur Hans Castorp: Ein Vergleich der Romane 'Der Zauberberg' von Thomas Mann und 'Castorp' von Pawel Huelle

Thomas Mann, in his famous novel Der Zauberberg, notes in a passing comment that the novel's protagonist, Hans Castorp, had studied for four terms at Danzig Polytechnic, before finishing his degree in engineering as a shipwright and leaving Hamburg for Davos. It is this small side note which inspired Pawel Huelle to write his novel Castorp, which takes this period of Hans Castorp's life and embeds it into the extraordinary historical circumstances of Danzig at this time. With the perspective of the Polish author a new dimension is introduced to the work of Thomas Mann, one of the most well-known German novelists of the twentieth century.;This thesis surveys Thomas Mann's novel Der Zauberberg and Pawel Huelle's novel Castorp through the use of a direct comparative analysis and aims to demonstrate the influence of Thomas Mann on a work of contemporary literature, dealing with the intercultural and interhistorical dialogue existent between these works. The fact that Pawel Huelle borrows Thomas Mann's Hans Castorp and retells this Danzig-episode as an alternative period of life implies a certain culturally directed point of view which is taken by the author. In particular this thesis shall discuss two main aspects: First, the illustration of the social-historical context will be used to demonstrate the relevant influence of the time when these works originated; and second, a comparison of the main characters---their development and their encounters as well as the examination of the relation between conjoint motifs such as love, death and time - shall discuss the relevance of Castorp as a coherent prelude to Der Zauberberg. It goes without saying that, beyond its relationship to Der Zauberberg, Huelle's novel Castorp possesses its own literary value.